MATT SMUKLER LEARNS "THE ROPES" FOR OREO
Director Matt Smukler of Los Angeles-based HELLO! stirs up grade school nostalgia in the :60, “The Ropes,” for Kraft Foods/Oreo out of Draftfcb, NY. The spot opens on an eager young student timidly walking down the hallway of his new school. Cut to an older, more seasoned student, who notices the cautious classmate and swiftly comes to his aid. He zips the boy’s open backpack, saving him from a potentially embarrassing blunder and making him a little more comfortable in his new surroundings. Cut to the new student sitting on an empty stairwell tying his sneakers as class is just about to get out. We then see a hand usher the boy off the stairwell by his backpack handle, saving him from the impending stampede of students rushing off to their next class.
Cut to the cafeteria, where the young student is eating his lunch alone at a long table. As he sets out to savor his dessert, he realizes that he is unable to dip his Oreo cookie in the small opening of his milk carton. The resident expert sweeps in once again and pulls the tabs of the carton open to allow ample dipping room for his Oreo. As he is finishing his first cookie, the boy spots another struggling student across the cafeteria and rushes over to open his milk, thus completing the cycle of valuable school lessons. The spot finishes on a shot of the cafeteria with the Oreo logo and the super, “Milk’s favorite cookie.”
Editor was Jim Ulbrich of Beast Editorial, Santa Monica. DP was Tami Reiker.
NASA ASTRONOMER TO ADDRESS VES SUMMIT Dr. Rich Terrile, NASA astronomer, will be the featured speaker at the Visual Effects Society (VES) Production Summit 2010 on Oct. 23. Dr. Terrile is the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He will provide his POV on how the future of evolutionary computation and artificial intelligence will impact the entertainment industry. Dr. Terrile is also a science and technical consultant for films, television, corporate and financial customers including work with Academy Award®-winning directors James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh. Several science shows including this year’s Discovery Science Channel series Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, in addition to Destination Mars and “The Astronomers–Prospecting for Planets, have featured Dr. Terrile and his work.
The Production Summit 2010 is a one-day event at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Marina del Rey, Calif., that will bring together filmmakers, technologists, visual effects leaders and practitioners from all crafts to look at how the industry might evolve over the next five years and how to stay relevant in this time of immense change.
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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