Creative design and visual-effects companies Shade and De Motu collaborated with Executive Producer Shira Boardman of Red Magnet on a pair of :30 spots for HP. “Patty Cake” showcases HPs TouchSmart PC and “Dominoes” introduces the new HP dv6t laptop by showing thousands of other notebook PCs — created almost entirely as 3D models — toppling one after another in complex patterns. StudioDaily got De Motu’s founders Lauren Mayer-Beug and Nathan Boldman plus Shade VFX Director Bryan Godwin to take time out to answer a few burning questions about technology, collaboration, and the state of the industry. Watch the videos, below, then scroll down to read the interviews.

Lauren Mayer-Beug and Nathan Boldman

Lauren Mayer-Beug – Founder/CD, De Motu
Nathan Boldman – Founder/CD, De Motu

Q: What are you working on today?
A: A presidential dodgeball spoof for pneumonia awareness in Africa. We’re also doing a couple of spec projects that push our creative thinking.

Q: What’s the best tool or innovation you’ve found that has come out in the last year?
A: The Canon Mark II 5D camera is changing the way people take pictures and film motion. It makes beautiful moving images extremely accessible.

Q: What’s the project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
A: Where the Wild things Are. The photography is amazing, and the CG is beautiful and so well integrated. Another stunning aspect was the set design. Also, Audi’s commercial campaigns this year were amazing. Not only are the concepts great, the photography is beautiful with a strong sense of craftsmanship.

Q: What’s your favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
A: The HP spots. The project went through several stages throughout the production, and it was always interesting. Although we expect nothing less than the highest quality in our own work, it was great to work on a project that demanded that expectation.

Q: Name the top 4 artists on your iPod.
A: Looking at play count? Snow Patrol, Apparat, Edward Sharpe, White Rabbits.

Bryan Godwin

Bryan Godwin – VFX Director, Shade

Q: What are the biggest challenges/threats facing the industry in the near future?
A: It seems that business is picking up. However, schedules are shorter and budgets are tighter. As our economy improves, this is not likely to change. Studios are going to have to adapt to leaner, more focused models, keeping overhead low to meet these challenges.

Q: What are the industry’s biggest strengths today?
A: As larger studios are struggling with these new budgets and schedules, due to their overhead, there are strong, smaller studios that continually impress with their ability to compete in this market. These new creative facilities, due to necessity, are coming up with amazing visuals on a dime and I believe these market forces are driving new forms of creativity and art.

Q: What upcoming trends could change the way people in this industry work?
A: We are seeing a new concept of collaborative and distributed creative models. Different artists and companies are teaming up to bring their particular strengths to the table. I think this model will allow for more efficiency, as well as letting business owners tailor their model to their strengths. If a design firm has a strategic partner in, say, a visual effects company, they can both bring their best efforts to the table, efficiently, while offering a full-service solution.

Q: What project (film, TV or Web) most impressed you in the last year? Why?
A: The Prius “Harmony” commercial. It was an amazing amalgam of visual effects, design, live action, choreography, and just great advertising. It appeals to all demographics, is eye-catching, and is completely fresh.

Q: Name the top 4 artists on your iPod.
A: Black Keys, White Stripes, Kings of Leon, Sir Lord Baltimore