SELECTED SHORTS FROM JOHN ST.
SELECTED SHORTS FROM JOHN ST.Toronto ad agency john st has wrapped a three-spot campaign for Stanfield’s underwear, including “Meat Locker,” featuring a tour of a meat plant in which our guide directs us to an industrial deep freezer that bottoms out at minus 55 degrees. That temperature, says the guide, is enough to freeze a person’s skin in a matter of just a few minutes so no one wants to be stuck in there. He slides open the freezer’s heavy metal door and–to the guide and his guests’ surprise–revealed is a guy talking on a cell phone, seemingly cool (but not frozen) and comfortable. A bit peeved that his phone conversation has been interrupted, the gent closes the door on his uninvited company and keeps on chatting. An end tag carries the slogan, “You don’t have to see them to know who’s wearing them,” a reference to Stanfield’s “Polar-therm” line of underwear. The other two TV spots showcase the manhood of those who wear Stanfield’s regular underwear. In “Guy’s Night Out,” for example, a guy is asked by his office cohorts to join them for a beer after work. At first gung-ho in accepting the invitation, he then backs off, explaining that he has to take his wife to a book club meeting that night. Clearly this man’s masculinity comes up short as evidenced by the shorts he’s wearing that are clearly not Stanfield’s. The TV campaign was directed by Michael Downing of OPC, Toronto (he’s repped stateside by harvest, Santa Monica). The john st creative team included creative directors Stephen Jurisic and Angus Tucker, copywriter Chris Hirsch, art director Nellie Kim and producer Michelle Orlando. The DP was Tico Poulakakis. Editor was Brian Wells of School Editing, Toronto….
TAKING HD BY STORMGlobal ImageWorks (GIW), Haworth, N.J., has exclusive HD footage of Hurricane Dean’s fury and aftermath from Kingston as the category 4 storm battered the southern coast of Jamaica. Also in the HD disasters’ realm, GIW has video of the fire that gutted the 300 room Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, which is where Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was found dead back in March….
PEOPLE IN THE NEWSChristopher “Pink” Bonnstetter has joined Riot/New York as CG supervisor where he will be responsible for expanding the shop’s CG/visual effects operation. He assumes the staff position after having built a successful “permalance” career that included stints at such studios as Asylum, Believe, Hydraulx and Money Shots. His most recent credits include contributing to effects for such features as Alien vs. Predator 2, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Invasion. Pink began working on commercials and music videos at Asylum as well. Among his ad credits are spots for Ford, Nintendo, Boeing, Chevy and Coke. He has worked on music videos for such artists as Outkast, Metallica, The Offspring and Dave Matthews Band…Elizabeth Lascoutx, formerly director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, has joined New York media/entertainment law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz as counsel. The hire is in response to increased regulatory concerns about marketing directed at children….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More