Boards Magazine - February 1, 2000

Advertising Unlimited

Board Flow

Chiat/Day ups the ante with Digital Shift TBWA/Chiat/Day, Playa Del Rey CA, has a history of redesigning the agency construct. By becoming a 'virtual office,' the agency did away with actual walls in its offices. Today, it's barriers between advertising, technology and entertainment that are on the chopping block as the entire office is steered towards convergence.

ESPN's game face At a time when many spot clients are raising serious questions about the value and future role of television advertising, at least one client -- which just so happens to be the medium in question -- is doing a pretty good job of showing that TV advertising is still very much alive and well.

VW's all-round project In this regular feature, Boards provides case studies of commercial projects shooting on location around the world. The stories follow the ins and outs of getting a spot produced on location, highlighting the production resources and processes in a number of international markets. This month, the focus is on Iceland.

The Expanding Saga

Dividing line New York-based director Little X can clearly see the line dividing music videos from commercials, but toys with blending the two.

Flow of ideas British art, design and concept collective Tomato frequently direct commercials, but the range of their projects and a constantly mutating flow of ideas keep them from being locked into one medium.

Wreckless Abandon "I don't go to work, I go to play," grins Michael Bannon. Bannon heads the creative team at Wreckless Abandon, the Connecticut-based animation and production company he co-founded with his brother Mark Bannon in 1995. They specialize in dimensional animation, bringing clay to life with a combination of stop-motion and computer techniques.

Childish Sophistication Children experience music the same way they experience life: through fantasy and role-play. From the first moments of life, music plays a central role in inspiring and informing how children think, act and feel. Like animation, music provides fuel for childhood fantasies. Like animation, it's music's ephemeral, abstract nature that provides the tableau upon which youngsters can project their imaginations.

TV Advertising:The Difference Between Winning And Losing During a recent appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore offered to put an end to his TV and radio commercials in exchange for live debates twice a week, provided fellow candidate and former Senator Bill Bradley pledge the same.

Chicago's Home and Away Strategy Production players in the Chicago market are thinking nationally when it comes to sustaining their businesses, while acting locally to fortify their own community. While many companies derive an increasing amount of work from sources outside Chicago, efforts are also being made to keep commercial work in the city. These efforts include a likely commercial production volume study and marketing effort, and a lobby to provide tax incentives for local work.

Ring of Fire draws a crowd A deft combination of pre-planning, pre-visualization and Internet communication proved key to the creation of two cost-effective dot-com spots for financial services client, Harbinger. Out of ad agency Donino, White and Partners of Atlanta, special effects house, Ring of Fire Advanced Media of West Hollywood, fashioned a futuristic e-commerce cyber-environment for Harbinger.net with state-of the art tools over a shortened production schedule of 8-10 days.

Broadcast branding from the ground up Cuppa Coffee Animation, Toronto, was part of Look Lab, a group of broadcast design companies working with the Oxygen Network to create the newly launched women network's on-air branding. Along with PMcD Design, New York; Taffet Design, Los Angeles and Crossroads Television, New York, Cuppa Coffee created an on-air brand personality, including program opens and network IDs for the new outlet created by Nickelodeon's Geraldine Laybourne, Oprah Winfrey and TV production company Carsey-Werner-Mandabach.

Red Car/Margarita Mix's borderless mix Determined to boost creative, increase productivity and conquer geography, Larry Bridges, president of bicoastal post company Red Car, is working with Lucent Technologies and WarpSpeed Communications to establish high speed video and audio connectivity between Los Angeles music house Margarita Mix and Red Car, Dallas.

It's the same story for Moritz The decision to make the transition from feature film to commercial editing was rather sudden, but the guiding principal for both disciplines is straightforward, says editor David Moritz. In both cases, it's all about story.

A look at who's making the moves

To be or to CG;That is the question Choosing Live-Action or Computer Animation; A Rule of Thumb