Looking to shed light on the disastrous effects plastics are having on the world’s oceans, the international environmental advocacy non-profit group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) turned to leftchannel – the motion design studio led by Executive Creative Director and President Alberto Scirocco. Leftchannel was challenged to craft an entertaining yet informative public service announcement that would be a call to action for viewers to “reduce, reuse and recycle” plastic packaging.nn”The skills leftchannel brought to this project are valuable for translating a complex issue like this, to visually show this system and how we can make positive changes,” Leila Monroe, a Staff Attorney with the NDRC Oceans Program, says. nnAfter the organization approached leftchannel to translate the complex issue of plastic pollution to a visual platform with a positive message, Scirocco and leftchannel’s creative team (which included designer/animators Taehee Lee and Nick Schoener) set to creating a concept and script that avoided the usually negative tone found in most environmental PSAs. Rather, they harnessed the studio’s abilities to marry 2D and 3D character animation with motion design to inform viewers in a positive way.nn
nClick here to watch the “The Great Plastic Purge” PSAnn”Our goal was to remind people how important this issue is, without giving the impression that they were being criticized or that we were trying to scare them,” Scirocco says. “Americans have been recycling plastics for a long time, but the current recycling programs aren’t working anymore and NDRC wanted a new approach – one that informs and entertains in a constructive manner.”nnThat new approach can be seen in the PSA entitled “The Great Plastic Purge” — a two-minute animated piece that was inspired by after school specials from the 1950s. The character animation style keeps the tone light, which helps engage the audience, while expressing important facts in a way that is never boring. nnThe PSA opens with a shot of a young boy happily ripping open a birthday present that’s wrapped in numerous layers of plastic, all of which he cheerfully throws away. From there the piece follows the packaging from the boy’s home to the ocean floor, while a chipper voiceover informs about how Americans waste $8 billion a year due to plastics making it into the nation’s waterways.nnThis project presented several challenges. According to Schoener, from a story telling perspective, effectively illustrating why the system was broken was challenging. “We had to first understand it ourselves,” he says, “then communicate it in a way viewers could easily connect with and understand.”nnFor Lee, the most challenging scene to animate was the underwater scene. “It was complex because it contained a lot of different 2D animated trash objects that all needed to be integrated carefully into the scene. Because the scene connects to a 3D scene afterwards, the integration of the two was tricky — both 2D and 3D had to look consistent,” Lee says. nnScirocco says, “It was a challenge to take a bleak story and turn it into an optimistic one. Overall, the animation needed to address three main points in a memorable, engaging manner: bring awareness to the issue; suggest that manufacturers be held responsible for coming up with innovative packaging solutions; and get consumers to take action to reduce, reuse and recycle.”nnCreative CreditsnClient: Natural
Right Word Media Ray Ecke p. 973.726.3797 f. 973.726.3798 c. 201.741.1092 Contact Ray via email
Goldcrest Post Speeds Delivery of “Severance” Season Two
The New York Times recently wrote that the just-released Season Two of Severance will “blow your mind”—and we couldn’t agree more. Created by Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller, the Apple TV+ drama is smart, spellbinding, distinctly original and packed with surprises. For those who aren’t already devoted fans, the show centers on Mark Scout (Adam Scott), leader of a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a “severance” procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. Goldcrest Post provided post services for both seasons of the show, including picture editorial support, sound editorial, ADR and sound mixing. Editorial for Season One began in 2020. Due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Goldcrest supplied both onsite production offices and edit suites, and remote editing systems for individual editors, with everything linked to a central server. "Mixing at Goldcrest with our team has been a great experience,” says Stiller. “Bob and Jacob are in sync with our creative process and so good at what they do that the experience is always one where it's about how we can enhance the creative vision, with a baseline of knowing everyone is totally committed to making something as good as it can be." Diana Dekajlo, the show’s co-producer, says that the arrangement worked so well, they chose to continue the hybrid approach for Season Two. “We’re a remote friendly show,” she explains. “Whether we’re at Goldcrest, our studio in the Bronx or at home, our workflow is seamless. I conduct remote daily meetings with my immediate staff, and weekly meetings with editorial and VFX, and we talk to each other as if we were just down the hall. It makes for great staff... Read More