LeBron James, Alfred Hitchcock, Windows 7 and Ancient History

Two spots – "Chiller: Hitchcock," a promo for the Chiller entertainment network's recent Hitchcock film marathon, and "LeBron James Website Intro," a lead-in to an online collaboration between basketball superstar James and Microsoft – have been selected by a panel of expert judges to share top honors in the Top Spot Festival hosted by Studio's Film Fest (studiofilmfest.com) and presented by StudioDaily. "Chiller: Hitchcock" was spearheaded by Chiller creative director Shea Pepper and executed by Motive NYC, and "LeBron James Website Intro" was co-written and co-directed by Marty Martin and Zia Mojajerjasbi.
“LeBron James Website Intro” also won plaudits in the categories of top editing, top direction, and top cinematography – all credited to Marty Martin. “Battles BC Promo” for The History Channel, which features the motion graphics work of Motive’s Felix Thoo, was honored for Top VFX/Animation, and Windows 7 promo “Shake It,” also from Marty Martin, was cited as best online/viral video. Judge Charlie Tercek applauded its “nice, simple storytelling and a smart, understated performance from the actor.” See below for more information on each winning project, and click through to read more details from StudioDaily. You can watch all of the videos that were entered in the festival at Studio’s Film Fest.

Marty Martin’s work is assured, but he’s basically self-trained. “I didn’t know anyone in the film community here in Seattle,” he says. “I hadn’t shot anything. I wasn’t one of those kids who went to film school or made short films in high school, so I had to figure it out for myself. Probably most of my editing techniques came from watching films over and over and watching trailers religiously.” He owns his own equipment, including a Canon 5D Mark II and a 7D and two editing workstations, but rents a Red camera when a project demands it. He does color-correction in After Effects.

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Motive NYC and The History Channel took “Best VFX/Animation” honors for their “Battles BC” promo, part of a package of show opens and promos Motive created for the cable channel’s recent series about the savage, bloody battles fought hand-to-hand thousands of years ago with crude weaponry. In a lightning-speed flyover of various battle scenes, such as the infamous Persian invasion of Greece at Marathon, the spot races the viewer with frenetic immediacy back into the center of the action. Said festival judge Patrick Davenport, vice president of operations at Method, “The dynamism of the promo reflected the essence of the piece. Plus, the ambitious VFX had great aesthetics and were appropriately used to enhance the story.”

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The creative department at Chiller, NBC/Universal’s horror-slash-thriller network, is not large. In fact, creative director Shea Pepper was a department of one until very recently. Chiller’s budgets are equally small. So last year, when Pepper learned that the network was running a rare marathon of Hitchcock films on New Year’s Day-unfortunately not a regular event, thanks to a new owner of the Hitchcock catalog-she called on the team at Motive NYC to flesh out and execute her promo ideas. One minor problem: The team had to rely mostly on stills, not actual footage, save for a tiny clip, from the films themselves. The resulting spot, “Chiller: Hitchcock,” manages to do much more with less, using an edgy sense of movement to push viewers through a mashed up, 3D world of iconic Hitchcock characters and scenes. Pepper says it brought record viewers to the fledgling network for the marathon, which was part of an effort by the channel to move away from its late-night, creature-feature reputation and toward a wider demographic with intense thrillers and new independent films. The spot was recently recognized with a nomination at ProMax and tied for the “Top Spot” prize in Studio’s Top Spot Festival.

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The “Shake It” video is engaging and sends a message in just 30 seconds, but Martin says the client was made a little uncomfortable by how much it abstracted the idea of a user interface, using a nearly empty football field as a metaphor for a computer screen. “They were really hesitant to go out with that ad,” he recalls. “They were worried people wouldn’t understand the spot. We had storyboarded everything, and I think the legal department came and said, ‘Football players don’t stand on the field like that!’ But it was about illustrating something in a humorous way.”

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