The leaders of creative production company National Television (NATL, www.natl.tv) are very proud to reveal their craftsmanship in creating a complete on-air promotional package for CMT’s new Saturday night reality TV series "Chainsaw Gang." Since debuting in November, the show has been featured by top news outlets, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Daily News and Huffington Post.nnNew episodes premiere on Saturdays at 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., ET/PT, following artist Stacy Poitras, his Deadwood Tree Sculptures business in Agoura Hills, California, his colleagues, his girlfriend, and the surprising artistic creations they bring to life with their chainsaws. nn”We have a great relationship with CMT executives David Bennett and Leslie Legare, and they know we bring our A game to every project,” said NATL’s creative director Brumby Boylston. “The stars of this series use chainsaws in a unique way: They’re artists, not lumberjacks or tree surgeons. To package and promote the show we focused on themโฆ intercutting shallow depth of field portraits with them at work, chainsaws hurling debris in slow-motion. While it’s built around watching a blank tree trunk become a distinct sculpture, it really conveys the cast’s personalities.”nnTo create the show’s main title sequence and other promotional spots and elements, Boylston and NATL’s crew made the trip to the Deadwood Tree Sculptures compound for a full day of shooting. Along with NATL executive producer Jared Libitsky, director of photography Andrew Shulkind and producers Josh Libitsky and Zach Wakefield, the company deployed two camera units. For principal photography, they chose a high-speed Red Epic system with Arri macro lenses mounted to a mobile jib, while a Canon D5 was used to quickly capture details and inserts. According to the filmmakers, the D5 was later moved to shoot elements and effects against a green-screen, and several HD GoPro units were affixed to motion-control time-lapse devices and mounted onto saws and cranes to provide additional motion elements for the tactile show package.nn”Mainly we were focused on capturing beautiful, expressive portraits of the cast and amazing, balletic slow-motion footage of the carving,” Boylston explained. “We arranged for the cast to have a sculpture in three separate stages, and we filmed them working on each phase of a project.”nnnCMT “Chainsaw Gang” Main Title on Vimeo.nnSeveral approaches were explored for creating the show’s logo. Boylston describes one end result as "a pseudo-time-lapse logo where the type emerges from a blank stump," and a second one "made of steel and in a typeface used since the pilot." Both were created in Autodesk Maya and finished in Adobe After Effects. He also mentioned the importance of Apple’s Final Cut Pro for creating and delivering five unique promo spots, and After Effects for handling detailed time-ramp effects, creating titles and compositing shot effects. Final color grading for the spots was handled in DaVinci, and for the open, in Red Cine X.nn”NATL is an exceptional creative partner, very collaborative and always pushing the possibilities in our creative briefs,” said David Bennett, CMT Director On-Air Design.nnFor CMT, credit also goes to producers Emilie Schnick Dishno and Chandy Jeannette, while NATL’s team also included designers Chris Dooley, David Chun, Brian Won and Jeni Wamberg, 2D/3D animators Jeni Wamberg and Trix Taylor, editor Vic Brown, Jr., and storyboard artist Hugh Keenan. nnFor more information on “Chainsaw Gang,” please visit www.cmt.com.nnAbout National Television (NATL)nCreative production company NATL specializes in awe-inspiring design, animation and live-action storytelling for discerning youths and other young-at-heart audiences. Launched in Los Angeles in 2004 by partners Brumby Boylston, Christopher Dooley, and Brian Won, NATL has built its reputation through patently original creative contributions to projects spanning on-air packages and promo campaigns for top entertainment networks, commercials for leading advertising agencies and brands, and music videos for a Who’s Who of stars and recording artists. Now also based in NYC, NATL’s principals are teaming-up with creative world leaders to deliver the next generation of creative communications across all media platforms. To learn more, please visit www.natl.tv.
Roger Darnell DWA for NATL Phone: 1.828.264.8898 Contact Roger via email
Who Needs Los Angeles? We Do.
One doesn't have to be a statistician to know that there are fewer commercials being shot in the U.S. today for the American market than ever before, and a dramatic decrease in L.A. in particular. In the last five years, as reported by FilmLA (the office tasked with issuing permits), L.A. commercial production has dipped 31 percent. But hereโs the thing: This doesnโt mean that L.A. has lost its importance as the production center of the world. Production in L.A. is vital. It is the go-to. Itโs where you can count on access to exemplary crews, a support infrastructure second to none, varied location and backlot options, a large population of on-screen talent and (fairly) predictable weather. The fact is, with overall decline and now the devastation of the fires, weโre on the brink of losing this mainstay resource. Without employment opportunities and now many without homes, talented and trained crew are bound to leave either the industry or the LA area for other opportunities, unless there are enough job opportunities to sustainย a solid living. Now is the time when we ALL must support and bolster this community. Production is needed in L.A., now! Of course, advertising is a business, and marketersโ money should be spent as efficiently as possible, BUT we have to think beyond each production and know that if we lose the incredible resource of L.A. production as we know it, then marketers, agencies and the industry loses in the long run. Over the past several days, some agencies have issued directives to production companies that are unilaterally pushing upcoming production options out of L.A. The fact is L.A. is a large area, and many sections of the city and county are not directly impacted... Read More