While it’s part of a campaign that debuted and continues to run during games in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “March Madness” basketball tournament, the TV spot “Ambidextrous” out of Young & Rubicam, San Francisco, for client the NCAA offers a genuine method and rationale to its storyline madness.
We open on a young athletic woman dribbling a basketball, first with two hands, then with one as the other hand starts writing out mathematical formulas on a chalkboard.
This high-level dual tasking then extends to a male gymnast who’s tautly suspended in mid-air with one hand clenched to a metal ring, the other pouring chemicals into a beaker in a science laboratory.
Next, a young woman tennis player balances a ball on her racket while her other hand is mapping out computer-aided design diagrams and structures.
Finally we have a male soccer player who’s balancing the ball all over his body while he delivers a virtuoso performance on a violin.
All the while a voiceover relates, “There are over 400,000 NCAA student athletes and just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”
Directed by Grady Hall of Venice, Calif.-based Motion Theory, “Ambidextrous” is a perfect balance of athletics and academics as well as live action (shot by DP Jeff Cronenweth) and visual effects (from the team at Motion Theory).
The Y&R San Francisco team included executive creative directors Scott Larson and Brad Berg, associate creative director/art director Hilary Wolfe, copywriter Brandon Reif and exec producer Debra Trotz.
Motion Theory art director Rob Resella and VFX supervisor Bryan Godwin led the design and visual effects efforts, while 1.1 VFX’s Danny Yoon supervised the compositing.
Editor was Colin Woods of String in Los Angeles.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More