A gamer is seated on the couch, transfixed on a video game. He tells his roommate, who’s just come home from work, that a package came for him. The roomie doesn’t look too pleased that the box–a delivery order from Frys.com (the online site of regional retailer Fry’s Electronics)–has been opened, but a smile comes to his face when he looks at the contents. He then exits out of sight into the adjoining room.
Suddenly all the power goes out and a bright light flashes from that next-door room. An instant later the power returns to the home and the gamer gets off the couch to see what the heck happened. He’s stunned to find no sign of his roommate–just a spinning swivel chair in the center of a technological labyrinth. “Steve,” he says sheepishly, realizing that his roommate is somewhere far away. Turns out the component from Frys.com was the missing piece to a time travel machine.
An end tag identifies the sponsor, Frys.com, accompanied by the slogan, “Welcome home, tech heads.”
“Pod” is one of three spots in a campaign directed by Simon West of Zoo Film, Hollywood, for Santa Ana, Calif.-based agency DGWB.
Gower Frost executive produced for Zoo, with Dawn Fanning serving as producer. The DP was Matthew Libatique. West has re-entered the spot arena via Zoo. He has extensive directorial credits in the ad discipline (Pepsi’s “Boy In A Bottle,” and the Cannes Gold Lion winner Little Caesar’s “Italian Feast”) and then diversified into feature helming (Con Air, The General’s Daughter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider).
The DGWB team on the Frys.com package included partner/executive creative director Jon Gothold, creative directors Dave Swartz and John Zegowitz, associate creative director/art director Joe Cladis, associate creative director/copywriter Steve Harbour, designer Stan Chow and producer Scott Seltzer.
Editor was T.G. Herrington of Babbage Industries, Santa Monica. Colorist was Beau Leon of The Syndicate, Santa Monica. The Syndicate’s Verdi Sevenhuysen was Flame/visual effects artist, with Kim Evans producing for the company. Audio post mixer was Jeff Payne of Eleven, Santa Monica.
Sound designer was Reinhard Denke of stimmung, Santa Monica.
Principal actors were Joel Huggins and Jayk Gallagher.
Review: Director Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked”
It's the ultimate celebrity redemption tour, two decades in the making. In the annals of pop culture, few characters have undergone an image makeover quite like the Wicked Witch of the West.
Oh, she may have been vengeful and scary in "The Wizard of Oz." But something changed — like, REALLY changed — on the way from the yellow brick road to the Great White Way. Since 2003, crowds have packed nightly into "Wicked" at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre to cheer as the green-skinned, misunderstood Elphaba rises up on her broomstick to belt "Defying Gravity," that enduring girl-power anthem.
How many people have seen "Wicked"? Rudimentary math suggests more than 15 million on Broadway alone. And now we have "Wicked" the movie, director Jon M. Chu's lavish, faithful, impeccably crafted (and nearly three-hour) ode to this origin story of Elphaba and her (eventual) bestie — Glinda, the very good and very blonde. Welcome to Hollywood, ladies.
Before we get to what this movie does well (Those big numbers! Those costumes!), just a couple thornier issues to ponder. Will this "Wicked," powered by a soulful Cynthia Erivo (owner of one of the best singing voices on the planet) and a sprightly, comedic, hair-tossing Ariana Grande, turn even musical theater haters into lovers?
Tricky question. Some people just don't buy into the musical thing, and they should be allowed to live freely amongst us. But if people breaking into song delights rather than flummoxes you, if elaborate dance numbers in village squares and fantastical nightclubs and emerald-hued cities make perfect sense to you, and especially if you already love "Wicked," well then, you will likely love this film. If it feels like they made the best "Wicked" movie money could buy — well, it's... Read More