CHICAGO—Hybrid production studio Vitamin applied its distinctive touch to The Story, the latest music video from Maroon 5 and director Bob Carmichael, which uses hundreds of still photographs and a blaze of animated graphics to tell the tale of the band’s recent world tour. more

Atlanta, GA – Halogen, a new integrated web/TV network owned by the South Carolina-based Inspiration Network, came to RIOT for a unique, attention-grabbing look for their on-air IDs, bumpers and other network branding that would also integrate seamlessly online. more

Director Known for Visual Storytelling Begins New Affiliation with a Shoot for Sunny D

Award-winning director/cameraman Blair Hayes has signed with STORY for exclusive representation for commercials. Hayes, well known for the his fresh, uplifting style of visual storytelling, has already booked two projects with STORY, a campaign for Sunny D out of New York agency Carrafiello Diehl & Associates, a reprise of an earlier campaign he directed for the beverage maker, and a campaign for AARP. Several other projects are in the bid stage. more

NEW YORK, NY — Following the success of the Emmy-winning series “Intervention,” A&E has created The Recovery Project, a multimedia and community based outreach program designed to raise awareness about addiction and how it is treatable and recovery is possible. A key component to the project are two moving TV spots featuring a powerful, anthemic score composed by Alex Lasarenko, Creative Director of music/sound design house Tonal. more

OAK PARK, Mich. – RingSide Creative has unveiled a newly-built digital intermediate (DI) color grading suite, providing the production and film community with a powerful resource whose video and audio features far exceed anything else in Michigan. The investment in the suite is a clear statement of the company’s support for the film and advertising industries, bringing a Hollywood-style post production experience to Detroit. more

DALLAS, TX — The premiere of “Amanpour” on CNN represents a pivotal new chapter in the career of the news network’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. A live global interview program that hosts the world’s elite in politics, culture and beyond, the show makes its presence known with a gripping custom theme from Stephen Arnold Music. more

Studio Mixing Promos for Football Series “RedZone,” “GameDay” “Replay” and “Total Access” SANTA MONICA, Calif.— Margarita Mix is currently providing sound design, voice recording and audio mixing services to the NFL Network for on-air promotions for its new NFL RedZone Channel, and its shows NFL GameDay, NFL Replay and NFL Total Access. The studio is completing more than a dozen promos each week in a project that will continue through the remainder of the NFL season. more

CHICAGO—Hybrid production studio Vitamin has teamed with DDB Chicago, on a multimedia campaign promoting the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) in which the power of cinema is symbolized by the fleeting movements of a single human eye.

The unusual and highly affecting film consists almost entirely of a close-up of a woman’s eye as she gazes at a movie screen. The eye is shot in time-lapse and undergoes a panoply of emotions from laughter to tears while bathed in the projector’s reflected light. The festival’s logo—a stylized drawing of a female eye—appears at the end along with the tag, “take a deeper look.” more

LOS ANGELES—Bully Pictures continues its hot streak with great, new advertising work. Its most recent efforts include a spot for Mohawk Flooring that’s “frozen in time” and a campaign introducing a new entrée at Panda Express that features a pair of animals that simply refuse to grin and bear it. more

Visual Effects by Mechanism Digital
for 101 Dalmatians Broadway television
commercial.

New York, NY - Mechanism Digital’s Directive: Make dogs talk! . . . to promote the upcoming 101 Dalmatians Broadway musical. Timeline: Three days.

In order to accomplish the task, Mechanism Digital adapted some unconventional visual effects techniques and simplified a typically complex workflow. In the 1940s, animators hand-painted cartoon mouths and teeth over live footage to make animals speak. In more modern times, filmmakers build wire frame CG models of entire bodies and inserted them with extensive image tracking to create the illusion of talking creatures. Mechanism’s studio found a way to replicate and improve upon this process in a lot less time and at a much lower cost. more