SHORT CUTS
Los Angeles-based Duck Soup Studios produced and animated "Rollercoaster" for Dean’s Milk and Euro RSCG McConnaughy Tatham, Chicago. The :30 features the spokescharacter Chazz, who’s taken on a wild ride after downing a Dean’s Double Chocolate beverage. Duck Soup credits include director James Murphy, executive producer Mark Medernach, producer Katie Medernach, assistant directors Beth Epstein and Kunimi Terada, 2-D animators David Byers Brown and Dave Kupczyk, 3-D animators Oliver Arnold and Jiannjyh Chen, ink and paint technical director Paul Grant, digital compositor Laura Sasso, and editor Blake Maddox.
Designer Mia Szafran headed a team of editors and effects artists from R!OT, Santa Monica, in creating a 2:00 montage that opens the "Trust No. 1" episode of The X-Files. The sequence of still and moving images recaps the eight-year career of Scully and Muldur, and is accompanied by the narration of a letter written by Scully to her unborn child. The sequence ends with Scully on the platform of a train station, crying over a slain man’s body. Additional R!OT credits include offline editor Tracy Hoff, online editor Jason Frank, and producers Ian Dawson and Diana Young.
Bix Pix Entertainment, Chicago, produced a :30 for NBC’s 75th anniversary. The clay-animated piece features two NBC icons from each decade since the network’s inception. Starting in black and white, and morphing the characters and logos together, the spot journeys through the history of NBC, from the early days of Bob Hope’s radio show to the current Emmy-winning West Wing. The spot was directed by Bix Pix president Kellie Bixler, and produced by Dave Brooks, with Greg Lontkowski as animation director.
MUSIC NOTES
G&E Music, New York, composed music and sound design for VH1’s Top 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders show. G&E created the opening theme, bumps and credit bed for the special. VH1 producer Hilary Spiegelman asked G&E to create tracks that were "energetic and fun with a bit of a techno twist." G&E came up with three directions, with Spiegelman and her team choosing a track incorporating a gritty Wurlitzer keyboard blended with a melodic synth line reminiscent of ’80s style pop. G&E principal Glenn Schloo used Reason, Korg Electribe, Roland V-Drums, live percussion and electric bass, along with sound design of casino slot machines sound effects to compliment the "Vegas"-type graphics. One the show theme was completed, G&E then created several bumps and loops using Pro Tools 24 MixPlus.
Santa Monica-headquartered HUM Music+Sound Design created music and sound design for Sun Microsystems and JWT & Tonic, San Francisco. The :30s "Wireless," "Supply Chain" and "Supply Chain/Alt." feature graphics and type design by bicoastal Imaginary Forces. Jeff Koz was creative director for HUM, and composer on "Wireless," with Debbi Landon as executive producer. Sound design was by Marc Levisohn, who also composed the track for "Supply Chain/Alt." Jason Steele composed the music for "Supply Chain."
