Hasta La Creative!

Production company ModOp Films has signed veteran independent short film director Wendy McColm to its directorial roster.

McColm is known for her YouTube channel featuring her own short works, and her acting roles on Hey Girl, Community, and How I Met Your Mother, as well as performing with Upright Citizens Brigade. She recently directed a branded short for H&M ?Rendezvous and Other Stories? starring French blogger Jeanne Damas, which screened at this year?’s Tribeca Film Festival.

“I’?ve basically spent the last eight years making things I like, exploring topics and genres, and giving myself creative challenges,”? explains McColm. “?After the H&M project I knew I wanted to do more brand work. I love the fact ModOp Films is all about being open to creative exploration and how best to apply the work to the intended audience. We connected immediately.?”

“We are excited to work with Wendy on advertising projects, from commercials to web,?” said EP Rossi Cannon. ?”Wendy McColm is an amazing talent and knows how to cultivate a following for her work in a way that is unpretentious, authentic and incredibly infectious.?”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In its ongoing quest to lure younger audiences, American Honda is announcing its own YouTube music channel dubbed “Honda Stage.”

In effect, Honda wants to become its own music curator and content delivery platform for the nation’s hottest songs and artists. The automaker believes music is the right way to reach millennials tuning out TV, radio and print ads.

“TV, as we know it many aspects, doesn’t work as well to reach a 28-year old,” said Tom Peyton, assistant VP-advertising and marketing for American Honda. “It still works pretty good for Baby Boomers. But it doesn’t work as well for 25-year olds and 28-year olds.”

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(TrendHunter.com) Smartvoll Architekten designed ‘House H,’ a palatial estate located in Salzburg, Austria. The architects ensured that each of the home’s rooms had access to natural light, that the…

JWT Chicago tapped “Original Anchorman” and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! host Bill Kurtis for a new, slightly misogynist campaign for the Illinois Office of Tourism.

The campaign features a series of seven digital videos “laced with explosions, trumpet playing bears and stock cars” in which Kurtis implores viewers to “vacation like a man” and visit the manly side of Illinois. In the spots, such “manly” activities as stock car racing, golf, horse racing, and casino gambling are highlighted. These spots will be featured on the Enjoy Illinois site, which helps visitors plan out their next trip to the state. It’s hard not to feel a little bit insulted watching the ads, which appeal to and reinforce outdated stereotypes while implying that a vacation can’t be gender-neutral. Credits and one more “Mancation” spot after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

How precocious are digital natives today? They take charge of things literally from birth, according to this somewhat terrifying spot from MTS Telecom, which the company claims is now the most-viewed ad ever to come out of India.

The spot—created by Creativeland Asia, directed by Guy Shelmerdine from Smuggler Films and set to “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross—has 23.4 million views on YouTube (surpassing the previous Indian record holder, Lifebuoy’s “Help a Child Reach 5” PSA, with 19 million). And its pint-size star fits snugly into a long line of famous unusually dexterous infants, from Evian’s CGI babies all the way back to the original Internet dancing baby. Rather than just cavort about on roller skates, though, he spends his brief first moments of life Googling, stealing and taking selfies. And MTS quite clearly loves that about him.

A rep tells us the company launched the ad in an innovative way—by seeding the spot as a BitTorent file and letting the country’s digital natives find it on their own. And indeed, it got plenty of buzz before it was launched on the brand’s official social channels.

MTS Telecom has entered it in next week’s Cannes festival and hopes to bring home a Lion. We’ll leave it up to you to determine whether it deserves one.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: MTS Telecom
Agency: Creativeland Asia
Production House: Smuggler London
Creative Chairman: Sajan Raj Kurup
ECD: Anu Joseph
Script: Sajan Raj Kurup
Director: Guy Shermeldine,
Producer: Chris Barret,
Director of Photography: Alex Baber
VFX: Glassworks London
VFX lead: Abi Klimaszewska,
Editor: Andy Mcgraw, Stitch
Music Director: Mickey Mcleary

It’s been a year since Paula Deen fell from grace after admitting to using racial slurs. Now the celebrity chef is looking to make a comeback online.

But are viewers ready to put the scandal behind them, and more importantly, will they pay up to watch her deep-frying and butter-slathering on a digital-only network?

Despite the fallout from last summer’s controversy, which resulted in Ms. Deen losing her show on Food Network and multiple product endorsements, plenty of fans have stuck by her.

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