Right now I’m on a plane, so not much at the moment. Yesterday I finished up the first of six new spots for (a carbonated soft drinks company to be named later). We’ve got the other 5 spots in production right now, and they are scheduled to deliver next week. We’ve also got a series of Sprint commercials that we are developing right now as well. The Sprint / Nextel campaign has been on-going now for several months and we have been able to produce a great set of spots that range from live-action ‘email pants’, to Blackberry’s with wings, to more visual effects based spots, one of which utilizes a futuristic supercollider… yeah, that’s right… a futuristic supercollider.
2. What have you found is the best tool or innovation that has come out in the last year?
The ambient occlusion preset in Maya – so sweet.
3. The project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
“Feasting on Asphalt”… I love the Food Network, Alton Brown and road trips across the country.
4. The best or favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
I’d have to say my favorite project this year was an MTV 10 Spot I did for Gnarls Barkley. It was a 10 second animation that accompanied their song “Smiley Faces.” The project was completely open ended, so I decided to venture into stop-motion animation. I selected a 10 second edit of the song, and used After Effects to generate a frame-by-frame equalizer of the music. Next, I cleared the conference room table, set up a digital camera, and using an assortment of candy pieces arranged on the table, I replicated each frame of the equalizer. There were blue hard candies, green gumballs, red liquorish twists and butterscotch squares… all dancing to the tune. Then I ate the candy.
5. Name the top 4 artists on your iPod?
Snow Patrol
Sufjan Stevens
Ratatat (Thanks to Cary)
M Ward
The creative team at TBWAChiatDay New York invited Stardust to pitch on a set of 16 spots for Sprint grouped under the themes of "Music Store," "Gift of Music," "Ultimate Gift Giver" and "Best Value." "The brief was, for numerous different scripts, to put a new spin on their existing yellow and black, to make it big and dynamic and a little bit more playful," explained Jake Banks, Stardust's founder and creative director. "The animation needed to be more energetic and fun; the spots were all completely animated, and each one had to tell its own story. Using only VO and minimal graphics (yellow or black background, black or yellow lines, type and the phones), that's how each story had to be conveyed." Based on the agency's scripts, Stardust created storyboards and was awarded the campaign. From there, teams in Santa Monica and New York created a series of tests for timing, and then jumped right into the animation. "One of the keys was having the New York and Santa Monica offices working simultaneously on different spots," added Banks, who worked with Santa Monica based art director Trevor Shepard to oversee the work in both studios to provide continuity for the campaign. With senior producer Michael Neithardt and director of animation Doug Purver supervising the work in New York, Banks and Shepard would come into the Santa Monica studio in the morning, review the work created on the East Coast, and provide feedback directly to Purver. "The biggest challenge we faced was, how could we make something interesting out of so few design elements, keeping each spot simple and dynamic but not going over the top." Three examples of how Stardust resolved that challenge appear here, and more information on this campaign is available upon request.
CREDITS
AD AGENCY: TBWA/CHIAT/DAY New York
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Gerry Graf
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tony Soares
ART DIRECTOR: Robyn Stern
COPYWRITER: Marc Pellman
AGENCY PRODUCER: Jason Souter
DESIGN/ANIMATION/FINISHING COMPANY: Stardust Studios
CITY/STATE: Bicoastal
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jake Banks
SENIOR PRODUCER: Michael Neithardt
PRODUCER: Rachel Doyle
DIRECTOR OF ANIMATION: Doug Purver
ART DIRECTOR: Trevor Shepard
DESIGNERS: Tae Kim, Jon Saunders
ANIMATORS: Doug Purver, Trevor Shepard, Joseph Andrade, Elliot Blanchard, Kevin Ferrara, Michelle Higa, Danny Koenig
MODELERS: Christian Day, Chris Eckhard
SOUND DESIGNER: Ben Weinrach
MUSIC TRACK: “Joker & Thief” by Wolfmother (“Music Store”)
FINAL MIX: Sound Lounge
CITY/STATE: New York, New York
MIXERS: Keith Reynauld (“Ultimate Gift Giver”), Philip Loeb (“Music Store”)
Sections: Creativity
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