SHORT CUTS
The Finish Line (TFL), Santa Monica, completed visual effects and final comform on a series of three :30 Michelob commercials created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. TFL visual effects artist James Bygrave worked on "Laundry," "Entourage" and "Disco Ball," with most of Bygrave’s effort going into "Laundry." The ad opens in a pub, where a bartender serves Michelob to a woman with a laundry basket topped off by her pet Chihuahua. As she reaches for the brew, the scene stops and quickly rewinds to show how she ended up in the bar. The rewinding stops on a scene that shows the woman–holding her basket with the dog–trying to get into her apartment building after having forgotten her keys. She rings the intercom, but her roommate is listening to music with headphones and doesn’t hear the buzzer. Walking around in the city, she searches for a working phone booth. She finally finds one and starts to dial, but she notices a man in a bar who motions her to come inside. She hangs up and goes inside for the Michelob, in the scene that started off the commercial. In order to achieve the effect of rewinding the scene, Bygrave dubbed the footage to 3/4" in slow-play mode. Then, the 3/4" deck was run in shuttle while he captured the footage in a "crash record" mode. The video was then time-stretched to fit the section of the spot where the effect was needed. Even though the commercial was changed to black-and-white during the telecine process, the final shot of the Michelob bottle itself needed to be full-color while the rest of the frame remained black-and-white. Bygrave created a matte for the bottle and dissolved it in as he faded up to the end title in color. Additionally, Bygrave removed and replaced visible street signage and product logos using paint, blur and masking. TFL’s Paul Song also contributed to the project as online editor. The commercials were directed by Robert Logevall of bicoastal Anonymous Content.
New York-based test commercial company cap tv made dog food rain from the sky in an animatic for Heinz’s Kibbles ‘N Bits and agency New England Consulting Group (NECG), Westport, Conn. The proposed spots were conceived as a throng of dogs gathered in a field, crying out for Kibble ‘N Bits until the food literally falls from the heavens. NECG wanted to know for certain that dog food could be made to look real before committing itself to a costly visual effects production. Cap tv’s team of illustrators produced computer and marker drawings of the dogs. Animators then digitized the drawings and used Adobe After Effects software to animate them over a background environment made up of an illustrated field and a stormy sky derived from stock footage. For the effect involving the dog food and packages, cap tv animators pulled color and texture from high resolution scans of the product and modeled 3-D bags in Cinema 4-d x1. NECG went on to produce full versions of the spots, satisfied with the results from cap tv’s animatics.
Charlex, New York, completed animation and graphics for Verizon’s "Ferret," via Bozell, New York. The :30, which showcases Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Messenger, features a ferret and his owner attached at the mouth, and painfully points out the pager features of the Verizon phone. The live action was shot by Richard D’Alessio of bicoastal/international @radical.media. Charlex credits on the project included executive producer Amy Kindred, producer Dan Connors, and Flame artists Greg Oyen, Kevin Quinlan and Mark Szumski.
MUSIC NOTES
Loren Silber of POP Sound, Santa Monica, mixed the audio for a Powerade theatrical spot out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. The :60, which is comprised of stock footage shots, features a collage of death-defying and extraordinary athletic feats, all to reveal the intensity and strength that Powerade provides athletes.
Steve Buscemi, who plays the evil scientist Romero in the film Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, spent time with mixer Bill Higley at HSR Studios, New York, which contributed automatic dialogue replacement (ADR) for the sequel to last year’s feature, Spy Kids. Higley engineered using Pro Tools The film production team was at Austin, Texas-based music house Tequila Mockingbird, where Shay Levin was at the controls. Digital picture was employed in both locations for the ISDN session. HSR Studios and HSR/Silvercup, Long Island City, N.Y., have provided ADR for numerous films and TV shows including Reign of Fire, White Oleander, Shrek, The Simpsons Gilmore Girls and JAG.
IN GEAR
BBC Northern Ireland (BBC NI) has chosen a Quantel generationQ sQServer to act as its central news playout server. This order follows the recent choice of generationQ News systems by two BBC English Region stations, which will begin to roll out their new systems toward the end of this year. The sQServer is configured with eight ports and 24 hours storage of MPEG 25 video. It will initially be used to playout finished items produced in the station’s linear edit suites. Integrated with an ENPS newsroom system via Quantel’s MOS gateway for playlist automation, BBC NI will use the sQServer’s built-in production effects and sQFx live control panel for on-air presentation. Quantel is headquartered in Newbury, U.K., and has offices in the U.S., mainland Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Australia.
Panasonic has equipped the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R), New York, with cutting-edge digital display and business equipment. The Museum has a collection of more than 110,000 TV and radio programs and advertisements covering more than 75 years of television and radio history, featuring news, public affairs, arts, sports, comedy and variety programs, as well as commercial advertising. Panasonic’s advanced digital video equipment outfitted in the Museum’s MT&R Theater includes PT-D9600 large-venue 12,000-lumens DLP projector; PT-D6600 3600-lumens SXGA LCD projector; AJ-HD150 DVCPRO HD studio VTR and remote-control WV-F575 3-CCD digital processing cameras. Panasonic 50" TH-50PHD3U high-definition plasma display panels are located in the Museum’s Steven Spielberg Gallery and the Grant A. Tinker Boardroom. In addition, Panasonic will equip the Museum with a state-of-the-art digital telephone system and will showcase its products as part of a future technology exhibit. The Panasonic PT-D9600 DLP projector is being utilized for major screenings and seminars in the 200-seat MT&R Theater. Panasonic, headquartered in Secaucus, N.J., is the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
