There's no end to the excitement that Fox's coverage of the NFL can generate.  That's the point, delivered with varying degrees of comic intensity, in a new campaign for Fox Spots that recently broke in the US, promoting its coverage of American football. Directed by MJZ's Craig Gillespie, the campaign, dubbed "Football is Better on Fox," features the comedian and actor JB Smoove ("Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Everybody Hates Chris") as he demonstrates why the network's coverage is superior.  In "Terry's Head," for example, he uses the Fox HD zoom in feature to do an extreme zoom in on sportscaster Terry Bradshaw's head to discover that the bald spot's icon is growing tiny little hairs. Other spots in the campaign include "Orchestra," "Zen Garden," "Nightclub" and "3rd  Man." "JB is amazing, his energy and sense of humor is so infectious that he just makes you smile and soon as you see him," says Robert Gottlieb, SVP and Group Creative Director for Fox Sports Marketing, which created the spot.  "And Craig brought these to life in a way none of us could have imagined."

An adorable little baby steals the show in "The Baby and the Shadow," a new TVC for Huggies," the Kimberly-Clark brand of disposable diapers, recently directed by Bauddhayan "Buddy" Mukherji of Little Lamb Films in Mumbai. In the spot, the child notices the shadow cast on the floor by its mother, and as the enchanted mom waves her arms back and forth, the baby follows the shadow's every movement.  This engrossing activity is only interrupted when the baby's diaper fails to work to hold in her pee, leaving a puddle on the floor and a frowning child.  It's Huggies to the rescue, of course, after which everyone is high and dry and back to having fun with light and shadow. The spot was created by Ogilvy/India in Mumbai and was produced for Little Lamb by Vishal Patel.  Monalisa Mukherji handled production planning for Little Lamb. Director of Photography was Abhik Mukhopadhyay.

King and Country (K&C) just broke three new broadcast/web spots for Team Detroit and Ford Motor Company. Directed by Efrain Montanez, the spots feature Ford's F-150, Ranger and Super Duty Trucks. For its Ford "Rant" spots produced last year and those currently airing, K&C shot original live-action footage of both the F-150, as well as a number of narrative setups with actors. Combining that content with photoreal CG truck creations, K&C delivered a distinct look for the campaign. "Last year, we evolved the look of the 'Rant' campaign from a more flat 2D look to more of a 3D space, where elaborate camera moves zoom us across rugged terrain. Also, the photographed scenes were enhanced in post with the addition of CG buildings, construction environments and other landscape elements," explains Drew Neujahr, K&C's head of production. "The new spots feature truck footage we shot on several locations last year, along with new footage where we shot the ring announcer and ring girl on green screen with practical props. We also created the boxing ring, banners and punching bag, all in CG."

Rockhard Director Sanaa Hamri was instrumental in helping to showcase Mariah Carey's post partum rock-hard frame in Jenny Craig's latest campaign, featuring the pop icon. The spot follows a series of celebrity-endorsement ads for the brand and also introduces its newly shortened name to just 'Jenny.'  Hamri collaborated closely with the client on the concept. In the provocative spot, titled "Unzip X," the strappy, monster stiletto-clad songstress emerges free from a cocoon of fabric, ripping, scratching and clawing her way to freedom to ultimately reveal her latest top-40 figure. 

Steele Studios has just completed a massive, on-air stereoscopic 3D graphics package for 3net, the joint venture 3D television network from Sony, Discovery and IMAX. Jo and Jerry Steele, Co-Founders of Steele Studios, made the announcement. The new graphics work began airing on the network earlier this month. Comprised of over 60 elements, the new graphics include main logo opens, IDs, promotional and sponsored elements, interstitials, promo opens and closes, and many other transitional and supplemental elements. The package represents a visual and dynamic "refresh" of the look and feel of the network. This new work by Steele Studios extends the company's involvement with 3net, which began months prior with the network's launch in February 2011. That work included building elements and graphics for the launch, modifying existing graphic elements for S3D broadcast, editing and creating many promos, sizzle reels, flying titles, interstitials, wipes and transitions which have been airing during 3net's first months.

Yessian, the Detroit, L.A. and New York-based music and sound shop, recently collaborated with Goodby Silverstein & Partners to score Sprint's Biz 360 campaign. "Mission Motors," "CamiCakes" and "Loog Guitars," featured on the Sprint Biz 360 website, take you through a look at how three businesses are able to integrate Sprint's Biz 360 solutions into their business model. The site has already achieved award-winning status with the Business Marketing Association of New York as its Communicator of the Year.

The latest campaign from The Meth Project, directed by Darren Aronofsky and produced by Wild Plum, takes a look at the reality of meth abuse. Hard-hitting and stark, the four :30 spots, "ER," "Deep End," "Losing Control" and "Desperate," provide a chilling glimpse into the darkness of meth addiction, from stealing and soliciting money for sex to attempts of suicide and trips to the ER. Each spot opens with slow-motion close-ups on a young person's face as the voiceover gets us into his or her thoughts. "When we discussed this project with the client, we felt that Darren was the perfect fit as the director," explains Shelby Sexton, Wild Plum Executive Producer/Partner. "Darren had previously collaborated with The Meth Project (formerly Montana Meth Project) and we knew he'd bring the right sensibilities and authenticity to the concepts." For the two-day shoot in New York, all of the sets were built on stage, enabling Aronosfky and his crew complete control of the environment. To achieve the single-camera moves, they had to easily adjust the camera and walls of the sets.

 

Beast recently completed work on Director Xan Aranda's documentary "Andrew Bird: Fever Year," which is a portrait of an indie musician in today's music climate and what one has to do to survive. The film made its world premiere at the New York Film Festival earlier this month and its Chicago premiere took place at the Chicago International Film Festival this past weekend.  Aranda tapped Beast Chicago Editor Angelo Valencia to lead the editorial process for the concert portion of the documentary two years ago. The concert footage was shot on five cameras during a two-day shoot. "We spent a lot of time loading and organizing the footage in the beginning," says Valencia. "Once we had broken everything down, there were approximately 36 songs to chose from. Xan selected 17 songs from that list, and we later pared it down to 10. We're all big fans of Andrew's music and we made our best effort to capture the special moments that are unique to his performances."

One of Paydirt's newest additions to its roster, Director Todd Kellstein, directed this short film for the Clinton Foundation, focusing on how the foundation has drastically reduced the spread of HIV in Malawi and given its people hope.  Titled "Sabina," it premiered recently at a Clinton Foundation event at the Hollywood Bowl to a standing ovation. The emotional spot focuses on a Malawi family comprised of Solomon and his wife Lucia, and how HIV has ravaged their family by claiming four of their children before the age on one.

Adam Marton of AM Films and the design team at animation and design house Protokulture recently joined forces to create graphic packages for two new shows at the Big Ten Network. Both spots, "BTN Live" and "Tailgate 48," debuted earlier this fall. "Protokulture has done great broadcast work for us in the past, and their detailed and stylistic tone was a perfect match for the network," says Marton. "The challenge with ʻBTN Liveʼ specifically was introducing interactive elements in a traditional broadcast setting." The "Tailgate 48" graphics package, Marton adds, "embodies 48 action-packed, football-talking, burger-eating, history-learning, fan-partying hours coming to a college campus every Friday and Saturday." "We sat down with the network producers and helped them create a concept that appeals to their audience," explains Protokulture founder John Michaels. "They said, 'Here is what we want to do, how can you help us make it happen?ʼ" In addition to the Big Ten Network, Protokulture has created content for G4, Animal Planet, History Channel, and Discovery networks.
 

Toronto design and animation house Crush completed work on a new animated Royal Canadian Mint campaign created by Y&R. The project pays homage to Canada and its coin designs, bringing them to life.  Each spot highlights the design of each coin, seamlessly transitioning into a facet of Canada's relationship with its national parks and wilderness areas. Director Yoho Yue was the lead designer on the spots and used VFX to their maximum potential.  Crush also tapped freelance animators, Robert Findley and Sam Chou to provide some of the individual elements. The campaign came along just as the Crush design department expanded with the addition of Julia Deakin, who is an accomplished artist and illustrator, and Yue, who just finished a project which had begun as a short for the F5  design and motion graphics conference in New York, but had been delayed for a year.

Adam Cameron has joined Great Guns for global representation. Over the last year Cameron has shot numerous campaigns, including Home Court featuring LeBron James, Mobil One with Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton and an award-winning anti-smoking effort. He also shot giant crab claws invading scenes of domestic bliss for agency Slingshot's comic Joe's Crab Shack campaign (seen here). He's recently completed projects for Chili's and Movistar via DDB/Madrid. Tom Korsan, Managing Partner of Great Guns in the US says, "We are thrilled to welcome Adam to the Great Guns family. His strength as a director is his understanding of the advertising process. That, coupled with his visual style and sense of comedic timing, makes him a perfect addition to our roster." Adds Laura Gregory, founder of Great Guns, "Adam's work clearly displays his confident, humorous style and illustrates his skill with performance and interpretation of the creative idea. It's incredibly valuable to have someone like Adam on board who, with his breadth of experience, openly embraces and adapts to the changes that are happening in the industry right now across all platforms."

Director/Cameraman Eric Saarinen, a winner of five Clios, a Cannes Grand Prix and numerous other awards, has joined Bully Pictures for exclusive national representation. Saarinen is widely considered one of the industry's top directors of automotive advertising, with recent credits including Chevy, Fiat, BMW and Jeep.  Bully Pictures EP Jason Forest calls Saarinen a rare talent whose work continues to evolve artistically and technically. "Eric has a firm sense of authorship," he notes. "When you view his work as a whole, you see a signature that's all his own." In recent years Saarinen has forged a close connection with GSD&M, resulting in campaigns for BMW, the US Air Force and John Deere. One of his BMW spots, titled "Feats" showcased great triumphs of engineering such as the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal and the Egyptian pyramids, all with their bottoms missing, as if they were being built from the top down (see the frame here). "I love to engage the audience with visual spectacles and suspense," Saarinen notes. "If I can keep their attention through these storytelling means, in an age of DVRs and other technological distractions, then I can continue creating successful advertising for my agencies and clients."

Sound Lounge, the New York-based audio production company, has named Jill Silberstein as Executive Producer. She replaces Gloria Pitagorsky, who left the company last month to pursue independent projects. As EP, Silberstein will be responsible for day-to-day client communications and budget creations for the TV  commercial division. She will also co-lead Sound Lounge's Hispanic division with Juan Aceves and Vicky Ferraro.  Silberstein will report directly to Sound Lounge partners Marshall Grupp, Tom Jucarone and Peter Holcomb. Prior to joining Sound Lounge, Silberstein served as Executive Producer for Mother Productions, the in-house production and post-production department of Mother New York. While at Mother Productions, Silberstein produced a short film starring actor Liev Schreiber, a web series for Chevrolet and Virgin Mobile, a short film for Vanity Fair and hundreds of commercials for NBC Universal. Before Mother Productions, Silberstein was a freelance line producer, working on spots, music videos, short films and photo shoots. In addition, Silberstein worked in the production departments at Smuggler and MacKenzie Cutler.

Director Tom De Cerchio has joined production and post-production company Original. In his first project with Original, De Cerchio has directed a multi-spot package for gamemaker Spinmaster and its titles Logo and Quelf. De Cerchio has been directing via Incubator since 2002, and through it has produced work for such brands as Sony, Burger King, Kia, Bud Light and Renault. One of his most recent projects was a viral campaign for the comedy series "Scott and Zander's Crazy Night." De Cerchio began his career as a creative with TBWA/Chiat/Day. His credits as a director include "Celtic Pride" and the short film "Nunzio's Second Cousin," which earned a spot in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection and was screened at the Sundance and Telluride film festivals. In addition to his three AICP Awards, De Cerchio has won One Show Gold, Communication Arts and D&AD awards. He also made the Gunn Report in 2009 for Midas.

Collapsing beds, jeans too tight to pull off, cramped supply closets, short couches, front seats of cars too narrow to get to those bra straps - they're all seen in a new comic series of PSAs for the Ad Council, created by the New York office of Euro RSCG for Bedsider.org,  a web site that features advice on birth control and pregnancy planning. The spots feature couples enduring all the slings and arrows that hooking up can throw at them.  "You didn't give up on sex," says a woman's voiceover, "so why give up on birth control?"  The campaign was directed by Greg Bell at Epoch and edited by Greg Anderson at Mackenzie Cutler.  Agency credits on the work include CCO Lee Garfinkel, CD Lisa Rettig-Falcone, Head of Production Joe Guyt, AD Bekky Pollock, CW Alicia Nigara and Producer Candice Vernon.  So far, the work has not gone unnoticed by the media, with coverage on MTV, CNN and other US news and entertainment outlets.

SapientNitro has launched a new campaign for ConAgra's Healthy Choice titled "Deliciously Inspired" which includes five new spots that focus on what's at the core of the Healthy Choice line of products, and that's its ingredients. Shot by Wondros Director Jesse Dylan, the campaign features a cast of currently-hot celebrities, including "Glee" star Jane Lynch, "The Office" screenwriter/actress Mindy Kaling, surfer Bethany Hamilton and two of the stars from Bravo's "Top Chef," all of whom extoll the benefits and attributes of what's in various Healthy Choice entrees and desserts. To complement the glam aspect of the celeb endorsers, the tabletop directors Margaret & Joy of The Sweet Shop used natural light when shooting the food to give it a special look.

Director Robert Rodriguez and The Weinstein Company called upon Speedshape's new 3D film division to convert the director's most recent installment in his "Spy Kids" feature film series, "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World," from 2D to stereoscopic 3D. The project marks the launch of the studio's stereoscopic 3D division.  Speedshape Co-Founders Tom Stone and Oivind Magnussen first saw the potential of 3D cinema back in 2008. Over the last three years they've been expanding and re-structuring their Detroit and L.A.-based studio complexes to create an efficient 2D-to-3D conversion process. The launch of the 3D division was prompted by a call from Frank Rainone, a senior vice president at the Weinstein Company, who was hoping to find several 2D-to-3D conversion firms capable of sharing the workload for the film. "We still hadn't officially opened when Frank asked us to submit a test for 'Spy Kids,'" says Stone, "but we jumped at the opportunity to test our skills on a movie for Robert Rodriguez, who's at the forefront of the new age of 3D filmmaking." Based on the tests they submitted they were awarded the conversion of the entire film. "The quality of Speedshape's 3D conversion was remarkable, even blending seamlessly with footage that was shot stereo," says Rodriguez. "They were able to turn over first-rate work quickly and they were amazing to work with."

TBS has announced its finalists for Funniest Commercial of the Year, and Partner/Editor Jim Haygood of Union cut two of the spots under consideration. Kia's "Share Some Soul" and Volkswagen's "The Force" are both fan favorites on the network's voting site, http://www.veryfunnyads.com/. Kia's "Share Some Soul" opens on robots battling it out in a post-apocalyptic world. The Kia hamsters then arrive, riding up in their Kia Soul, and bring the party with them, turning this war scene into a good time. Haygood has already racked up numerous awards for his work on Volkswagen's "The Force," which features a mini Darth Vader who has trouble accessing the force to move objects around the house. "The Force" debuted during this year's Super Bowl broadcast, garnered 43 million+ views on YouTube, and won a Gold Lion at the 2011 Cannes Lions festival, among other honors. The winner of "The Funniest Commercial of 2011" will be decided by the public. TBS will announce the winner December 14.

SourceEcreative has unveiled its 2012 Special Feature calendar, and it's agog with subject areas that will help owners and EPs promote their companies no matter what category, discipline or niche of the industry they occupy. For a full look at our calendar, along with publication dates, visit our Special Feature web page here. We'll be kicking off the year with our second Special Feature devoted to reality-based and documentary-style advertising, and following that up with a brand new special that examines the changing nature of the post production industry, covering everything from creative editorial shops to finishing houses, audio post and more. Other special feature topics include Fashion & Beauty spots, Music & Sound Design, 360 & One-Stop production, VFX & Animation, Automotive and Global Production Services. We're also introducing two new Special Features, one on Sports & Action spots, publishing in June, and Celebrities, publishing in August. Our regional focus editions will include India, publishing in April (just in time for Goafest) and Korea, which publishes in October. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Halyce Naparstek at hnaparstek@sourceecreative.com or at +1-561-392-9701 or 800-525-0230 .