ZADA, NTROPIC PUT FIRE OUT WITH SMOKEY
A man is about to move on from a campsite when his companion, a young lass, informs him that the once burning campfire is still smoldering. He responds that they did a good enough job of dousing the fire and it’s time to get going. However, when he turns to see the woman’s reaction, she is no longer there. In her stead is a towering CG Smokey Bear who takes him to task for his carelessness. Upon realizing his irresponsibility, he sets out to do a better job of making sure the fire is totally out, at which point Smokey reverts to being the young lady.
Titled “Bonfire,” the PSA was directed by Jason Zada of bicoastal Tool of North America, with effects, including the CG Smokey, created by Ntropic, San Francisco, for agency Draftfcb, Irvine, Calif.
The Draftfcb team included executive creative director Teddy Brown, group creative director Scott Murray, senior producer Tom Anderson, and associate producer Jeff Perino.
The DP was Ross Richardson. Editor was Jim Staskauskas via Optimus, Santa Monica. The Ntropic ensemble included creative director/VFX lead Andrew Sinagra, CG artists Dustin Zachary and Rob Hubbard, animator Joel Fletcher, exec producer Dana Townsend, and producer Esther Gonzalez.
YESSIAN BOWS IPHONE APP FOR MUSIC SEARCH Music/sound house Yessian, bicoastal and Detroit, has released an iPhone application designed to allow companies seeking music for licensing to browse the shop’s library of original music available for licensing or buyout. With over 5,000 tracks to peruse, Yessian creates and licenses music for assorted media outlets, including television, radio, web, video games and entertainment attractions. The free application will allow advertisers to quickly browse tracks at their own convenience anywhere they go, and search using keyword, genre or even tempo. Over the course of the next year, Yessian plans to add more features to the application that will allow users even greater ease in searching for music.
“Our iPhone app is a music production company first,” claimed chief creative officer Brian Yessian. He said it offers “our clients a truly seamless way to search for music, whether it be with the app, widget or on our website. With this trilogy, we are now accessible to people in the office and on the road.”
With a registered user ID and password, users will have full access to all available tracks on the Music Search site. There is a complete audio description along with touch screen features that allow people to directly call or email any of Yessian Music’s studios directly from the application.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS…. Robert LePlae has been named president of McCann Erickson North America. Based in San Francisco, he will have responsibility for McCann Erickson and T.A.G., San Francisco, as well as McCann Detroit, Los Angeles and Canada. LePlae was most recently president of the TBWA North American group of companies….Toronto-based Holiday Films has added Legs and Lena Beug to its directorial roster for Canadian representation. Beug continues to be repped by Moxie Pictures stateside. Her credits include anti-smoking PSAs for Colorado, and the short film Mandy & Lester for Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project. Meanwhile Legs, a creative team of writers, directors and producers working out of MILK Studios, N.Y., recently wrapped 15 station IDs for Diet Coke’s sponsorship of Ugly Betty in the U.K. via Mother, 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