Beast Austin Hires Senior Editor Ariel Quintans and Smoke Artist Jim Reed

Beast, one of the country’s top editorial facilities, announced the expansion of its Austin location with the addition of a Smoke room for finishing projects and the hire of two major talents: senior editor Ariel Quintans and Smoke artist Jim Reed. In addition, Beast Austin has partnered with sister company Company 3 to provide virtual telecine services.

“We’re thrilled to have added online finishing and virtual telecine capabilities to our existing infrastructure,” said Beast Austin executive producer Brent Holt. “Jim Reed has a wealth of experience as a finishing artist, and Ariel is a very talented editor with a devoted following. Coupled with the remote technology employed by Company 3 for virtual collaboration, we are now well-positioned to tackle a whole range of new projects.”

Ariel Quintans has been an editor in Austin, Texas for over 12 years and has developed a reputation for impeccable taste and a passion for storytelling. Combining a unique understanding of music and rhythm with a keen ability for graphic and motion design, Quintans has stretched his story-telling abilities to cover as many formats as possible. In addition to his body of spot and music video work, Quintans served as lead editor on “Rollergirls,” a 13-episode reality series for A&E, was the supervising editor for four seasons of the Emmy Award-winning documentary series “Downtown,” and has been a contributing editor and motion designer on feature length features and documentaries. His recent work on the Basic Military Training microsite for Airforce.com has been featured in the 2010 Communication Arts Interactive Annual.

“I’ve been friends with Beast Austin co-founder Sam Selis for several years and always thought we would work really great together as a team,” Quintans commented. “The timing was perfect for me to make the switch to Beast and join their extremely talented roster.”

An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, Reed joins Beast from 501 Post, where as senior editor and post production supervisor he worked on feature film projects such as “Sin City” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.” Reed also has a long list of commercial credits for dozens of brands, including AT&T, BMW, Burger King, Kohler, Land Rover, Snickers and Wal-Mart, among others.
“I’m excited to be joining Beast and starting up their in-house finishing,” Reed said. “The variety of projects and clients Beast brings to the table was very attractive in my decision to join the team. Plus my new room here is top-of-the-line, offers the greatest amount of creative input, and delivers a terrific end product.”

Company 3 will employ its remote technology for post production services on commercials and features, enabling clients at Beast Austin to collaborate in real time with Company 3 artists on color grading projects. A high-resolution monitor calibrated by a certified Company 3 engineer coupled with a video conferencing system ensures that client feedback reaches their Company 3 colorist in Los Angeles or New York without delays or color discrepancies.

Elizabeth Krajewski Joins Beast NY as Executive Producer

Beast, one of the country’s top editorial facilities, announced today that it has hired Elizabeth Krajewski as Executive Producer at its New York facility. Krajewski joins Beast from Jump, bringing with her extensive editorial as well as visual effects experience.


“I’m thrilled to be working with a post production professional like Elizabeth who can help take Beast to the next level,” commented Beast COO Valerie Petrusson. “I know she’ll bring a great deal of value to her position as executive producer.”

Prior to joining Beast, Krajewski worked at Jump, where she started as a senior producer in 2005 before being promoted to executive producer in 2007. While at Jump, Krajewski worked on projects for a variety of national brands, including Hershey’s, L’Oreal, Maybelline and Verizon, for such agencies as Arnold, McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi. Originally from Chicago, Krajewski got her start in production in 2001, with a position with Supply & Demand in New York, and then moved into post production as a VFX producer with Spontaneous before making the transition to the editorial side.

“I’m very excited to be working at Beast,” said Krajewski. “It’s wonderful to work in a collaborative environment with such a talented group of editors. And with Beast facilities located around the country, it’s great to know that I’m part of a larger organization that can share talent and resources when they’re needed.”

Beast Goes to Work for CareerBuilder.com at Super Bowl XLIV

Editorial Facility Contributes to User-Generated Ad Campaign

 

Beast, one of the country’s top editorial facilities, announced today that editor John Dingfield contributed work on three spots for the CareerBuilder.com "Hire My TV Ad” contest, with the winner, “Casual Friday,” airing during Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIV.

The :30 ads, conceived by contest finalists, were directed by Craig Gillespie for CareerBuilder’s in-house advertising team, and subjected to public voting on the CareerBuilder web site to determine which commercial would air during the big game. The ads, entitled “Casual Friday,” “Job Fairy” and the “too hot for TV” “Worst Seat,” incorporate elements of CareerBuilder’s signature use of humor and reinforce the company’s “start building” tagline.

To create the spots, Career Builder turned the finalist concepts over to its advertising team for script development. Shooting took place over the course of three days in October, and the footage was handed off to Dingfield at Beast’s Chicago facility for editing in early November. “It was very nice to have so much time to spend on the project,” Dingfield commented. “I was really able to give the material its due. The production team shot more gags and set-ups than I could ever use, so it was a definite challenge to take all of that fantastic footage and cut it down to 30 seconds.”

“It was great working with the CareerBuilder team,” Dingfield continued. “The ‘Job Fairy’ spot was fairly technically demanding, so in terms of editorial there were a bunch a moving parts. Right from the beginning they got us involved in pre-production meetings, both to ensure that everyone on the post side was on board technically, and to make certain that creatively I had enough material to play with.”

Among Oscars’ Reruns, a Few Standout Acts

Lisa Nigro was featured in an ad for True North nuts that appeared during the Academy Awards.

By STUART ELLIOTT

IMAGINE tuning in on Sunday night to watch the Academy Awards and seeing the Oscar for best picture given again to “No Country for Old Men,” “The Departed” or “Million Dollar Baby.”

That was almost what it was like to watch the commercials that appeared during the broadcast on ABC. In another sign of how drastically the recession is forcing Madison Avenue to pinch pennies, many of the spots shown were reruns.

For the last several years, marketers have used the Academy Awards as a showcase for new work, much as they do each year with the Super Bowl. But on Sunday, advertiser after advertiser rolled out retreads. Some, like McDonald’s, presented no new spots at all.

And one commercial, from MasterCard, was a re-edited version of a trio of spots the company ran during the 2004 Oscar broadcast. Too bad the Dow Jones industrial average from five years ago cannot be revived as easily.

As a result, marketers that took the effort — and spent the money — to deliver something new stood out.

What follows is an assessment of some of the Oscar commercials — originals or oldies — broadcast nationally by ABC during the show, out of the total of more than 40.
BEST ACTOR Jeff Bridges was never seen on camera during the Oscars. But his voice was heard more often than Hugh Jackman’s as he narrated eight commercials for Hyundai Motor America, the No. 1 advertiser in the show.

The earnest, plain-spoken delivery by Mr. Bridges of lines about the automaker’s new incentive plan, called Hyundai Assurance Plus, sounded like a mash-up of in “The Grapes of Wrath” and James Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

“We’re all in this together,” Mr. Bridges intoned. “It’s time to repay your belief in us.” Is there an opening in the Obama cabinet for a secretary of reassurance?
Making the pitch from Mr. Bridges even more effective is a credit on his filmography: He portrayed the maverick, populist automaker Preston Tucker in the 1988 movie, “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, part of the Omnicom Group.

BEST ACTRESS “I’m a PC,” says an adorable girl named Kylie Kim in a commercial for the Microsoft Corporation, “and I’m four and a half.” But she handles the PC’s functions like a pro: “I click,” she says as she edits a photo. “It’s better!”
If a new depression needs a new Shirley Temple, Hollywood ought to consider Ms. Kim: Instead of tap-dancing with Bill Robinson, she could blog with Bill Gates. Agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky, part of MDC Partners.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN The presentation of new apparel lines for women by the J. C. Penney Company easily won the competition for outstanding outfits. In a change of pace, most of the commercials showed a young woman dressing up to please herself rather than to impress a date.
The sole caveat to the kudos for the cavalcade of clothing is that, truth be told, an untrained eye had a tough time distinguishing among the labels on display. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT It’s a tie! A three-way tie, actually, among the three (blessedly new) commercials for the True North line of nuts sold by the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo.
One spot featured the winner of a True North contest to discover people with uplifting personal passions; it was directed by the Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt. The winner, a former Chicago police officer named Lisa Nigro, founded the Inspiration Café, which helps the homeless; the scenes of her and her customers were more moving than any hour of “Slumdog Millionaire.” Agency: StrawberryFrog.

BEST ECO-WARRIOR Who was greener than thou during the Oscars? Not an actor or a filmmaker but Apple, which ran a commercial for the MacBook Pro — proclaimed “the world’s greenest family of notebooks.” Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide division of Omnicom.

BEST FILM EDITING The aforementioned commercial for MasterCard was a deftly compressed version of three spots that were shown originally as a series during the 2004 Oscar broadcast. The story line, about a lost dog that finds its way home, may have benefited from the sped-up presentation because the ending was easy to predict. Agency: McCann Erickson Worldwide, part of the McCann Worldgroup unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

BEST HOMAGE TO AN INCUMBENT PRESIDENT A commercial for Orencia, a drug sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb to treat rheumatoid arthritis, carried the theme “Oh, yes I can!”
And in solidarity with the administration’s goal of stimulating the economy, the commercial included an offer for the Orencia Promise Program, which can be used to reimburse patients’ co-pay payments. Agency: MRM Worldwide, part of the McCann Worldgroup.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT It’s never easy being a neat freak, according to a charming commercial for a new collection of Hoover vacuums called the Hoover Platinum Collection, sold by a unit of Techtronic Industries. The story ends with the soothing promise that “eventually, your higher standards are rewarded.”

And in another nod to Barack Obama, the commercial uses the song “At Last,” heard during the inaugural balls. Agency: The Martin Agency, part of Interpublic.

BEST SOUND EDITING AND MIXING The evocative noises of a Coca-Cola bottle being opened and the soda’s effervescent fizz really helped a Coke commercial put across its message of thirst-quenching refreshment. Such aural logos are as valuable to the Coca-Cola Company as its contoured bottle.

In a nice touch for a spot shown during the Academy Awards, the commercial was filmed in a fashion reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Agency: Wieden & Kennedy.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Tom Cruise’s career makeover from serious thespian (“Valkyrie”) to droll comedian (“Tropic Thunder”) received a boost from his performance in a promotional spot for the ABC late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The punch line may have been predictable, but Mr. Cruise delivered it with panache. The spot was created internally at ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company.

Linkin Park Shadow of The Day Awarded Video of The Year

MTV awarded ‘Shadow of the Day’ (by Linkin Park) as Rock Video of the Year at the 2008 Video Music Awards.  Directed by band member Joseph Hahn, the award-winning video was cut by Igor Kovalik of the Santa Monica boutique. As much a short film as a music video, the video portrays war and rioting in streets that could be any city.  Absent of any performance footage, the video doesn’t include any members of the band, save the lead singer (Chester).  This perspective coaxes viewers to contemplate the possibility and horror of dealing with such chaos on a more personal level.  Scenes were shot with hand-held cameras in an effort to retain mobility and reality in the action, and genuine pyrotechnics were used, including fire, bullets, smoke grenades and bombs.  Explosions, machine guns and other sound effects contribute to the pandemonium.  The powerful imagery and sound of the video is a stark contrast to the somber ballad, which no doubt lends to its popularity among fans.

The relationship between band member/director Joseph Hahn and Beast Editor Igor Kovalik continues bearing fruit, as this is not the first time the pair have worked together.  Last year Kovalik won an MTV VMA for Best Editing of the Linkin Park video ‘What I’ve Done’ (2007).  More recently, Rebecca Beluk of Beast LA handled post for ‘Leave Out All the Rest’, the final single released from the double-platinum-selling album “Minutes to Midnight”.  Also directed by Joe Hahn, ‘Leave Out All the Rest’ uses a unique treatment that depicts the band members living aboard a spaceship.   The video was shot using green screens to create an artificial habitat in outer space, and includes editing and effects seen more in high-budget films than in music videos.  Again there is no performance footage and the 4-minute narrative plays out like a short film.  Surfacing just before its official premiere date of June 2 (2008), the video is one of the favorites among the fans, who often refer to it as ‘epic’.  Considering its mass popularity over the summer thus far, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that another VMA might already be looming on the horizon.

2008 Summer Olympic Games – Beijing and BEAST

Highlights of a whirlwind summer at Beast include two 60-second spots that debuted during the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.  “It’s Time” for Home Depot and “Disappear” for Chevrolet were both cut by our own Igor Kovalik (Santa Monica) and continue running through the end of the month.  The August 8 Opening Ceremony annihilated NBC competitors with 34.9 million viewers (the most-watched night of programming since the finale of Friends in 2004). Ratings were even better during competition the following Sunday evening and the average weekly viewers since are almost 18 million!

Put together by The Richards Group, “It’s Time” was created exclusively for the 2008 Olympic Games.  Home Depot employs Gold Medal-hopefuls through its Olympic Job Opportunities Program (OJOP) and the 60-second spot is a poignant commemoration to those aspiring athletes.  The OJOP compensates competitors for time spent training for the games.  A dozen potential Olympians from various Home Depot departments competing in equally varied sports are highlighted.  The ad is an inspiring reminder that even the local Home and Garden Center supports big dreams.

Since its debut during the Opening Ceremony, the “Disappear” spot for Chevrolet has created a flurry of press throughout the auto industry, as it offers the much-anticipated first visual of the Volt Plug-in Hybrid (estimated for release in 2010).  The spot is a carefully crafted montage showcasing the evolution from gas to electric-powered vehicles. The ad reminds the viewer of Chevrolet’s American roots, its progress and presence in the auto industry today, and its intent to protect our environment without sacrificing mobility.  The spot serves as a beautiful and effective method of communicating that the automotive powerhouse is actively engaged in exploring creative solutions for a better world tomorrow.  The spot will encourage consumer confidence and assure viewers Chevrolet is committed to positive progression.

Spring / Summer 2008 Update

This spring has been a very busy one for Beast. Editor Kevin Garcia moved from the Santa Monica office to join Sam Selis in Austin and has already cut spots for: Champion Sports, Oregon Associations of Realtors, an AT&T. Jason Uson, a senior assistant in the LA office has also made the move to the Lone Star State.

In Santa Monica, editor Rick Lobo joined Beast after spending several years at Cake. He is currently working on Adidas for 180 High Tech Marketing while Barnett Kiel is working on a massive project for the US Naval Academy.

The rest of the Beast editors are busy working on projects with directors Sam Bayer, Ericson Core, Eric Saarinen, and Baker Smith to name a few. A Pam Thomas helmed music video deserves special mention as it is promoting Standup2cancer.org, a newly launched assault on the dreaded disease with a dream team of scientists and researches galvanized by some of the most respected talent in Hollywood along with some of the most influential companies in the nation.