Automotive

Here’s an interesting new online campaign for the Toyota Corolla featuring kung-fu fighting mutant cats. The first piece of the three part series, 9 Lives and Counting, shows us an action packed heist and the resulting high-speed getaway. No worries though, the second and third installments in the series should be released soon using equally bad puns for titles: Landing on All Fours and The Sound the Furry.

There’s an animated novel for the campaign as well as other goodies related to the series over on their website, so go check it out if you’re interested. This was all produced by Publicis Mojo out of Melbourne, Australia.

The campaign, according to the agency:

Tells the story of a kitten headed hero who battles a gang of feral baddies.The ambitious production was a combination of very well rehearsed fighting sequences, and real, cuddly kitten heads. source

I’m interested in seeing how the rest of the story plays out after watching this spot. I thought the VFX was outstanding. I even liked how he took care of the workers by distracting them with a moving light, clever.

Credits:

Agency: Publicis Mojo, Melbourne
Creative Director: Micah Walker
Art Director: Michael Spirkovski
Copywriter: Grant McAloon
Agency Producer: Jasmin Ferguson
Production Company: Exit Films, Melbourne
Director: Garth Davis
Producer: Karen Sproul
Digital Creative Director: Joel Thomson
Lead Creative: Clint Nielsen
Lead Developer: Hugh Campbell
Digital Producer: Julia Prior
Post Prodcution: Animal Logic- Colin Renshaw
Music: Level 2 Music- Carl Ricter
Sound Mix: Nylon

When I first started this clip I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, it had all the common characteristics of a Honda ad…it was boring. That is at least until they decided to do a cross-cut look into the busy world that lives inside each Accord, reminding me of some of the camera techniques used in Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic movie. Luckily for them I’m a die-hard Wes Anderson fan. It’s a short clip, but if you’re into Vfx mixed in with live-aciton, you might enjoy it.

Hobart Birmingham and Dirk Vandeman were the Art Director/Copywriting duo who came up with this piece for Los Angeles based Rubin Postaer and Associates. Director credits go to Matthew Cullen and Jesus de Francisco with Guillermo Navarro as the DP. VFX was done by Motion Theory. Doron Dor was the Editor with String and this short spot had music by Robot Repair.

Here’s a recent one coming out of Toronto for the new A4 by Audi. Created by Patrick Shing and Rob Sturch from Lowe Roche, Toronto this short clip is aptly named “Tunnel.” Jen Mete was the Agency Producer and featured Steve Mottershead from Untitled, Toronto as the Director. Music and SFX was by Vapor.

Short and sweet, just like the spot.

For any of you who have ever gone through the frightening experience of accidentally dozing off while behind the wheel, this spot is for you. It’s promoting a feature available on new Lexus models called the “Driver Attention Monitor” that senses whether or not the driver, i.e. YOU at 11PM, is paying attention. If it thinks you may not be focusing on the road as well as your mother would hope you were, it signals a small alarm that was designed to wake you if necessary.

The agency responsible for this campaign is Team One, El Segundo, where James Hendry is the Creative Director (Jon Pearce and Gavin Lester are Group CDs). Leah Bohl was the Agency Producer along with Jennifer Weinberg who was the Executive Producer.

Rob Groenwold directed this spot for Boxer, Los Angeles. Tobias Schliessler was the DP with Maelliosa Tiernan as the Line Producer. Pedram Torbati was the Editor along with Alfredo Ritta as the Assistant Editor. VFX Artist Simon Brewster from Brewster Parsons worked on this commercial along with his partner Darcy Parson (VFX Producer). Bob Gremore from Juice Studios was the Audio Mixer and Human Worldwide was the Sound Design Firm.

Here’s an amazing new spot from BMW (South Africa) that features Guillaume Nery in a breathtaking look at the world of freediving. The protagonist in this commercial is Guillaume Nery, a word champion freediver. He’s got some more video of him freediving on his blog so if you liked this piece, go check it out.

John Javenport and Gina King were the Copywriter/Art Director team from Ireland Davenport, Johannesburg (with Chantal Kriel as Agency Producer). Greg Gray was the Director for Velocity Films and featured Helena Woodfine as the Producer. The Talkies was the co-production company used with Rob Malpage & Didier Noirot as DP. Kobus Loots edited this amazing video with Upstairs Post Production. The work was all done at Blade Post Production with Alun Richards as the Sound Designer from Cut & Paste.