Johan Stahl of production house REVERSE directed this marquee trailer–titled “Play: The Power of Ideas”–for the upcoming Newport Beach Film Festival out of WPP agency Garage Team Mazda.
The promotional film features a boy who is caught in the crossfire of his parents’ divorce. In an effort to escape, he retreats into the comfort of his imagination. What the lad doesn’t realize is the power that his ideas have on the world.
“By grounding the story in an easily relatable reality–a classic divorce scenario with familiar tropes and gender roles — it sets the viewer up to quickly see the disparity between the parents’ world and the boy’s world, and ultimately, express central themes around imagination, cinematic storytelling, and the theme of this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival: ‘The Power of Ideas,’” said director Stahl.
“Our goal is always to make a promotional film as compelling as the films accepted into this intensely selective festival,” said Melissa Webber, Garage Team Mazda creative director.
Credits
Client Newport Beach Film Festival Agency Garage Team Mazda Erich Funke, chief creative officer; Melissa Webber, SVP, creative director/writer; Daniel Bremmer, creative director/writer; Larry Struber, SVP, director integrated content; Jessica Mirolla, art producer. Production REVERSE Johan Stahl, director; Thibaut Estellon, exec producer/founder; Larry Gold, Luigi Rossi, producers; Shelly Johnson, ASC, DP; Michelle Thompson, costume designer; Nora Takacs, production designer; Michael Martino, 1st asst. camera; Melissa Gwizdowski, hair/makeup; Marcel Banks, FX makeup; Chuck Henrey, 1st assistant director; Gus Bechtold, 2nd assistant director/2nd asst. camera; Zac Knight, special effects; Porcelain Brisbon, production manager; Matthew Cheaton, production coordinator. Editorial jumP Editorial Erwin Frraterman, editor; Therese Hunsberger, exec producer; Natasha Sattler, producer; Roy Herbert, assistant editor; Thom Reimerink, Flame artist. VFX Ingenuity Grant Miller, David Lebensfeld, VFX supervisors; Kieley Culbertson, sr. producer; Brigitte Stanovick, Kymberly Murphy, VFX producers; Robert Cohen, VFX coordinator; Ashley Nizich, compositing coordinator; Zhe Chong, compositing supervisor; Ben Stommes, Patrick Louie, Krisztian Csanki, compositors; Anna Harari, CG coordinator; Paul Baran, Kevin Pinga, FX; Lucas Smarker, animations; Viviana Torrellas, layout. Color Company 3 Stefan Sonnenfeld, sr. colorist; Ashley McKim, exec producer; Katie Andrews, Matt Moran, sr. producers. Audio Post Juice Studios Scott Burns, mixer; Vanessa Carey, producer. Music/Sound Yessian Music & Sound Design David Gold, exec producer; Brian Yessian, chief creative officer/partner. Casting Face In The Crowd Casting Maryclaire Sweeters, casting director.
Luke Jaden directed two films for PETA, including this one titled “Inhumane” which highlights a family of sheep fearing for their lives on a farm--and for the inevitable day when they will be slaughtered for meat.
Jaden--an alumnus of SHOOT’s 2023 New Directors Showcase--explained that the campaign was aimed at “silent storytelling. Looking back at the power of silent film--we wanted to show that animals are not silent. Animals may not be able to talk like us humans, but they are just as sentient as us and animals can communicate a conversation between one another. They are highly observant and intellectual beings. So, we wanted to highlight the feelings they do feel, which I would say was the biggest challenge. We captured them in their natural environment in a docu-style approach to not distract them as the camera can be an unfamiliar thing. We wanted to craft and build a conversation that would coalesce as a narrative between the animals and their families on the farm. We really wanted to show those ideas on-screen and we wanted to approach this with a sensitive, unobtrusive lens that captured the honesty and fear these animals can and do feel on a farm before they are killed by their owners.”
Octagon Haus was the production company on the PETA work, which came out of agency Viewmaster.
