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The Who Rock Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:15:56 -0500

Design and story-driven creative engagement studio Loyalkaspar added to its impressive live event resume, designing the video display seen during The Whos halftime performance at the 2010 Super Bowl, the most watched Super Bowl halftime show ever with an average 103. 2 million viewers. The high-profile assignment comes on the heels of Loyalkaspars recent work for Jay-Zs performance at MTVs Video Music Awards, and U2s current 360 World Tour, including their 2009 Grammy show opener. Loyalkaspar's string of successes in 2009 was enough to gain the confidence of live event production company White Cherry Entertainment, New York, Executive Producer Ricky Kirshner and Producer Lee Lodge, who led the production of this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show. Thanks to the technological wizardry of XL Laboratories, the setting for the band was one of the largest LED screens ever constructed, and was capable of displaying high-resolution graphics with stunning clarity. The Loyalkaspar design team, led by Dennis Cheung and Charlie Wan, used the circular stage as a framework to create a look that was a throwback to the Who's 60's-era designs while staying modern and technologically advanced.

Absolute Dazzles Johnny Weir for Sundance Channel

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:03:12 -0500

To support the launch of Sundance Channel's newest series, Be Good Johnny Weir, the network designed a promo concept and secured Absolute Post and @radical. Medias Matthew Rolston to create the dazzling spot. The series follows the day-to-day exploits of U. S. National Champion skater Johnny Weir. The promo airs nationally on the Sundance Channel. The promo begins with Johnny emerging from a Faberge egg and launching into his performance within the halls of Versailles as snow falls. Weir continues his signature saucy act as the scene shifts to snowbound forests with frozen streams, then to lakes, and finally into an ever-brightening luminescent Sun King room where the phenomenon skates to the camera and blows his adoring public a cheeky kiss. Weir decked out in his customary assortment of ostentatious costumes, ranging from Lycra diamond-studded tights and stilettos to fur capes to Weir-designed classic onesies stands out against the dazzling Absolute-produced backdrops with the fierce energy and attitude that defines him on the ice. The mix of glamour and lightheartedness perfectly expresses Rolstons vision of a tongue-in-cheek personification of Weir.

Blind Create Heart of Stone For Raveonettes

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:52:57 -0500

Blind Founder/ECD/Director Chris Do, in a direct-to-client relationship with The Raveonettes, their management at The Orchard and Vice Records, just pushed out his second video for this Danish alt-rock duo. The video, set in a fantastic illustrated world, portrays the epic journey of a heartbroken man rambling across a unique and beautifully stylized landscape a subtle blend of Pop Surrealism and Victorian/Steampunk aesthetic created in Dos unique style.

SEAT Takes Shakira on a Wild Journey

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:25:27 -0500

Superfad has produced a dazzling animated SEAT commercial for agency Atletico that combines a myriad of animation styles and techniques with live action, visual effects and architectural design. At the center of the eye-popping spot is international superstar Shakira who is about to embark on a European tour, which is sponsored by SEAT. 2D motion graphics & graffiti design, live action with dancers and glitter explosions, 8 bit pixel style animation, full 3D city build & animation and a stop frame animation shoot mixed with 3D characters are all part of the otherworldly commercial. The project took about eight weeks to produce and can be seen throughout Europe. The spot and brand affiliation link the young, sporty image of SEAT with the musical talent of Shakira, who is currently enjoying great success with her latest album She Wolf.

Superfad Directs Eye Candy For Sony Bravia

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:42:14 -0500

Superfad's new in-store campaign for Sony is a startlingly beautiful and surreal homage to Sony's global brand message of "make.believe" and a tribute to the pleasure of "Eye Candy". Unfolding in three parts, Birth of Color, "Explosion of Color," and "Release of Color," the project was directed and produced by Superfad and will be seen in stores and trade shows throughout the world. The concept was inspired by the idea that from ones imagination anything is possible. Drawing from the theatrical world of fashion photography, Superfad chose moments of visual drama and magic, with spherical objects representing the dot in make.believe as a connecting through-line.

The New Tenants - Trailer

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:17:01 -0500

Joachim Back's The New Tenants took home the 2010 Oscar in the best Live-Action Short category. With VFX and Finishing courtesy of Smoke & Mirrors New York (SMNY), The New Tenants tells the terrifying story of two men who move into an apartment and discover its cursed history through a disturbed cast of neighbors.

Making of Avatar by James Cameron and John Landau

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:59:59 -0500

Video presentation by Academy Award winner and Avatar producer Jon Landau, including behind-the-scenes interviews with James Cameron, the actors and visual effects supervisors on AREA, the Autodesk Digital Entertainment and Visualization online community.

Avatar - trailer

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:56:40 -0500

Avatar has been nominated for nine Academy Awards including: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Achievement in Directing, Achievement in Cinematography and Achievement in Visual Effects. The movie takes viewers to a spectacular world where a reluctant hero fights to save the alien world he has learned to call home. Avatar delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the character and the sweep of the story.

District 9 - Trailer

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:54:29 -0500

Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africas District 9 as the worlds nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens welfare - they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA. The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable - he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.

A Cultural Adventure In Istanbul

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:50:27 -0500

Working via production studio F-Stop Istanbul, Nola Pictures Chris Hartwill directed a stunning :90 spot promoting Turkeys largest city as a 2010 European Capital of Culture, an honor bestowed upon select cities each year by the European Union. The remarkable commercial packs the entirety of Istanbuls art, architectural, religious, industrial, and social history and vibrancy into a thrilling sequence of just over a minute and a half. The Most Inspiring City begins with a globetrotting, sailboat-bound couple staring in stunned awe as they approach the citys soaring minarets in the hazy sea spray of dawn. The ensuing narrative weaves the couples explorations of Istanbuls dynamic museums, religious monuments, shopping, and nightlife with soaring panoramas of the citys towering skyscrapers, blazing superhighways, towering bridges, frenzied pedestrian plazas, beautiful green hills, and endless bodies of water. The result is a portrait of a bustling city of affluence and excitement, with centuries of life colliding to produce an unmatchable epicenter of world culture. To capture the awesome scale of the city, Hartwill shot day and night, from a helicopter and on the ground, burning through 100 cans of 35MM film.