Wyman, who has worked on both film and television took to Twitter to announce the good news to his fans, “Fringe was picked up. Thanks Fringedom.” Like many shows on television, Fringe has a solid fan base, though that is not necessarily reflected in the shows ratings. This past January the show moved to the dreaded Friday night slot on FOX and fans as well as those who work on the show thought it spelled doom and cancellation. Other shows that have been moved to that time slot on FOX include Firefly, and Dollhouse, both cancelled. Not only was the show picked up for a fourth season, but FOX asked for a full 22 episodes. Again some may wonder why this is a big deal, but for a Sci-Fi show that doesn’t necessarily have stellar ratings on a Friday night, this is definitely a pleasant surprise.

FOX entertainment chief Kevin Reilly has said that, “Fringe is a fantastic show…It has truly hit a creative stride and has distinguished itself as one of television’s most original programs. The series’ ingenious producers, amazingly talented cast and crew, as well as some of the most passionate and loyal fans on the planet, made this fourth-season pickup possible,” said Reilly. “When we moved the show to Fridays, we asked the fans to follow and they did. We’re thrilled to bring it back for another full season and keep it part of the Fox family.” Hollywood Reporter article

Zoic Studios is also happy about the pick up, the VFX studio has been creating the visual effects for the series since season one and is excited that the series has come back for a fourth. Executive Creative Director of Zoic Studios Loni Peristere says, “J.J. Abrams and his team are the masters of weaving emotional relatable relationships into genre television. Using the medium of science fiction and fantasy as allegorical metaphors for current issues both at a personal and global level. I am hopeful this decision is indicative of Kevin Reilly’s reign at Fox. As we are all still trying to get over ‘Firefly’.”

Don’t take everyone else’s word for it, check out what’s happening on Fringe including alternate universes, mishaps and pending fatherhood for my man Joshua Jackson’s character Peter, Friday nights on FOX and stay tuned for an exciting article next week all about an upcoming animated episode. You won’t want to miss it!

For Vincent Laforet not remembering what comes next seems to be a hazard of the job. Working at all hours of the day and night without a break seems to be typical, but nothing in Laforet’s life is really ever typical. I had the chance to sit down with this acclaimed, award winning photographer, Director of Photography and now Director at his office to talk about his past work, what he has going on today and what he hopes to be doing in the future.

Vincent picked up his first camera at the age of 15. His father was a well-known photographer photographing such actors as Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Sophia Loren, Keanu Reeves and Gerard Depardieu on a variety of different film sets across the globe. In the spring of 1990, Vincent asked his father to teach him photography. “My father lent me an old Nikon body with a 50mm lens and a few rolls of Tri-X black and white film. Prior to that I had tried my hand at painting, life drawing, lots of music, architecture, and 3D modeling and animation on an early Amiga computer. I was always a very visual person. The problem with oil painting or acrylic painting was it would never dry fast enough and my impatience would end in the colors mixing together on the canvas. When I picked up a still camera there was an instant gratification and I was hooked immediately.”

Since Laforet’s father knew that making it as a photographer was not an easy way to make a living, he tried and failed to dissuade Vincent from following in the same path as him. Try has he may, Vincent was set on becoming a photographer “I was a French kid living in America; I went to Northwestern and my father wanted me to be a lawyer or doctor. He told me to avoid going into what he considered to be a difficult career. I didn’t listen.”

When Vincent was twenty-five he began working for the NY Times as a staff photographer – the youngest person ever to be hired on staff. The journey to the Times was one that began with Bar Mitzvahs and weddings and eventually led to several internships as well “I would have one lens and shoot a wedding to buy a second lens and shoot a Bar Mitzvah to buy a flash. I built up slowly and eventually worked for wire services and press agencies. I worked for Gamma in France and Gamma Liaison in NY and eventually worked for a wire service called Agence France Presse covering Michael Jordan’s last five seasons, which was unbelievable. I also interned at Reuters in Washington DC after being rejected as a freshman from thirteen internships in a row. I ended up covering the White House and Capitol Hill, which lead me to the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times, which were two huge internships as a photographer that pretty much propelled my career.” After college, Vincent got a staff job at Allsport, which is now part of Getty Images and traveled about 300 days out of the year. Eventually, he was hired at the NY Times.

Between covering event such as the post September 11th aftermath in Pakistan/Afghanistan to Hurricane Katrina, Vincent had a remarkable and life changing time photographing some of the most monumental events in US history. “Katrina and 9/11 were the two stories that were the most formative for me as a journalist. Those were the two stories where I understood for the first time what the purpose of a journalist was, and what we could do to help a situation – by focusing the world’s attention on a certain event. I was in Pakistan six days after 9/11 and we put together some of the very first interactive web journals. People were writing back from the web journals from around the world saying, ‘Thank you for showing us these people aren’t terrorists.’ WWII and Vietnam veterans were writing me and I realized I had a positive affect amidst all the chaos. Then came Katrina, which was a watershed moment for me. It was the hardest thing to see. Conflict journalists have shields we build up psychologically because we are always overseas covering horrible things, but when it happens at home those shields come down. Everyone lost it. It was the hardest story I ever covered. One of the scenes I shot was a scene at the airport in New Orleans where people who were dying and sick were on the luggage conveyor belt and it was published on the front page of the NY Times. It had a significant effect because the next day because when the picture showed up in the NY Times someone got a brutal wake up call, and subsequently a lot more support was set the next day. It’s more than a job; it’s a lot more than my career. It’s about being a vehicle for telling people’s stories and ultimately getting those affected help You always feel a bit of guilt when you’re not actively helping people out, by say shuttling them out of there in your SUV as there is an instinctual human need to help people. However, when you do a story like this, you realize there is a greater purpose, there is a social need for journalism, and that the information you get out to the world will ultimately help many more people by focusing attention on their plight.”

When Vincent talks about his transition into film he considers it to be akin to an explosion into the medium. One of Vincent’s first memories is from a film set. His father was an on set photographer, and his biological father is the director of the French film Emmanuelle. Directing is literally in Vincent’s blood. “I always said when I was forty I would go into filmmaking. I never had a road map of how to get there. Fate or luck intervened. I happened to be at Canon headquarters for a lunch meeting when the 5D Mark II prototype happened to be coming in and I happened to catch a glimpse of it. I relentlessly insisted on borrowing it for the weekend even though three other photographers had been promised the body. The seventh time I asked they gave in and said try it out and Fed Ex to the other photographer come Monday. I took it and shot the short Reverie and it was the first video ever shot on the Canon. This thing propelled me like a catapult towards Hollywood and filmmaking. Here I was being invited to DreamWorks, and to Industrial Light and Magic to show 500 people Reverie to meet the likes of Lucas and then had four private screenings at Disney with Sr. VP’s and the head of production at Disney all with only 72 hours of experience in filmmaking. I had an eye that I developed over twenty years of photography and I had a good foundation in filmmaking – but I wasn’t trained by a film school. Now came the time to catch up to where I was propelled to. It took me two years to feel 100% comfortable with the entire process, with everyone’s role and my role as a DP or Director on set. I am now able to finesse the realities of budgets, the tricks of the trade, and decorum / hierarchy on set whether I am working with Loni (Peristere) or Levi (Ahmu) over at Zoic as a DP or now as a Director myself. The past two years felt a bit like whiplash. A year ago I became a member of the local 600 as a DP and I became a member of the DGA at the end of 2010. I’ve never had a more exciting two years of my life, but it’s all happened at an incredibly hectic pace.” Along with being a DP and Directing, he continues to work in still photography and in December just released his own app “VISUALS” for the iPhone and iPad.

At this point Vincent is mostly focused on directing, with the exception of being a DP for projects that Loni Peristere and a few other people he enjoys working with. “I find being a Director of Photography relatively relaxing and fun (when compared to the pre and post workload of a director,) but my passion is directing.” Since Vincent’s background is in photojournalism, he is looking to delve more into projects based on strong/meaningful storylines. His goal is to follow in Ridley Scott’s steps by focusing for a few years on commercial work and then go into narrative filmmaking. “My end goal is narrative. My kids are still really young so I would like them to be older before I start going off for months at a time. That being said, I am getting the itch and people regularly ask when I will do my first feature. I may get suckered into making a film earlier than planned. You never really know when you’ll find the perfect story/scrip…” Some of Vincent’s favorite directors include Hitchcock, Kuberick, and Welles. “I also love Spielberg for his ability to connect with the audience, I love Ridley Scott visually.” As someone who is visually driven, Vincent knows the pitfalls of relying on the visual and not paying attention to story, which is not a mistake he cares to make. “Some people lean towards visual rather than telling a good story. With my background in journalism, story will always come first no matter what.”

Vincent’s first passion is photojournalism, but his advice to aspiring photographers may surprise you, “Get into video. Photojournalism has been an amazing way to document and discover life and be part of it. But until magazines find a way to be viable on the web and on iPads/tablet, and hopefully they will, the career path of the photographer right now is illogical. There are 10,000 photo students being released into the workforce each year and no jobs being created. The market is oversaturated. Another reality is that the publications just aren’t able to pay all that much anymore. Their day rates have not increased since the 1980s.”

Vincent’s favorite saying is, “You’ll sleep when you die,” and it’s clear why as he thanks me for meeting with him, runs out the door so that he can drive to the airport to hop on a flight to Las Vegas to speak on behalf of Canon at CES.

Check out Vincent LaForet’s blog at: Vincent Laforet for his latest updates as well as insight into the best in camera gear and equipment.

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:

By Vincent Laforte:

Every one in awhile, life throws you a bone.  In this case, Director Loni Peristere of Zoic Studios asked me to shoot 3 commercials with him over a little more than a week in Vancouver.  The bone? (Besides the work!) One of those 3 – was to be shot at 600 fps – at night – with snow and with motion control!  We all knew that this one had the potential to be very special. And I think Loni and the team nailed this one! Here it is:

Famous Footwear – “Neighborhood” Spot from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

This was a dream job for me – for several reasons.   For one – it was a beautiful story with a simple but strong emotional thread that we can all relate to easily.  Second, Loni wanted to make this thing sing visually – and he made sure that I had the resources at hand to pull this shoot off.

First we needed 225,000 Watts of light – a MASSIVE amount – to get enough light to shoot at 600 frames per second – with the Phantom Gold HD camera.  I brought one of my favorite people up with me to Canada – Gaffer Mark Lindsay who wielded the light with ease.   Basically we had enough light to cook an egg in under 10 seconds – and a turkey in under an hour.  BUT – believe it or not – all of this light got us a whopping aperture of f 2.0 on the Cooke S4/i primes… So Yeah… think about that for a second: 225,000 Watts of light and you get f 2.0…!!!  Even with a 360º shutter (359º to be exact) – at 600 fps SO LITTLE LIGHT is actually making it to the sensor.

This was a huge technical challenge – and one that several people told us: “could not be done” on as large a stage/setting as we were hopping to do – with diffused lights.   Lighting it with enough light is easy – but lighting it well is not with a good quality and shape of light isn’t.

Below is a great video that shows you the behind the scenes shoot – all of the people, the gear, the lights. A HUGE thanks goes out to Chris Dowsett for shooting this footage – and for putting this edit together for everyone to see!

BEHIND THE SCENES: Famous Footwear “Neighborhood” from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

You’ll see we used the Go Pro HD camera (see bottom of that page) and mounted it on the motion control rig to get you a first person perspective – or a first camera perspective if you will.

One other hero on the shoot – was my 1st AC – or focus puller.  Cam Hayduk – with more than 26 years of experience under his belt as a 1st AC, had the impossible challenge of keeping focus with up to a 100mm (see the tight headshot of our actress with hair flowing) WHILE moving on a dolly, as she too was running towards camera.   Did I mention this was done at f 2.0> At one point we had less than an inch of depth of field.  And don’t forget – that a split second of being out of focus at 600 fps- or “buzzing” – last an even greater eternity when played back at 24 fps. (One quarter second shot at 600fps will last 6.25 SECONDS when played back at 24fps…. that’s a long time for everyone to see you were soft on set… no pressure at all there!) And not to belabor the point: but the dolly was being pulled/pushed by skilled human beings – not a robot.   Ergo a variance in speed in both the dolly, and the actress was expected – not to mention a ramp up an down.  Each burst lasted 7 seconds max with the RAM aboard the camera at 2048X1080… Cam was the MVP of this shoot in my book.

The last technical challenge?  When shooting at f 2.0 – how could we get multiple planes of focus at once?  It was impossible. We discussed tilt-shift lenses – but those would have looked quite odd with snow. Adding twice the amount of light (cost prohibitive!) would have gotten us all of f 2.8.

Therefore we shot many of the sequences with a motion control rig. Basically a computerized dolly/jib system – that can repeat each move EXACTLY time and time again. You’ll notice one shot where the actor puts his foot down from the cab – and the actress is running towards him. Getting them both in focus at 600 fps wide open would have been impossible. Here is the magic of Motion Control + a great post house to splice them together seamlessly.

Overall – all 3 shoots were a blast. But this one is special for me. Not only did it turn out beautifully – but we had an absolute blast on set – as you can witness by all of the smiles in the behind the scenes video. (And we were shooting NIGHTS!!! After 3 shoot days during daylight hours.)

Thanks to the entire crew, cast, production, art deparment, PAs and to the incredible people who did the post at Zoic – and to Loni – it was an unforgettable two winter nights in Vancouver – in August! and if you haven’t seen enough, here’s one more: a time lapse Chris shot of everything being set up:

“Neighborhood” Time Lapse from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

————————————————————–

I will be doing a more in depth interview with Vincent in the coming weeks to talk more about his life as a DP and award winning photographer so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out his blog! Vincent Laforet blog

Loni Peristere, Co- Founder and Executive Creative Director for Zoic Studios directed the commercial. “Every once in awhile good creative lands on my desk attached to a creative team that is willing to do what it takes to lead advertising with an emotional center that drives the brand. ‘Neighborhood’ was one of those projects, and it was a pleasure to make. I am extremely happy with this short emotional film about families and the holidays.”

“My favorite part of the shoot in the dead of August was seeing the actual neighbors on the street, mystified by the miracle that only film production can make. Their homes, their street, transformed into a winter
wonderland. It was amazing.”

Below are the on set photos I took.  Enjoy them and stay tuned for behind the scenes video of the shoot.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Loni along with VFX Producer Ian Unterreiner, Terence Reilly, VP of Marketing for Famous Footwear, Andy Anema, Art Director for Campbell Mithun and Nancy Liss, Account Management Supervisor for Campbell Mithun went on quite an adventure. They all hiked up one of Vancouver’s most renowned and challenging trails, The Grouse Grind. Located about thirty minutes outside of the city, the trail climbs 2800 feet of elevation in about 1.8 miles and is open from June through October depending on weather conditions. The trail opened in 1983 and is composed almost entirely of stairs cut from the rock and soil of the mountainside. Sections of the trail that are quite steep are lined with rope and hikers will often use the rope to haul themselves up the difficult portion of the trail. On average it takes most people about an hour to complete the hike. Once completed, hikers are given a stunning view of the city and surrounding areas. There is a restaurant and refreshment options as well as a Gondola that will take hikers back to the bottom of the mountain. It is advised that those who dare to hike the trail be in decent physical shape and bring plenty of water and snacks. Apparently, the first fifteen minutes are the most challenging and if you can get past the first quarter mile you will be able to complete the hike.

However, don’t take my word for it. Check out this video below where Loni gives you a firsthand look at his experience hiking Grouse Grind.

I made the decision to deactivate my personal Facebook account over Labor Day weekend.  The reason for this is simple and to be honest is a little embarrassing.  I saw a post from my ex boyfriend and I got really angry.  After the initial reaction, I realized the anger I felt was completely unfounded, irrational and frankly just stupid.

I was angry over a Facebook status update?!  The update was nothing special, and had absolutely nothing to do with me.  Now I know what you are thinking, why not just delete him or block him?  I thought about it, but by deleting him it felt as though I was deleting him from my life.  Plus with 100 friends in common I would need to then go through and delete and block them too.  I actually read an article that was on CNN that spoke of this very topic:

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-01/tech/netiquette.unfriending_1_friend-request-facebook-jug-band?_s=PM:TECH

Then it hit me. Instead of feeling bad or guilty about deleting people, why not simply delete myself? If I took myself out of the equation, it would make things easier.  I would document how I was feeling via twitter with status updates as well as just through my own personal blog and maybe through video posts.  I could be the next Morgan Spurlock, but with Facebook instead of McDonald’s (For those that don’t get the reference, Spurlock made the documentary Supersize Me about eating McDonald’s for 30 days as well as created the amazing yet brief cable series on FX called 30 Days which documented people doing various things from binge drinking to working in a coal mine).

Deactivating your account is pretty simple and you can always go back, at least this is what Facebook promises.  This is a screen grab of what happens when you go into your account profile setting and hit the tag that says deactivate:

Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?

Deactivating your account will disable your profile and remove your name and picture from anything you’ve shared on Facebook.

Joshua will miss you

Send Joshua a Message

Kate will miss you

Send Kate a Message

Brian will miss you

Send Brian a Message

Samantha will miss you

Send Samantha a Message

Susanne will miss you

Send Susanne a Message

Along with the message are a number of pictures of the friends in your Facebook profile. Then I saw it, a picture of me and my ex smiling with the words X will miss you, send X a message.  So I pushed deactivate.

The catalyst for my deactivation from Facebook obviously began to try to disengage from an ex in a healthier way, but it soon became about more.  Like Loni, I felt I was wasting a lot of time being on Facebook.  My time could be filled with more productive things than looking at people’s profiles and status updates.  I was going to paint that shelf I wanted to hang in the kitchen, take my dog on longer walks and finally learn guitar.

Plus I realized I was posting a lot of updates and at times probably being too personal with over 500 people who didn’t really care.  Besides, no one would notice I was gone anyway.  I was wrong.  Within about two hours I received a text message from my father that read, “Your mom wants to make sure you are ok.  She can’t find you on Facebook.”  A few other people began asking what happened to me or that they couldn’t find my profile.  One friend asked, “What about us not having you for thirty days? People want to share with you…”  I sort of found it funny because if people want to share something can’t they just pick up the phone and call me?  The short answer is probably not.  We have become a passive society in which we would rather send a quick status update or text message because it’s just easier. I thought that not being connected wouldn’t be that hard for me, and besides it was just a month.  I could handle not being on Facebook for one month… couldn’t I?

After two days I started to go a little stir crazy.  I realized I felt completely disconnected from friends as Facebook was how I learned about the people I care about.  I learned about my friends moving, getting engaged and having children.  I would invite people out for drinks on Facebook, comment on current events and it was one of the means in which I expressed myself sharing stories or blog posts like these.  On day three I had to reactivate my account to get a phone number and address that someone sent me on Facebook.  I didn’t have their email and Facebook was the only means in which we communicated.  I jumped back on and a flood of updates came at me and I have to say it was really overwhelming.  I jumped back off quickly as to try to continue my no Facebook ban and two days later, on day five I convinced myself that I should check back in as part of the experiment.  In reality, I was bored.  I went to reactivate my account, but I couldn’t.  I logged in several times and this appeared:

Facebook Login

I don’t understand.  What happened?  I typed in the correct email and password so I began troubleshooting, clearing my cache and cookies per the troubleshooting instructions and when I still couldn’t log in I contacted Facebook.

Confirm Facebook Account

In February, Zoic’s “Dominoes” spot for the NASCAR Nationwide Series broke new ground in computer graphics for television. (Read the story here.) Now the Culver City, California-based studio has produced the second spot in the series, which retains the visual style of “Dominoes” but is quite different in story and tone.

The new spot, entitled “Variables,” is the story of the things the drivers and pit crew can’t plan for during a race, according to Zoic executive creative director Loni Peristere, “and how those variables affect the outcome of the race – who’s going to win, who’s going to lose.”

Watch “Variables” on ZoicStudios.com

The origins of “Variables” go back to the beginnings of the campaign. “The Nationwide campaign is a series of commercials that were originally pitched and presented by [New York-based advertising agency] Wieden+Kennedy,” Peristere says, “that we at Zoic partnered on for the duration of the campaign. We started in the earlier part of November last year, with [Wieden+Kennedy producer] Dan Blaney, [art director] Cyrus Coulter, [writer] Luke Evans, and Heather Larimer, under the auspices of Stuart Jennings, our creative director from ESPN.”

“The good thing about Wieden+Kennedy is that the producer is looked at as a ‘third creative,’” says Blaney. “I have that point of view throughout the process. That’s important to me.”

“We worked with the Wieden+Kennedy team to come up with the look, tone and feel for not only the commercials but for the entire campaign,” Peristere says. “If you see the Nationwide footage on ESPN right now, you’ll see our style, the stark black & white with blue highlights, used throughout the promotional material in the campaign. We worked originally with [Zoic creative director] Derich Wittliff and Darrin Isono to create keyframes that became the foundation of the look, feel and tone of the entire campaign.”

Footage of the racers for both spots was shot on location in Florida at the close of last year’s Nationwide Series. “We picked up the actors the day after their very last race of the season,” Peristere says. “And Kyle Busch, the star of ‘Variables,’ had just won the championship. We got to play with him a little bit, and his cohorts, on the shoot day, which was really fun because they were coming off of a long night of revelry.

“A big part of the realism for the drivers’ performances was rooted in my direction on set, where we were walking these guys through the variations of their performances. We had them run through directions like, what do you say to your driver? How do you feel when someone is spinning out right in front of you? When your car is not functioning? How do you react? We went through a series of facial expressions, both passive and active in performance, to capture the fixes that we needed for the spot.

“Both Wieden+Kennedy, and Stuart and his entire team at ESPN, were incredibly gracious with their trust. When we got into Editorial, it allowed [Zoic senior editor] Dmitri Gueer and I to choose the facial expressions we felt would convey the story to the utmost.”

Gueer adds that when it came to choosing the drivers’ performances, “they had to be identical to what the drivers would do on a real racetrack. But the big challenge was that you could take a greenscreen of the driver’s performance, cut it into the offline and go: “This is going to work great!”  Then look at it in the dailies after it’s gone through CG and all of a sudden realize that it no longer works because it is a mapped image that lives in its own environment.

“I really wanted drivers’ performances to work because it is  always about never stopping to want something perfect,” Gueer continues, “so I think I drove our CG guys absolutely bonkers because I kept feeding them non-stop new drivers’ takes to run a test on. In the end I was extremely pleased with how the drivers’ shots worked out. Our CG artists did an amazing job!

I am pretty positive that any NASCAR fan could take a look at the spot now and say ‘that’s totally real, I’m right there with that driver.’”

Peristere points out the differences between the spots. “’Dominoes’ is about an event, this giant crash, and having the wherewithal within the context of a giant 40-car pileup to know how to navigate that destruction.

“‘Variables’ is really about the race; it’s about the nuances of the drivers themselves, and how they react to variables on the track they cannot foresee; and it’s these kinds of qualities that make them great drivers. ‘Variables’ takes place from the white flag to the chequered flag. It’s one lap that we’re examining in great detail.”

“I think the two spots are totally different,” says writer Evans. “‘Dominoes’ has that epic crash in bullet time, everything fades out, and comes back full speed at the end; you have that lull in the middle, that moment where you have to get you bearings. Whereas in ‘Variables’ it’s a storyline from beginning to end. Right away you have to be along for the ride, and follow these details that are happening to get the story.”

Peristere laughs that “Dmitri, our crazy editor, had a lot to construct here; because the storytelling in a 30-second spot, especially in the context of a race, is really hard to track — especially here where it’s not just one event, it’s an entire lap, and you have multiple events. There was a lot of pack in, and Dmitri did a phenomenal job.”

Gueer adds: “From an Editorial standpoint, this particular spot was not easy because you have three drivers, three storylines, and a race that is going on in the background – and everyone wants to win! It’s a lot of story for 27 seconds to tell.

“This spot took a long time to edit and put together because we had to figure out how to tell a credible story, true to the whole NASCAR experience. You start in your mind by shaping the story based on what shots you would use to highlight certain points in the timeline. On top of that you have to have shots that establish the drivers and their identities by what they do on the racetrack, and how they drive or what strategy they use. Plus you have the overall story of everyone else trying to catch up to those drivers and avoid the big tire blow-up. How are you going to do that in such a short period of time, from a storytelling and from an artistic standpoint?

“Working out the timing takes a long time, so does maintaining pacing while telling the story of the three drivers. It was a pretty difficult task. Just like anything else the story has its own arcs, its highs and lows, and all of it had to flow from one cut to another.”

Gueer says that “Variables” was a very “Editorial-driven” spot. “The editor goes to the dailies and makes suggestions and has some creative notes, which is nothing unusual; but I would say that ‘Variables’ consumed me entirely, because everything in this spot is working on a cut-to-cut basis, and certain story points had to be hit for the spot to work, even the placement of the cars and where they are at a particular point in the story. But with great creative direction from Loni, our VFX and CG leads, and our great clients at Wieden+Kennedy, we were able accomplish a spot that I believe we can all be proud of!”

In the wake of the collaboration between Zoic and Wieden+Kennedy on “Dominoes,” a great deal of trust developed between the two teams. “Walking them through the process and working with [Wieden+Kennedy] on the first go-round,” Peristere says, “we set up the parameters and the workflow by which they would understand the second go-round. Honestly it was a very quiet second round of work, where they were partners with us, but not too invasive because they had experienced the process the first time.”

“There was so much work on ‘Dominoes,’” art director Coulter explains, “dialing in everything, the look and feel of it, how the animation plays out; so with ‘Variables’ it was nice, we were able to plug that stuff in and just let the story play out. With ‘Dominoes’ we were down there at Zoic working tirelessly to make everything come together – but with ‘Variables’ we just plugged everything in and it was great.”

Zoic commercial executive producer Erik Press says “the trust continued to grow with Wieden. I think ultimately everybody walked away very happy with the results of some really intense work and some big creative challenges on the CG end. We had a great working relationship with Wieden once again on this. I’m happy that they looked to us to find some creative solutions. We can’t wait to do more work with them.”

“We would all like there to be more,” Peristere says, “ if not on this campaign, certainly with the creative team we work with at Wieden. It was an incredible experience to work with them.”

Blaney says, “We put ‘Dominoes’ on such a pedestal, that our first reaction of ‘Variables’ was positive, but it took us a while to feel really excited about it. But for me, now looking at the finished ‘Variables,’ I can honestly say it may be my preferred spot out of the campaign.

“The client completely loved the it. They were blown away by ‘Dominoes’ — I don’t think anyone expected the end result to be that impressive. They took a leap of faith, especially trying an animation style that’s definitely innovative and new. They put a lot of trust into Loni. It was a very successful campaign for everyone involved.”

“The Nationwide Series is kind of like the ‘minor leagues’ of NASCAR,” Coulter says. “They’re putting a ton of money and effort into their Sprint Cup coverage, and for the Nationwide series there’s just not as big an expectation. So I think it’s really nice we had a come-from-behind win on this, making ‘Dominoes’ and ‘Variables’ so awesome.

Zoic thanks: Michael Cliett, Brian White, Kevin Struckman, Chris Irving, Steve Meyer, Nate Overstrom, Chris Desantis, Chris Jones.

More info: “Zoic Brings Photo-real CG to Broadcast TV with ESPN NASCAR ‘Dominoes’” on IDYE; “Variables” and “Dominoes” on ZoicStudios.com.

Last month, Zoic Studios’ executive creative director Loni Peristere gave a presentation at SXSW Interactive 2010 in Austin, Texas. In the following video, he discusses the relationship between ideas and technology; encouraging clients to take risks; and how technology now allows anyone with a great idea to produce a professional product.

A transcript of the video follows; the remarks were extemporaneous.

Any great thing comes first from a great idea. And a great idea really is the evolution of any process. You can talk until you’re blue in the face about technology, innovation, Internet and interactive, and social media, and you can say all those things until you’re blue in the face; but what it comes down to is a creative concept that has a need that doesn’t exist, and it’s finding a partner in the right technology that works for that creative idea.

I mean, at a very simple level, when you’re a carpenter sometimes you use a hammer to put a nail in, but sometimes you use a screwdriver. They get the same job done, but they get them done in a different way with a different effect. And I think that, again, starting at the idea first, and really utilizing the tools of the ability to communicate with the world, and the tools of instant feedback to create something new, is really what it’s about. It comes right down to the idea, and that’s what we have to build upon.

How do you get a client to take a leap of faith?

That is where personal relationships really come into play. How do you get people to take a leap of faith and creatively destruct boundaries? Well, it comes with trust, so it’s a relationship that’s built on years of success doing other things. And it’s built on trial and error. It’s built on exploration, and “taking a flyer.” We are constantly taking flyers, and I know that can be expensive and trying at times, but if you combine trust with taking a risk – which is how Killzone happened, it was taking a risk, and really Guerrilla Games took a giant risk by saying that they could produce this spot, and they produced the spot. It was Jan van Beek and his crew in Amsterdam that made Killzone 2 happen; it was them taking a flyer to change the way that advertising was going to work, based on a concept that Deustch had. I was just fortunate to come along for the ride and make a cool bullet shoot across the thing.

The power of creativity lies in the passion of the user

What’s really good in the world of what we do today in advertising is that, from a production standpoint, you can go to the store and pick up a viable HD camera for $1,300 with professional lenses, which gives you a product that’s as good as anything on the air. You can download editing software that costs hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars. You can download visual effects software that costs hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars. You can download Flash tools for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars, and literally you can make your own studio. You can have audio equipment, same deal. The technology in Moore’s Law has put the power of creativity in the passion of the user.

So how does one create their spec work? You just gosh darn do it. And you just get up there and do it. And when I started at 38 years of age, gosh it seems so long ago in 1996, you know, I had to go learn the Flame at night – and I never really learned the Flame, I tried, but it took too long because I also had to learn to use Excel spreadsheets to track things, and I had to learn to how to monitor QuickBooks, and all this all this kind of crazy antiquated stuff. Today you don’t need to do any of that because it’s all given to you in software.

So if you are passionate and persistent enough, if you have the right creative idea, you just make it happen.
As a learning experience, you just absorb what your passion is. If you want to be Steven Spielberg, you watch Steve Spielberg movies. If you want to be Ridley Scott, you watch Ridley Scott movies. If you want to be Jeff Bezos, do that – I don’t know that. But if you want to be Bill Gates, you work with the highest in computing software. You immerse yourself in that. There’s a really great book out there, and I’m going to stump for Malcolm Gladwell because this book Outliers really hits it right on the head. It’s practice that makes perfect, and that cliché really rings true. It’s the 10,000 hours of doing what you do really really well. So if you want to be a filmmaker, make films. If you want to make web content, make web content. If you want to make a game, make a game. And that can start at the moat basic level by practicing by learning from the best around you, and the good news is that the web provides that to you instantly.

More info: “Zoic’s Loni Peristere to Present ‘The Future is Now: Immersive Advertising as Gameplay’ at SXSW Conference” on IDYE; “Zoic’s Loni Peristere Discusses How to Make Your Creative Ideas Happen at SXSWi” on Wiredrive; the Wiredrive SXSW microsite.