DD SOLVES RUBIK'S CUBE FOR AUDI
Digital Domain (DD) has teamed up with director Carl Erik Rinsch and his German production company Markenfilm on a :45 TV commercial for Audi, via Hamburg-based agency Kempertrautmann. .
“Intelligently Combined” opens on a minimalist museum space. Hanging in the middle of the spacious room is a clear glass cube divided into multiple sections like a Rubik’s Cube puzzle. Various automobile parts are encased within the sections, which begin to rotate and shift, releasing pistons, gears, bolts and other parts from their compartments. They drop and fall into place with other Audi parts, joining together to form the fully realized Audi A4 2.0 TDI e featured at the end of the spot–the only live-action portion of the otherwise entirely CG commercial. The tagline: Efficient technology, intelligently combined.”
The DD team led by VFX supervisor Jay Barton faced the creative challenge of designing and orchestrating the complicated movements of the cube, which had to build an Audi piece by piece as the puzzle was “solved.”
The spot debuted in Spain and will roll out across Europe.
HICKS, GOLDWYN AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL A pair of noted filmmakers who are handled for commercials by Santa Monica-based Independent Media–Scott Hicks and Tony Goldwyn–saw their features showcased at the recently wrapped Toronto Film Festival.
Goldwyn’s film Betty Anne Waters had its world premiere at the fest. Betty Anne Waters is a true story, the title character (Hilary Swank) being unable to help her brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) who was wrongfully convicted of the brutal murder of a Massachusetts woman in 1982, Betty Anne, a high school dropout, was unable to afford the legal expertise they needed to properly defend him. In between raising two kids and bartending, she put herself through high school, college and law school so she could become her brother’s attorney. She was aided in her mission by attorney Barry Scheck (Peter Gallagher), the driving force behind The Innocence Project. This organization was founded by lawyers Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who pioneered the use of DNA testing to free the wrongfully imprisoned. With their support, after 18 years in prison, Kenny Waters walked from a courtroom a free man.
Meanwhile Oscar-nominated director Scott Hicks (Shine) had his latest film, The Boys Are Back, screened for Toronto audiences. The film follows a witty, wisecracking sportswriter (Clive Owen) who, in the wake of his wife’s tragic death, finds himself in a sudden, stultifying state of single parenthood. He raises two boys sans discipline in a chaotic household. Father and sons must find their own way to grow up.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS…. Jason Schragger has joined BSUR, Amsterdam, as creative director overseeing the MINI global account. He comes over from Plantage in Berlin where he was executive creative director. He also spent three years with Amsterdam Worldwide, formerly StrawberryFrog, in Amsterdam where he was a creative director working on the Heineken, Mitsubishi and GAS Jeans accounts….Peter Lydon has taken a break from directing hit TV series such as Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Mistresses and the soon-to-be-released Garrow’s Law to direct a series of commercials via London production house 76 Ltd. for Ikea via BMB, London, and SKY for WCRS, London….
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