SHORT CUTS
Pat Santamauro of New York-based rhinoedit cut Aquafresh Extreme Clean’s "Empowermint," for Grey Worldwide, New York. The :30 (with a :15 lift)—in which the action takes place mostly "inside" the product’s box—showcases the cleaning ability of the toothpaste. Michael Schrom of Michael Schrom & Company, Long Island City, N.Y., directed the spot. Kim Mulhare was assistant editor to Santamauro, with Rachelle Murway acting as senior producer. Sister shop rhinofx also worked on the ad, with Ronen Sharabani as Inferno artist, and JR Starace and Aniello Zampella as Inferno assistants.
Dallas-headquartered Post Op completed editorial and post work on a package of Comcast spots via The Richards Group, Dallas. The seven :30 spots—"Mistakes," "Planners," "Changes," "Acting Different," "Stress," "Efficient" and "Broadband Goddess"—were directed by Jonathan David of bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander in a humorous "mockumentary" style, with people relating how Comcast’s digital cable has changed their lives. Post Op’s Doug Bryan was the editor, with Glenn Ferguson as assistant editor. Jesse Jones handled the graphic animation, Brenda Vaughn was the Editbox online editor, Gerlinde Scharinger was the Inferno artist/compositor, Joe Macre was the audio engineer, and Vicki Russell was the postproduction producer.
Editor Peter Mostert and design director Lisa Kwon of mad.house, New York, worked on a campaign called the "Nike Image Design 2004." The package, which features five :30s and two 2:00 pieces, promotes the European Soccer Championship in Portugal. Directed by Warrick Saint of Secret Lab, London, the commercials feature international soccer superstars Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and Francesco Totti. Each player was shot individually kicking and juggling the ball against green screen in Barcelona. Mostert then cut a :30 for each player. Kwon increased the intensity of the spots by adding graphic layers using splashes of colored lines to enhance the power and curve of the ball, all culminating in a "Pleased to beat you" tag line and the Nike logo. Flame artist Paul Marangos of The Mill, London, manipulated the ball in Flame, and at times replaced the ball using 3-D animation. He also provided extra flight and curves to the pieces. Additional mad.house credits go to executive producer Kevin Gottlieb and producer David Schulenberg.
MUSIC NOTES
Santa Monica-based HUM provided the new NBA theme and music package for this season’s programming on ABC and ESPN. HUM president/creative director Jeff Koz composed and produced the project, which features a combination of live instrumentation, as well as loops and samples. Noubar Stone, ESPN’s creative director, and Claude Mitchell, ESPN’s head of music, consulted with ABC Sports on the package and provided Koz with additional creative input. In total, Koz created roughly 75 different tracks for the networks, including music for half-time stats and lead-ins to commercial breaks. HUM’s music will also be used in WNBA programming upon commencement of the women’s basketball season.
CLIPLAND
Santa Monica-headquartered Steele VFX created a glass room and several other virtual environments as part of a package of effects for "In the Middle," a music video from the British pop trio Sugababes. Facing a tight deadline, the studio’s team of visual effects artists, animators and designers produced and composited effects elements for every shot in the video. Directed by Matthew Rolston of Venus Entertainment, Culver City, Calif., the video is the third release from Sugababes’ Three CD. Rolston shot the performance material against green screen at London’s Pinewood Studios and presented Steele VFX with an edited cut. From there, visual effects supervisor Jerry Steele designed and created effects for the video’s environments, including a prism-like glass room. Steele also created an exterior view of the prism set used in a series of camera fly-throughs. Although the prism set appears to be 3-D, Steele actually created it and all of the other environments as 2-D elements with a Quantel Henry. He also used the Henry to composite the women into the sets and track them to it as the camera arcs around them, creating the illusion of 3-D space. Additionally, Steele shot smoke elements on a small effects stage set up at Steele VFX’s studio. Again using Henry, Steele bent and animated the smoke elements to make it appear as though Sugababes singer Mutya Buena is controlling the smoke trails with her hands. Steele VFX’s animation and design departments also made key contributions, with animator Wayne England creating groups of diamond-like 3-D objects that tumble through the frame and form the name of each member of the group. Designer Sinbad used Adobe After Effects to adorn singer Keisha Buchanan’s face with rainbow colored sparkles and to enhance lighting effects. Additional compositing work was performed by Henry artist Dave Neuberger. Monique Essing handled beauty work.
FilmCore editor David Checel cut the Outkast clip, "Roses," the follow-up to the group’s "Hey Ya," a music video also edited by Checel. Directed by Bryan Barber of F.M. Rocks, Santa Monica, "Roses" gives West Side Story a hip hop spin, with Outkast’s Andre 3000 and Big Boi as leaders of rival high school gangs out to win the heart of the same girl. The video climaxes with the two gangs battling in the school auditorium as the girl leaves with someone else. "Roses" opens with a one-minute prologue that plays out before the song begins. Checel incorporated two other tracks from Outkast’s CD into the intro of the clip for this part of the video. FilmCore has offices in Santa Monica and San Francisco.
