The crew turned a small suburban Canadian neighborhood in the middle of summer into a winter wonderland. The shoot was done at night and though I was up for 24 straight hours, I haven’t had that much fun on a set in quite some time. Behind the scenes I interviewed the people in the neighborhood of where the spot was being shot, a slew of different crew members as well as Terence Reilly, VP of Marketing for Famous Footwear.

Check out the video below:

and of course here is the original 60 second spot:

The employees, freelancers and families of Zoic Studios wish you and your family the happiest of holiday seasons!

As in previous years, Zoic Studios is providing holiday gifts to at-risk families through an Adopt-A-Family program — this year, via the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence/South Bay.

Two families will receive clothing, toys and educational electronics donated by Zoic Studios, its employees and freelancers. Zoic vowed to match the cash value of employee gifts and donations to a maximum of $2500 — which the Zoic community met!

About the charity:

Family Preservation is designed to protect children by strengthening and preserving families whose children are at risk of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Our program is sponsored by the Department of Children and Family Services, Mental Health and the Probation Dept. We offer varies services to the families such as Counseling, Parenting Training, In-Home Outreach Counseling, Substitute Adult Role Model, Mental Health counseling, etc. We service the South Bay area and currently servicing over 35 families.

To everyone who donated: Zoic thanks you, Family Preservation thanks you — and the families thank you! Happy holidays!

More info: NCADD/SB.

Last Saturday the 12th, Zoic Studios celebrated its 2009 Holiday Party at the visual effects company’s Culver City, California studio.

The festive fête featured hors d’œuvre, an epicurean sit-down buffet dinner, plenty of wine & spirits, and a DJ spinning tunes until the wee hours of 11pm. Zoic co-founders Loni Peristere, Steve Schofield & Andrew Orloff, and CFO Tim McBride gave out exciting prizes to the throng, including an American Express gift card, a trip to Santa Ynez wine country, and a paid day off.

The party was planned by Katie Johnson, whose efforts produced a fantastic evening enjoyed by one and all.

It’s the night before Halloween, and the ghouls and witches at Zoic Studios are showing off this year’s coolest costumes. Tonight: a Zoic Halloween get-together, with costume prizes and free treats.

Wanna work here? Of course you do. Quit your job and get really good at Maya.