Hasta La Creative!

New York, New York – ShootersNYC, the creative multi-dimensional production and postproduction company, partnered with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Ad Council to contribute editorial, visual effects and postproduction for a television spot in multiple lengths for their national multimedia public service advertising campaign, Feed the Pig. This financial literacy campaign helps 25- to 34-year olds take control of their finances and add saving to their daily lives. The humorous new commercial features an epic chase scene between a man and Benjamin Bankes, the campaign’s iconic “spokespig.”

For ShootersNYC Editor Anthony Marinelli, the creative process on the “Chase” spot began early in the pre-production stage with the agency and Director Matt Pittroff of Twist. The Director and Editor had collaborated together earlier last year on an extensive Pepsi Max project, which broke over the summer.

“Stylistically, we thought that it should feel like a ‘Bourne’ film or ‘Salt, movie’” explains Marinelli. “I scoured through YouTube clips to find different chase scenes in these movies and even found the Peter Bogdonavich film, ‘What’s up, Doc?’ as a reference, which has a hilarious climactic chase that relied heavily on sound design.”

According to Marinelli, it was the combination of music and sound design, which became the template to set the tone for ‘Chase.’ “There’s a moment where our hero does a leap-frog over a yoga class in the park, and I just kept hearing the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ in my head,” he adds. “We grabbed that sound effect and it became one of the funniest moments in the spot.”

In addition to the successful editorial process for the Ad Council campaign, the ShootersNYC team also provided extensive visual effects and postproduction. Although the spot appears completely live-action, almost every scene incorporates a visual effect.

“One of the challenges for Flame Artist Mark Farkas was to give ‘Benjamin, the spokespig’ a personality,” Marinelli explains. “Because this is an actor in a pig mask, that meant animating eye and mouth movements as well as creating facial expressions. A fair amount of clean-up and touch-up work on the mask needed to be done. For the store scene at the opening of the spot when the lead actor receives his initial message, we also composited the different layers, adding reflections to the window and to the phone’s screen.”

For ShootersNYC Managing Director Jeff Beckerman, this project is representative of the way Shooters works with clients.

“Ideally, a collaboration begins as this one did at the very start,” Beckerman says. “We approach each project in a big-picture way and provide the talent needed to achieve the clients’ goals. When we have everyone on the same page from the get-go, then our team can make creative decisions throughout the process, as they did on this new spot for AICPA and the Ad Council. Anthony, Mark and the entire ShootersNYC team here were so excited to work with the clients and Director Matt Pittroff. It was a real creative group effort, and the spot reflects that.”

Credits:
Client: AICPA Feed the Pig
Title: “Chase” :90/:60/:30/:15
Production Company: Twist, New York & Minneapolis
Director: Matt Pittroff
Director of Photography: Andy Lilien
Owner/Executive Producer: Jim Geib
Executive Producer: Amyliz Pera
Line Producer: Steve Blair
Editorial, Visual Effects & Post Company: ShootersNYC, New York
Editor: Anthony Marinelli
Smoke/Flame Artist: Mark Farkas,
Managing Director/Executive Producer: Jeff Beckerman
Postproduction Company: Company 3, New York
Colorist: Tim Masick
Sound Design Companies: ShootersNYC & PirateNY, New York
Editor: Anthony Marinelli
Sound Designer: Dave Rivera
Music Company: PirateNY, New York
Composer: Filip Mitrovic
Audio Post Company: PLUSHNYC, New York
Mixer: James Twomey
Advertising Agency: Turbine, Southport, CT
Partner, Creative Director: Rob Slosberg
Partner, Creative Director: Jeff Vogt
Senior Art Director: Matt Songer
Producer: Alice Chevalier

http://www.shootersnyc.com/feed-the-pig-chase/