By CAROLYN GIARDINA
In an effort to increase traffic on barnesandnoble.com, Barnes & Nobles Internet bookstore, TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, produced a four-spot campaign featuring popular authors Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Frank McCourt and Dilbert creator Scott Adams.
King, Clancy, Adams and McCourt were directed by David Ramser of bicoastal The A+R Group (who was unavailable for comment at press time). Visual effects and CGI were completed by Spontaneous Combustion, New York.
The live-action spots incorporate heavy compositing to create a translucent environment of huge, gleaming white towers representing bookshelves in a virtual bookstore, where browsers can find any book or supplemental informationaincluding the featured authors themselves. The commercials start and end with a CG graphic treatment.
Using the agencys initial concept as a guide, we provided 3-D pre-visualization designs in collaboration with the agency and the director to create a representation of what the virtual bookstore would look like, explained Spontaneous creative director Tony Robins.
Freelancer Ed Manning was hired by Spontaneous Combustion as visual effects supervisor on the project. (He went freelance last summer after resigning from Click 3X New York, where he headed the companys CGI unit and served as visual effects supervisor.) Manning explained that the most complex scenes in the campaign were in each spots first or second live-action shot. Each of these wide dolly shots was comprised of roughly 150 layers. After shooting the principal talent in the environment and extras in the foreground using greenscreen, freelancer Richard Coppola shot the other extras and elements in small groupsatwo or three at a timeaat low frame rates using a motion-control rig. Compositing allowed the principal browsers to walk through the bookstore normally while other black-wearing customers (the extras) flit by in the background.
In post, Spontaneous multiplied the virtual bookshelves to further populate the background. We were able to mix and match the passes until we got the right density of activity, explained Manning, who also complimented the quality of Spontaneous compositing. They maintain very high aesthetic standards. … It was a pleasure dealing with the post.
Robins reported that this month Spontaneous is expanding its production space by about 40%. It also purchased a new Flame running on Octane and upgraded its existing Flame to Inferno.
The barnesandnoble.com team at Spontaneous was rounded out by Flame artist David Reynolds, freelance Flame artists Udi Edni and Thomas Downs, freelance CGI artist Brett Miller and staff producer Trevor King. Additional credits at The A+R Group included exec. producer Lori Lober; producer Brian Kilcullen; and production designer Steve Suchman (who has since become a director at bicoastal Coppos Filmsasee separate story, p. 7). Fred Elmes was the DP. The live action was shot at Silvercup Studios, Long Island City, N.Y., and at Broadway Stages, New York.
Agency credits include: Toby Barlow and Marc Klein, creative directors; Matt Ian, copywriter; John Garland, executive producer; and Nathy Aviram, producer.
Vito DeSario of New York-based Vito DeSario Editing cut the spots with assistant editor Tim Mintus. Film to tape was handled at Nice Shoes, New York, by colorists Scott Burch and Chris Ryan.
David Horowitz, Jon Fields and Ted Kuhn of David Horowitz Music Associates, New York, composed the score. Jan Horowitz executive produced. Sound design was provided by Marshall Grupp of Marshall Grupp Sound Design, New York, and audio post was by mixer Tom Jucarone of New York-based Sound Lounge.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More