A man on his morning walk passes by a lawn sale with a table containing various sundry items. He trips and stumbles, knocking into the table, sending its contents along with him down a steep hill to gather even more items and people in what is a building “snowball” of humanity and inanimate objects.
Becoming part of this ball are pedestrians, a line of motorcycles, a minivan, an entire wedding party–including the bride and groom–even a bicyclist who sees the pending doom and attempts to pedal away but to no avail.
Finally this humongous ball hits a building and disperses, with the people able to walk away relatively unscathed and most of the objects looking pretty much intact.
A voiceover relates, “When your insurance is in-synch, you can roll with anything.” The Travelers logo then appears on screen.
Dante Ariola of bicoastal/international MJZ directed “Snowball” for Fallon Minneapolis, with tour de force visual effects from Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jeff Scruton executive produced and Natalie Hill produced for MJZ. The DP was Toby Irwin.
The Fallon team consisted of creative director Kerry Feuerman, group creative director Todd Riddle, art director James Zucco, copywriter James Bray, director of broadcast/exec producer Vic Palumbo, exec producer Kate Talbott and assistant producer Jim Haight.
Russel Icke of The Whitehouse, Santa Monica, edited the spot. Assistant editors were Joanna Manning and James Turner. Sue Dawson and Joni Wright served as exec producer and producer, respectively for The Whitehouse.
The Weta contingent included visual effects supervisor Dan Lemon, effects producer Eileen Moran, digital producer Marvin Young, on-set digital producer Kevin Sherwood, digital effects supervisor Chris White, animation supervisor Paul Story, art director Michael Pangrazio, on-set surveyor/photographer Matt Mueller, on-set surveyor Michael Sarkis and effects editors Matt Holmes and Lucas Putnam.
Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3, Santa Monica, was the colorist. Audio mixer was Robert Feist of RavensWork, Venice, Calif. Music was by Human, New York. Sound designer was Eddy Kim of 740 Sound Design, Santa Monica.
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