Sure, Super Bowl spots are fun to watch—but they’re great to listen to as well.  Elias Arts, the bicoastal US studio known for its work in music composition, strategy and production, created and produced original music for three spots that ran on the game itself, as well as its pre-game and post-game broadcasts.  Their work included the high-tech Vizio “Forge” spot from Venables Bell & Partners; the sentimental Clydesdale spot titled “Fence” for Budweiser from DDB/Chicago; and the Intel “Generations” spot, also from Venables Bell & Partners.  Elias credits on the work goes to Composers Jimmy Haun, Matt Fletcher, Nate Morgan and Chris Kemp; Creative Directors Dave Gold and Jonathan Elias, Executive Producer Ann Haugen and Producer Kala Sherman.

The legendary E*Trade babies are back, this time in a seven-spot campaign produced from start to finish by Click 3X.  (See “Barbershop,” “Lottery,” “Tears” and “Girlfriend” here.) John J. Budion, working closely with agency Grey/New York, led Click's in-house team as director, creative director,and Lead Flame artist, shooting, directing and handling all VFX. While the basic concept and characters of the campaign are familiar to any E*Trade fan, this new iteration of the campaign has evolved significantly behind expanded character developments, new settings that go beyond the traditional nursery and tie-ins to both the company's online trading tools and the NFL Playoffs on CBS, including the Super Bowl.  The studio has contributed to E*Trade work in the past, primarily handling the effects of making the babies' lips appear to move as they spoke.  This new work marks the studio’s evolution to a soup-to-nuts partner with the agency on the production.  Credits at Grey go to Paul Behnan, Rob Baiocco, Tor Myhren, Bennett McCarroll and Kim Kietz.  For Click 3X, credits include Flame artists Mark Szumski, Sophia Avgousti, John Ciampa and Amanda Amalfi, and GC artists Anthony Filipakis, Rob Dollase, Grace Hwang, Sung Kim, and Tyrone Perry. Jason Mayo is Managing Director for Click 3X, and Head of Production/Producer was Jared Yeater. Rob Mackler was Live Action Producer.  The campaign was edited at Vision Post by Alex Cohan.  Music was by MassiveMusic.

MassMarket, the New York and Venice, CA-based VFX studio, handled effects on a trio of Super Bowl spots, among them the allegorical “Timothy Richman” spot for Cars.com, in which a guy who’s demonstrated his genius all throughout his life gets flummoxed when it’s time to buy a car. The agency on the spot was DDB/Chicago.  It was directed by Craig Gillespie of MJZ and edited by Steve Gandolfi of Cut + Run.  MassMarket credits include VFX Producer Blythe Dalton, Lead Flame Artists John Shirley CG Lead Mike Dalzell and 2D Lead and Set Supervisor Lane Jolly. The studio also provided effects for the comic “Awesomer” spot that tied in Emerald Nuts and Pop Secret microwave popcorn in a smorgasbord of performing humans seen jumping in a pool like trained dolphins or killer whales.  The agency on this was Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and it was also directed by MJZ’s Gillespie, with editorial handled by Jim Hutchins of Hutch Co.  MassMarket credits include VFX Supervisor and Lead Flame Artist Sarah Eim, Senior Producer Blythe Dalton, Executive Producer Rich Rama and CG Lead Mike Dalzell.  And for Vizio, the makers of flat-screen TVs, the studio handled effects on the complex and fast-paced “Forge” spot, in which robotic arms grab everything from Beyonce to a Twitter logo and mold them all into a new, multimedia HDTV set that’s web-ready.  The agency was Venables, Bell & Partners; it was directed by Wally Pfister of Independent Media and edited by Paul Martinez at Arcade Edit.  MassMarket credits include Producer Paul Roy, VFX Supervisors Andrew Romatz and John Shirley, Designer Will Campbell, Lead Technical Director Kyle Cassidy, Lead Flame Artist Thibault Debaveye and Executive Producer Rich Rama.

The Mill recently collaborated with MJZ director Nicolai Fuglsig for Barclaycard’s "Rollercoaster" from BBH London. The spot features a happy commuter riding to work alongside the Manhattan Bridge into New York City. But our man is no typical commuter--he forgoes the subway and travels by rollercoaster instead. The spot is a playful hint of the wealth of experiences cardholders can tap into with merely a swipe of their cards.  The Mill’s New York team of Creative Director Angus Kneale, Joint Head of CG Ben Smith and Lead Flame Artists Alex Lovejoy and Dan Williams created the animation of the rollercoaster and the tracks, collaborating with Final Cut Editor Rick Russell.  Agency credits go to Adam Tucker, Szymon Rose, Daniel Schaefer, Olly Chapman and Matthew Towell. Kelly Kerby was VFX Supervisor for The Mill. In other news, the company also handled VFX on the Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl spot out of DDB Chicago titled “Bridge.”  This is the one where the townsfolk form a human bridge to get a Bud delivery truck across a washed out stream.  Agency credits go to John Hayes, Steve Bougdanos, Patrick Knoll, Will St. Clair, Barry Burdiak, Diane Jackson and Scott Kemper. Production credits go to Director Paul Middleditch of a WHITELABEL product.  (The spot is also featured in our newsletter item for the production company.) For The Mill, EP was Verity Grantham, Flame Artist was Westley Sarokin, Head of Production was Lynn Zekanis and Producer was Camila De Biaggi. David Baxter edited from Panic & Bob. Elias Arts handled music.

Comedy director Mike Bigelow of GARTNER shot two spots for Bud Light on the big game—"Voice Box” and “Light House.” Both came out of agency Cannonball. In “VoiceBox,” a guy drives his girlfriend a little nuts by talking with an ‘auto tune’ voice effect. The payoff is at the end of the spot, where who shows up but hip-hop star (and auto tune maven) T-Pain himself.  The second spot visualizes the ultimate house party fantasy with party-going friends in awe of a house made of cold ones—cans of Bud Light make up the walls, doors and even the best seats in the house.  Are they empties?  Nah, this is no recycled home, these cans are full—for now at least.  Agency credits go to Steve Hunt, Joe Bishop, Matt Collins, Brian Fauss, Aric Jost and Bob Jackson. For GARTNER, Sal Totino was D of P, Don Block, Rich Carter, Elaine Behnken and Annie Hanlon were EPs and Helen Hollien produced. Johnny Devries edited for School Edit, with Sarah Brooks was EP. AXYZ handled post production and effects. Vanya Drakul was sound editor for Pirate. Notch Tornto's  Bill Ferwerda was the colorist.

The local townspeople have a crisis on their hands—the bridge is out and the Budweiser delivery truck can’t make it across the stream.  No problem! Good old American ingenuity, along with a touch of VFX magic from The Mill (see the item above) and the skill of Director Paul Middleditch of a WHITELABEL product come to the rescue.  In “Bridge,” which ran on the Super Bowl, the townspeople form an interconnected human bridge across the stream and the truck gingerly makes it way over to the neighborhood tavern.  Of course, everyone seems less thrilled about having to get the truck back over once it’s made its delivery.  The spot was created by longtime A-B agency DDB/Chicago, where credits go to Scott Kemper, Barry Burdiak, John Hayes, Patrick Knoll and Steve Bougdanos. WHITELABEL credits on the job include Partner/EPs Annique DeCaestecker and Ellen Jacobson-Clarke and Peter Masterton, EP for production service company Plaza Films in Sydney. It was cut by David Baxter at Panic & Bob and featured music from Elias Arts.  Line Producer for WHITELABEL was Anna Joseph and D P was Bill Pope. 

PublicVFX, a recently formed VFX studio, launched its new venture with the delivery of visual effects for Hyundai’s latest ad campaign. Four of the 13 spots they worked on—“Body Pass,” “Paint Sonata,” “10 Years/ Favre” and “Luxury”—debuted during the Super Bowl, with additional spots set to break in the Academy Awards broadcast in March. The campaign was directed by Noam Murro and Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks and created by Innocean, Hyundai’s agency. Public also worked on the new Dodge campaign (“Man’s Last Stand”) directed by Mark Romanek of Anonymous for Wieden + Kennedy, which also broke on the Super Bowl.  Says Robert Prins, Creative Director at Innocean, “From the very beginning the people at Public worked side by side with us. No detail was overlooked. They were tireless, and worked 24/7. Without the artistic and realistic perfection that Public put into these spots, they would never have worked.” Tony Smoller, Public’s co-owner and creative director, has extensive live action and digital production experience and provided on set supervision for the campaign’s 12-day Los Angeles shoot, as well as five days at the Hyundai plant in Alabama. “We feel very fortunate to have been a part of this high profile campaign for Hyundai,” he says.  “The synergy between Innocean and Public resulted in the seamless visual execution of their concepts and has really affirmed our desire for creative challenge and growth.”  Additional Public credits on the work go to Executive Producer Kim Nagel and VFX Supervisors Chris Noellert and James Allen.

Asylum, under the guidance of Lead Animator Mike Warner and Lead Inferno Artist Rob Trent, collaborated with Go Films Director Tim Hamilton and ad agency Fire Station on a Super Bowl spot promoting Teleflora's hand-arranged bouquets. "Teleflora's Talking Flowers- Mr. Warmth" begins with a vain and smug office worker staring into her mirror as she fends off her polite but mousy colleague who needs assistance with paperwork. When an office sycophant swoops in to deliver her a cardboard box of flowers, the woman snatches them with a look of self-satisfaction. She is alarmed, however, to see the bunch of wilted and discolored flowers explode from the box. "Who sends flowers in a box?" one of the flowers demands—voiced by the comedian Don Rickles—its petals opening and closing to sputter his complaints. "That's the same thing cigarettes and dead people come in! Is it your cousin, or did you meet him in prison?" The woman slams the box in horror. Meanwhile, her mousy coworker is delighted to see a Teleflora deliveryman approach her with a beautiful keepsake vase full of the company's hand-arranged flowers.  Sweet!  Warner animated the flower's movement to match Rickles' V.O., and Trent composited the animated flowers back onto the live action plates. Agency credits go to Tim Munday and Carolyn Casey. Additional Asylum credits go to VFX Producer Mark Kurtz and Executive Producer Michael Pardee.

Beast, one of the country's top editorial facilities for commercials, feature films, episodic television, music videos and web video, has signed the independent repping firm Shortlist for West Coast representation in the US, covering Beast's Austin, Santa Monica and San Francisco offices. The company's reps are Charlie McBrearty and Vanessa McLean.  Beast joins a Shortlist roster that also includes Moxie Pictures, Superfad, Tool of North America, Rabbit and Search Party Music, to name a few.  Recent Beast jobs out of these offices includes spots for AARP and Popeye’s out of GSD&M Idea City, Bumble Bee out of McCann-Erickson/L.A., Pizza Hut out of The Martin Agency and Audi out of Venables, Bell & Partners.

Three new spots for the global furniture and home furnishings giant Ikea from production company Camp David in Stockholm manage to present a wide range of Ikea items as seen in the context of little portraits of people whose lives are filled with the store’s products.  In “Livingroom,” we meet a mother and her teenage daughter who keep changing the look of their living room until they’re completely satisfied; in “Bathroom,” we meet a robe-wearing trombone player who gets all his best musical ideas in the bathroom; and in “Bedroom” we meet a young single woman living in a tiny studio apartment where everything she needs (all of which is from Ikea, of course) is just an arm’s reach away.  This breezy effort was directed by Johan Skog of Camp David and created by Ikea’s Icom agency.  Creative credits go to David Vegas, Marc Devine, Anna Persson, Jeanette Bengtsson, Eleonor Palsson and Martin Eriksson.  The campaign was produced for Camp David by Kristina Wibom and shot by Director of Photography Kjell Lageroos. Niklas Froberg edited, with post production performed at Redrum and sound design at Stopp Stockholm.

Jonas Odell’s new short film, “Tussilago,” has been nominated to compete in the Berlin Film Festival in the category "Berlinale Shorts.” The film is an animated documentary about a terrorist affair in Stockholm in the 1970’s. The Berlin Film Festival concludes on February 21 of this year. “Tussilago” also premiered as the opening short at the Gothenburg Film Festival in Stockholm, which concluded on Feb. 7; it’s showing at Berlin represents its international premiere.  The film uses a mix of live action, animation and interviews to tell the story of the West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher, who plotted to kidnap a prominent Swedish politician in 1977.  "This grand narrative of seventies’ German terrorism often takes on a mythological quality in film and literature,” says Odell, a partner in the US and Swedish-based production company FilmTecknarna.  “It’s a story of characters larger than life, and I wanted to tell it from a human point of view, even if it takes place in the periphery of the great terrorist complex of the time.” Odell’s work with FilmTecknarna includes music videos for artists such as Franz Ferdinand and U2, as well as commercials, promos and a number of short films. His "Never Like the First Time!" was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006, and his film “Lies” was awarded “Best International Short Film” at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

Zoic Studios recently completed a new, completely photo-real CG spot for NASCAR.  "Dominoes," the first spot in ESPN's new campaign for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, conveys the fast and unpredictable action of the series -- where up-and-coming drivers get a shot at beating seasoned pros. Using the tagline “It's Anyone's Race,” the spot tells the story of a driver who manages to sneak his way to the front of the pack, where a fight for the lead turns into a massive pile-up. Through a combination of CGI animation and cutting-edge facial capture technology, Zoic and agency Wieden + Kennedy were able to  create a hyper-real environment containing expressive human characters. With the hard driving soundtrack of Metallica's "Master of  Puppets," "Dominoes" captures the intensity of NASCAR and showcases the fine line between winning and losing.  Agency credits go to Cyrus Coulter, Stuart Jennings, Luke Behrends, Heather Larimer, Kevin Proudfoot, Todd Waterbury, Gary Krieg and Dan Blaney. Zoic credits go to Director Loni Peristere, EPs Erik Press and Steve Schofield and Editor Dmitri Gueer. Audio post was done at Sound Lounge by Philip Loeb, with sound design done at Trinitite by Brian Emrich.

Nonfiction Unlimited Director Nick Jasenovec returned to Sundance this year with the documentary short “Para Fuera, A Portrait of Dr. Richard Bing.” Jasenovec’s previous Sundance film was the mocdoc feature “Paper Heart,” starring Michael Cera, which screened last year.  “Para Fuera” is a portrait of one man’s extraordinary life over the past 100 years and his realization of what is truly important. Having escaped from Germany in 1934, Dr. Bing went on to earn a second medical degree from the University of Bern in Switzerland.  As a successful cardiologist, researcher and medical professor, Dr. Bing discovered Taussing-Bing disease. He also wrote over 100 classical music compositions, which have been performed around the world. Microsoft’s Bing sponsorship made this film possible. “Para Fuera” came about when Dr. Bing wrote a letter to Microsoft noting the name similarities in his own name and its newly introduced search engine, Bing.com. Fascinated by Dr. Bing’s story, Microsoft approached Jasenovec to direct and Nonfiction Unlimited to produce a short film about his life. Out of a record breaking 3,504 submissions “Para Fuera” was one of only 70 short films selected to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. In other Nonfiction news, director R.J. Cutler just wrapped a Fashion Week shoot for Starbucks featuring the designers Rags & Bones.

Rhino Creative Director Natasha Saenko crafted a unique cast of animated animals from scratch in stylized CG for Russian telecommunications company Beeline out of Moscow -based agency Lowe Adventa. The company sought out Rhino to develop a completely original concept, impressed by the studio's recent series of Kleenex webisodes directed by Harry Dorrington. The spot highlights Beeline's individual ringtones and the instantly transformative effects of a welcome phone call. “Privet” stars groups of stylized sloths, meerkats and crocodiles who sit, bored and whiling the day away. A spontaneous phone call to their mutual friend, a gregarious beat-boxing frog, instantly enlivens the mood, as he enters in a corner of the screen with his energetic, arm-flailing antics, setting the other animals dancing. Beeline provided the basic color palate and character sketches, leaving it up to Rhino to develop the overall concept and the specific actors that would fit into the Beeline brand.  Saenko, a Russian native who understands both the culture and the look and feel of the market, made a perfect fit with Beeline's primarily Russian-speaking team. Additional Rhino credits go to Animators Rob Dollase, Sean Curran, Jaime Castaneda and Goran Ognjanovic, EPs Camille Geier and Karen Bianca and Flame Artist Micky Gorenstein. Just Production produced the spot, along with AD Olga Diyakova, CD Maria Molchanova and Producer Anton Zamakhin.  In other Rhino news, the company has signed veteran independent sales reps Ann McKallagat and Bob Ramos. McKallagat joins as staff EP/Sales Representative.  Ramos will handle US East Coast sales while Jamie Phair of JPreps handles sales in Canada, focusing on Toronto. Currently repping Rhino are Toni Saarinen on the West Coast and in Texas, Georgina Poushkine in London and Nikki Weiss in the Midwest.

Creative studio Dancing Diablo has responded to the ad industry’s growing  need for full-service approaches to production, animation, stop-motion, visual effects, live action, editorial and finishing services by moving to a new location in Brooklyn’s trendy Dumbo neighborhood. The move doubles the studio’s space and allows  it to integrate expanded services into its infrastructure.  The move also coincides with Dancing Diablo’s Founder/Director Beatriz Helena Ramos’ signing with repping firm  Zinndependent for East Coast and Midwest representation in the US. Headed up by Laura Zinn, Zinndependent will focus on introducing Dancing Diablo’s work and scope of services to a broader range of advertising agencies.  “I was immediately impressed with Laura’s knowledge of the business and felt she would be a great asset to Dancing Diablo as we move into our next phase of growth,” notes Ramos.  Dancing Diablo joins a Zinndependent client roster that includes, Slinky Pictures, Partizan Lab (Animation Division), Charlex, 740 Sound Design, Spincycle, Kipany Pictures, Embassy and STORY.

Nice Shoes has signed advertising sales and marketing pro Travis Taylor to the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing.  Taylor has experience in sales management, print advertising, event marketing and rebranding.   His main goal at Nice Shoes will be to unify the shop’s US sales force, grow the company’s core business and expand into new realms. Prior to joining Nice Shoes, Taylor held similar positions at MetroMedia Company, Clear Channel Communications, Centra Software and the Buxton Company. The new hire is part of a massive overhaul of Nice Shoes' operations that has included the merger of sister companies Guava and Freestyle Collective, a move calculated to consolidate their various services—design and animation, high-end visual effects and color grading—and become a more powerful creative solutions provider.  Taylor will be key to this restructuring. "Travis comes to Nice Shoes with a very diverse background and is the rare type of person that just gets it; he understands the art of sales,” says Nice Shoes CEO and Partner Dominic Pandolfino.  "I’m really excited to get started at Nice Shoes," adds Taylor. "I’ve been impressed with their reorganization efforts so far, and I plan to be very hands on and work diligently to help them overhaul their operations completely."

Wow, this guy can swim.  In “Land Swimming,” a new Subway spot from agency McCarthy Mambro Bertino directed by Ian Hunter of L.A.-based  New Deal Studios, Olympic star Michael Phelps dives into a pool and keeps going when he gets to the end, bursting out of the indoor facility where he’s practicing and moving on through the streets of a city, past a Subway restaurant and out into a wheat field, where he scares off a few farm animals as the voiceover announcer tells us that he fuels up with a Subway turkey melt sandwich.  There’s the requisite cameo appearance by Jared Fogel, the Subway spokesperson, as Phelps swims past the sandwich shop.  Agency credits at MMB go to Chris Poulin, George Goetz and Matthew O'Rourke.  The spot was cut by Editor Jeff Grippe at Cut + Run/L.A. and features music composed by Paul James Riggio at So Loud Music. VFX work was handled by Robert Chapin and Michael Theurer at New Deal Studios.

The directing team known as the Wade Brothers, who work out of the Kansas City, MO-based T2 and its production arm, Back Alley Films, recently competed a PSA for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) out of the New Mexico agency Esparza Advertising.  In “Broken Teens,” teens break bottles over their heads in slow motion to go along with a symphony playing in the background.  The teens repeat the action over and over and fall each time they break a bottle.  There’s no dialogue in the spot, as the actions speak for themselves.  Additional production credits go to Producers Nicole Melton and Tyler Smith, Editor Jon Bazata, Post Producer Chris Rinella and D of P Michael Stine. Noel Selders handled sound design. Agency credits go to Adam Greenhood, Jesse Arneson and Jeremy Spencer.