A leisurely day on the boardwalk turns into an unanticipated dip in the canal for an innocent bystander. Ruairi Robinson unleashes the hungry beast in this spot for the French Dairy Council, through Euro RSCG C&O. Mmmmnm, cheese.

Trevor Cornish has paired up with TBWA/Paris to create a witty spot promoting the new McFarmer and McTimber sandwiches at McDonalds. Shot in California over two days, the classic soundtrack “Eye of the Tiger” guides these two foes in their rigorous training to compete in brute force for the ultimate reward.

Using the everyday chores of an average logger and farmer, larger-than-life weight lifting and cardio regiments become the workout plans for these two enemies. The farmer is depicted skipping rope with barbed wire, and weight training with full-sized hay bails and a tractor with the swather attached. The logger practices his sparring with a grizzly bear, rows with an enormous saw in each hand to cut down numerous trees at once, and uses boulders to tone his muscles. After the intense workouts, each rival indulges himself with his respective sandwich.

Reflecting on the shoot, Cornish described it as challenging as every scene was its own large, in-camera stunt. The remote locations, large cranes, and real wildlife made for a lot of prep and planning, but in the end it all came together as envisioned.

Credits

Happy Holidays from all of us at Spy!

Spy Films and director Arev Manoukian produce global campaign for Sony.

UK based agency Grey London approached Arev to collaborate on this 3D cinematic spot after watching short film, Nuit Blanche. ECD Nils Leonard already had Leonard Cohen’s poem That’s What I Heard You Say in mind, and needed to find a visual component that was just as poignant and influential. According to Nils, “Nuit Blanche… really just captured a unique, powerful romance that I hadn’t seen before,” which he felt would do justice to Cohen’s words.

Two Worlds captures an emotion so powerful between two people that the physical world no longer matters. Thus came the challenge of showing how 3D can really make an audience feel something, not merely creating an elaborate spectacle of flying cars and debris.

Spy3D and exclusive partner 3DCC worked alongside Arev Manoukian to ensure a proper stereoscopic 3D production. In-house stereographer Bill Reeves noted that the most memorable challenge was that Two-Worlds had purely CG elements. “The biggest task being positioning the live actors and all the action in correct stereoscopic parallax values that would make sense when you start to layer elements together and build the scene around the talent… that’s where the biggest challenge was… just the position of subjects.”

Leonard Cohen’s words brought a human, raw emotion to the film. Cohen was drawn to the project due to its level of beauty and romance. Paired with the breathtaking musical composition by Clint Mansell (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream), a notion of power was given to the epic digital landscape. The music carried the words in a poetic fashion, which really brought audio and video together seamlessly.

Join us in welcoming our newest director to the roster at Spy: Elizabeth Orne. Her imagination and creativity use a combination of dry humor, gorgeous colors, and well composed frames to make old ideas new again, surprising and delighting her audiences. Her unique abilities derive from a mix of her studies in Art History and Filmmaking. She began her professional career working in art galleries in London, New York, and Los Angeles. While in LA she directed theatre productions before returning to NYC to attend the NYU Graduate Film Program, where she made her thesis film “Crazy Glue”. The film was chosen to screen at Telluride Film Festival, which is known for other famous premieres such as Juno and Brokeback Mountain. Elizabeth describes her directing as emotionally true yet delightfully entertaining, stating that: “Our job as storytellers is not to just communicate the dry bones of a story, but to engage an audience, and leave the story resonating within them.”

US directing duo Sniper Twins are quickly being recognized for their clever approach to creating hilarious work in the advertising world. Barry Flanagan and Dax Martinez-Vargas came to New York City from Austin, where they began their writing and directing careers, working at MTV as creatives for over six years. The release of their first video “Computer Friends” [Stack the Memory] on YouTube generated over 500,000 hits in less than two weeks, laying the pavement for their unique style used in advertising.

Now with Spy Films, their ingenious creations are setting the bar for the marketing savvy young directors of today. Living by the motto “If you really work at something… It will happen,” the sky is the limit for these budding stars.

Spy Films’ Ruairi Robinson recently partnered up with MacLaren McCann to bring to life Cadillac’s “Zero to Drama in 3.9 Seconds.”  Cadillac, the title sponsor of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, wanted to highlight the CTS-V’s ability to go from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds.  Interestingly enough, the tone of a movie can change just as quickly.  In the spirit of TIFF, Cadillac created three movie trailer themed spots that draw the comparison between the speed and power of the CTS-V and the rapid, sometimes startling, intensity shift in a feature film.

Credits

Radical Friend finished their latest spot for Adidas through Mutt Industries. It features Eric Berry of the KC Chiefs in an explosion of psychedelic laboratories, underwater test tanks, and anti-gravity chambers. His agility and strength was captured by shooting slow-motion scenes of him taking down un-expecting opponents, floating through the air to intercept a pass, and effortlessly evading anyone who tries to stop him. Contrasted with a barrage of quick cut-aways, the result is as amazing as the shoe itself.

Shots issue 131 contender

Client: Adidas
Agency: Mutt Industries
Creative Directors Mike McCommon & Steve Luker
Art Director: Allison Kerst
Copywriter: Mike Houston
Agency Producer: Chris Lawson
Account Director: David Beauvais
Music Supervision: Alex James
Production Co.: Spy Films
Director: Radical Friend
Executive Producer: Carlo Trulli
Line Producers: Brian Welsh & Jonathan Lia
Post Co: Lost Planet L.A.
Editor: Max Koepke

Cheer detergent is rolling out what it claims is an industry first: A clickable YouTube video that takes you to a non-YouTube site.

The music video, for “Climbing Walls” from Strange Talk, has colorful objects, which viewers can click to be entered to win them. Those prizes include socks, dresses and a Fender Stratocaster, among other items. Jason Wiedemann, brand manager for the Procter & Gamble detergent brand, says although other YouTube videos have included such Annotations before, those linked to another YouTube site. The Cheer video leads to a Facebook app for Cheer where you can register for the item you “dug.” A YouTube rep says she believes Cheer is “one of the first” to use Annotations this way.

The unique approach underscores the brandʼs attempt to woo a young, digitally savvy audience. The brandʼs marketing budget is now 100% digital, Wiedemann says, and the brand is being positioned to appeal to consumers who want to express their individuality. (source: mashable)

Alex Roman‘s Silestone “Above Everything Else,” a 100% CG spot, earned a Film Craft Gold at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

“Realism was my main goal here. I firstly thought of shooting some live-action but after studying carefully the budget and deadline I realized that CGI was the only way I could do it. The most important part for me was to deliver a beautiful and very visual commercial and keep the viewer focused on the commercial itself, not the fact that it was a CG piece: the photorealism was the only option I had to achieve this.”

James Rouse also picked up a Bronze Lion in the Promo & Activation category for his “Bud ice cold index” spots out of DDB UK.