Longtime commercial director Ryan Ebner–whose credits span brands such as Ford, Secret (the Cannes Silver Lion-winning “Meanomorphosis”), Slim Jim, Sour Patch Kids, AT&T, Reebok, Snickers and Fox Sports–has diversified with this project, The Light Side, which is his first non-branded short film.
The Light Side debuted at the Tribeca We Are One Global Film Festival, a digital showcase co-curated by 21 prolific fests from 35 countries. The We Are One Global Festival wrapped last month and The Light Side was one of five narrative shorts picked to represent Tribeca 2020, and wound up a We Are One favorite.
The Light Side tells the story of an aging Sith lord who finds himself living in the Bronx and discovering humility through a series of experiences. Ebner’s inspiration for the film came while rehabbing a shoulder injury at his physical therapist’s office that looked over at a fencing studio in Midtown. He says the ”Sith’s character is all about checking his ego and accepting humility. He used to be someone important, someone big. But now he’s fallen from power and is facing his sordid past. That’s just life. It happens to all of us in various ways: Careers, relationships, family dynamics, etc.” The story is ultimately sweet, with comedy lightly sprinkled in along the way.
Ebner is an alum of SHOOT’s 2008 New Directors Showcase.
Credits
Creative/Production Ryan F. Ebner, writer/director; Kelly Broad, executive producer; Dominick Ferro, producer; Stöps Langensteiner, DP; Alex Purifoy, 1st assistant camera; Nathan Robb, 2nd assistant camera; Chelsea Paige, hair & makeup artist; Sandra Diez, location sound mixer; Pablo Gonzalez, location manager; Neil Myer, casting director. Music Gregory Reeves. VFX/Post Andrew Granelli, VFX supervisor; Paul O’Shea, Flame operator; Yuichiro Yamashita, CG generalist; Kevin Jones, Nuke operator; Matt Olmon, VFX producer; Adrian Seery, colorist; Gabrielle Elder, color producer. Audio Steve Perski, re-recording mixer & sound editor; Brian Battersby, assistant audio engineer; Cameron McGarry, sound producer. Titles Nathan Naylor, title designer. Cast Joseph Ragno, Jose Samora, Miles Field, Filippo Vanni, Willem Joseph, Tomas Koeck, Eric Zobel, Roberto Meneses, Enrique Alva, Agustin El Ninja, Filiberto Hernandez, Victor Toro, Tim Tones. Casting Facility House Casting Postproduction HARBOR Camera House TCS Grip & Electric Handheld Films Special FX Equipment J&M Special Effects Graphics EverReady Printers Special Thanks Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club, Douglas Grant, Seth Quansah
With one in five Brits (22%) experiencing a fraud attempt every single week, telecommunications company O2 and VCCP London’s AI creative agency faith have launched what's billed as a first-of-its-kind campaign to fight back against scammers.
At the heart of the campaign is Daisy, a lifelike, state-of-the-art, Conversational AI character designed to speak with scammers and keep them on the phone for as long as possible so they have less time to try and scam real people.
The newest member of O2’s fraud prevention team, Daisy was created using a range of cutting-edge AI technology and is indistinguishable from a real person. Based on a real-life relative of a VCCP employee to ensure total believability, Daisy was built to play on scammers’ own stereotypical views that older people are easier targets for scams. While anyone can be a victim of a scam, criminal fraud gangs often target the elderly, so by leaning into scammers’ own biases, Daisy became the perfect scambaiter.
Phoney fraudsters--including many posing as some of the UK’s most trusted businesses--thought they’d got their hands on an easy target, but Daisy has been beating them at their own horrible game, answering scam calls and wasting scammers calls as part of an awareness campaign which exposes fraudsters tricks and tactics and offers top tips on how to avoid scammers.
Daisy is able to interact in real-time ensuring no suspicions are raised on the other end of the line, and has worked 24/7, and over the course of many hours of scam calls she’s told meandering stories of her family, talked at length about her passion for knitting and provided false personal information including made-up bank details.
O2 and faith worked with leading U.K. scambaiter Jim... Read More
