Spot architect.
By Rebecca Tollen
Pretty pictures are great, but what you can really get excited about is when an actor does something really great and you helped him or her get there," says director Mark Celentano of bicoastal WildLife Management, a division of bicoastal OneSuch Films. "I will always push everything visually, but you can’t help but want to make the people really come to life. And hopefully the visuals and the performance are not mutually exclusive."
Whether it’s two macho fisherman talking haircuts in "Fishing" for Supercuts, out of McCann-Erickson, San Francisco, or a couple on the road in "Mobile Home" for Kelly Tires, via Marcus Advertising, Cleveland, or people getting proprietary about grapes in the California Grape Commission’s "Will," also out of McCann-Erickson, Celentano is able to elicit striking performances while keeping the visuals interesting. With the excitement of a little kid about to share his latest and greatest revelation, Celentano praises an acting class he happened to stumble upon. "I would always walk by this little studio in my neighborhood," says Celentano. "So last year, I started taking classes and learning all sorts of fun things about how to communicate with the actors."
Celentano put his communication skills to work on a spec spot called "Ump" for adidas. The ad features an umpire standing in his boxer shorts in a locker room performing his pre-game ritual. To make the umpire’s otherwise ordinary tasks of shaving and practicing his calls interesting and entertaining, Celentano told the actor, Jim Pyduck, that he didn’t want to be able to understand anything he was saying.
"Real umpires seem to use no consonants and exaggerate their vowels," explains Celentano. "So ‘strike’ sounds like ‘EEEE—R—IIIIII-K,’ and ‘ball’ sounds like ‘AAAAAAAAHHHHH. There are thirty-second pieces where Jim is the funniest guy in the world," Celentano says. "I had a hard time concluding which one was the best cut. I went for style. I went for the ones with a little bit of everything." Celentano enhanced Pyduck’s realistic performance with a dramatic black-and-white set, extreme close-ups, quick pulls and overlapping sound.
Building blocks
Before Celentano thought about directing commercials for a living, he seriously considered becoming an architect. He enrolled at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., then transferred to Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., and traveled to Florence, Italy, for a semester. "I thought architecture was the greatest thing in the world," he says. "Then the architects I was meeting explained that it wasn’t nearly as
Judge Upholds Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Charge Against Alec Baldwin In “Rust” Shooting
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
In a ruling Thursday, state District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stood by her July decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin. She said prosecutors did not raise any factual or legal arguments that would justify reversing her decision.
"Because the state's amended motion raises arguments previously made, and arguments that the state elected not to raise earlier, the court does not find the amended motion well taken," the judge wrote, adding that the request was also untimely.
A spokesperson for Baldwin's lawyers said Friday that they had no immediate reaction to teh decision.
The case was thrown out halfway through trial on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense in the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
Baldwin's trial was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers say investigators "buried" the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey can now decide whether to appeal to a higher court.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for "Rust," was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer —... Read More