I just finished up a very nice Cherry Coke spot for 72andSunny and directors
Rad-ish via Park Pictures. Look for it during something called "American
Idol" at the end of the month apparently – we don't have TV at home, so I
never get to see my stuff after it ships out! By March 1, look for the :60
on A52's website – www.A52.com.

2. What have you found is the best tool or innovation that has come out in
the last year?

Shopping online! We just had our second Sprogg this year, so when I'm not
Creating TV Magic, I am changing nappies… so everything we buy comes in
boxes via UPS. (That's a plug actually, we did a nice UPS campaign for Phil
Joanou, MJZ and The Martin Agency last year that turned out quite nicely…)

3. The project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most
impressed you in the last year? Why?

A soon-to-be-produced animated TV show called "Rainbowstars" that my wife
has written. It's fabulous – and all it needs is someone to finance it and
help us make it! Call me at A52 to hear the pitch! Then I can retire from
all this TV Magic malarky.

4. The best or favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And
why?

My Son.

5. Name the top 4 artists on your iPod?

Oh, I have it on shuffle all the time so it decides for me . But right now
lets see… Arthur Russell, early 80's underground dance music pioneer, Ian
Dury and the Blockheads, 80's poppunkpoet and probably the best songwriter
EVER, The Easy Allstars, wacko's reworking classics in a groovy way, and ..
and.. and… oh yes, the entire Putamayo catalogue – kid-friendly world
music that my two-year-old daughter boogies to day and night.

Throughout the recent holiday season, television viewers across the U.S. saw an unlikely team effort during commercial breaks, when two mice, two lizards, two prairie dogs, two ferrets, a cat and a poodle formed a sled team to whisk a snowed-in pet shop worker to the safety of home… and the joy of Bud Light. Directed by MJZ’s Phil Joanou for DDB Chicago, the spot entitled “Snowed In” employed real animal actors, as well as some considerable creative visual effects and CGI work from the artists at A52 in Los Angeles.

“A52 was instrumental in making this spot happen,” Joanou began. “The job presented some real challenges, in that I didn't want to do any of the animals in CG. That meant we had to track and composite all the different critters in all their various shapes and sizes into the snow and make it feel like they were running at the same speed while pulling a dog sled. Not an easy task. But with careful collaboration and planning, we were able to make it work with minimal manipulation of the real animals. I could not be happier with the results.”

With a crew that included director of photography Jeff Cutter and A52’s on-set VFX supervisors Tim Bird and Chris Janney, Joanou prepared for two days of shooting at LA’s Universal Studios. All the live-action plates with the sled and the principal character were shot on day one on the Universal backlot, where half of the street was dressed with prop snow and a rig was used to tow the sled. The animals were all shot running on a treadmill in front of a blue screen on day two, with the camera’s angle, height, lens, lighting and other characteristics matching those specifications from the prior day's shoot.

When the filming was complete, Whitehouse editor Livio Sanchez provided A52’s team with the footage from each animal’s best performance, and the creative compositing began. “The biggest challenge was making all these animals of different sizes and locomotion characteristics appear to move along at the same speed,” Bird said. A combination of varying playback speeds for some of the animals and the artistic use of foreground elements delivered the desired results.

A52’s CG team used Maya to create each animal’s sled harness ‘ as well as enormous amounts of turbulent atmospheric snow. The CG snow was combined with a digital matte painting and some additional 2D snow elements for the wide shot of the sled moving through the storm.

“The little prairie dog at the end of the spot was also achieved without any CG,” Joanou added. “We were able to get the little guy to stand on his hind legs in one piece of film and then got him to reach out for a treat in another piece. A52 seamlessly integrated the two shots to make it look like the animal was raising its hand on cue. It looked both real and funny, without any CG enhancement. Once again, A52 delivered spectacularly."

DDB Chicago’s project credits include creative directors Dan Fietsam and Mark Gross, copywriter Jason Gorman, art director Kraig Krueger and producer Brian Smego. MJZ’s line producer was Paul Manix. A52’s team included executive producer Mark Tobin, producer Scott Boyajan, Inferno artists Tim Bird, Justin Blaustein and Alicia Aguilera and 3D artists Chris Janney and Vania Alban-Zapata. Company 3’s Stefan Sonnenfeld handled telecine, original music and sound design credits go to the team at Elias Arts in Santa Monica, and the final mix was engineered by Chicago Recording Company’s Dave Gerbosi.