86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson fought for the Allies at the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last major offensive. Amidst fierce combat and harsh winter weather, both the Germans and the Allies suffered heavy casualties. But Mr. Robertson has never been able to forget one young soldier he killed there. In July 2005, he shared this memory with son-in-law John Fish, Jr. at a StoryCorps MobileBooth in Columbus, Ohio.

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Credits

Animation was directed by Tim Rauch and produced by Mike Rauch, at Rauch Brothers Animation, with audio producer Michael Garofalo.

Germans in the Woods was designed like a black and white war photograph, with atmospheric backgrounds. The film’s background art was built from pen drawings, ink washes, and scans of textures – like eraser shavings and denim – found around the Rauch Brothers studio. Background elements were separated into layers so they could be manipulated in each frame, creating more dynamic mood and motion.

StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization that has helped more than 50000 Americans record their stories. StoryCorps staff included interviewer John Fish, Jr., senior producer Sarah Kramer, executive producer Dave Isay.

Germans in the Woods won 2nd place at the Independent Film ASIFA-East Animation Festival, appeared in the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and was selected for the Palm Springs International ShortFest.

Joseph Robertson joined the National Guard in 1935. During World War II, he served in Europe as part of the 30th Infantry Division. He was the only one in his division who wasn’t killed, captured or wounded. In 1961, after 26 years of service in the Army, Mr. Robertson retired. The German Soldier was a member of the Hitler Youth. As the war ended, Hitler Youth, ages 10-18, were used to fill the Nazi’s desperate need for manpower. The young soldiers died in the thousands, often fighting suicidally to the death.

The Battle of the Bulge is the English language name given to the Ardennes Offensive, 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945, a major German offensive launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium.

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Spears opens the music video applying mascara and Circus Fantasy before moving onto scenes behind white glass, under a barre with other dancers, and playfully dancing with two male dancers.

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Credits

Filming for the 3 Music Video was shot by director Diane Martel and choreographed by Rich + Tone (Samoans Rich and Tone Talauega)

Spoof

Ryan James Yezak has produced a spoof version of the 3 music video, featuring Scott Nelson (as Britney), Julian Rivera, and Robben Stanley.

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© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Credits

The Boag’s Waters campaign was developed at Publicis Mojo, Sydney, by creative director Micah Walker, art director Steve Wakelam, copywriter Justine Armour, art buyer Alison Dunlop. Photography by Michael Corridore was produced by Ben Hams with retouching at Cream Studios.

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Chris Farley does his “Fat Guy in a Little Coat” bit for David Spade, whose dialogue has been re-recorded to promote DirecTV. “Great, I’m here with tons of fun, when I could be at home with my DirecTV … But no, I’m stuck with either cable or that (pointing to Farley). It never gets old.” It’s safe to say that it’s not the length of time since Farley’s death that is bothering his fans. It’s the suggestion that watching cable TV would be a better option than spending time with the star.

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The two Saturday Night Live stars appeared in Tommy Boy, with Farley playing the fat dim witted Thomas Callahan III and Spade laying his father’s assistant Richard Hayden. They have the challenge of making a success out of the auto parts company Tommy has inherited from his father.

Online entertainment mag Asylum managed to get a response to critics from David Spade and representatives of DirectV, suggesting that Farley’s family were involved in the project from the start.

In an earlier DirecTV commercial Craig T. Nelson reprised his role from the 1982 movie, “Poltergeist”, along with historical footage of Heather O’Rourke, who died tragically in 1988 at the age of 12.

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© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Colin Brown, special envoy to Paeroa, and Maurice Morrison, self appointed deputy minister of tourism to Paeroa, travel around in their distinctive van, sharing their journey online at Colin’s blog. Looking through the campaign bear in mind that the webisodes are marked by an ironic lack of production quality.

The campaign, inspired by the whacky humour of Flight of the Conchords, provides a tongue-in-cheek comparison of Paeroa with other tourism attractions in New Zealand. It’s a fresh approach for Paeroa, who were promoted as “world famous in New Zealand” in an earlier campaign, and became known as the Christmas town in the 1990s.

TV Ad

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Episode 1

Meet Colin Brown (special envoy to Paeroa) and Maurice Morrison (Self appointed Deputy Minister of Tourism to Tourism Paeroa). With a bit of forward thinking, a feeble grasp on modern technologies, and a whole lotta faith, these two proud Paeroaeans plan to make their hometown the tourism mecca it can almost certainly never be

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Episode 2

With the bare minimum amount of fanfare, Maurice reveals the pride of the Tourism Paeroa fleet to the world. An emotion-fueled tickertape departure ensues, and the 1973 Transit leaves Paeroa and half a dozen disappointed and sausageless people behind them.

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See more episodes, featuring visits to Hamilton, Raglan, Rotorua and Te Puke. Six more to go…

Credits

The Paeroa Tourism campaign was developed at Ogilvy, Auckland, by executive creative director Jeremy Taine, creative directors Damon O’Leary and Basil Christensen, creatives Tom Paine and Ben Pegler, and agency producer Nick Barnes.

Filming was shot by director Mike Oldershaw via Automatic Films with director of photography Rob Marsh, producer/towel wrangler Johnny Blick and editor Kent Briggs.

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you. This is HTC’s latest commercial from the You campaign.

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“Quietly brilliant is doing great things in a humble way, with the belief that the best things in life can only be experienced, not explained,” said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation. “The YOU campaign is the perfect embodiment of ‘quietly brilliant’ and is core to HTC as a company, innovator and partner.”

The ‘quietly brilliant’ positioning was inspired by HTC’s culture of putting customers first, born from a heritage of creating breakthrough products and continued innovation. As part of HTC’s culture, the “quietly brilliant” positioning will be rolled out in all forms of communication and brand touch points across the company.

Credits

HTC worked with London-based creative consultancy, FigTree to create the quietly brilliant brand positioning.

The You campaign was developed at Deutsch, Los Angeles by chief creative officer Eric Hirshberg, group creative directors Karen Costello and Eric Springer, senior art director Scott Hidinger, senior producer Maris Wasser.

Filming was shot by director David Frankham via Smuggler, Los Angeles, with director of photography Ellen Kuras, executive producer Brian Carmody, producers Laura Thoel and Gustav Geldenhuys.

Editor was Steve Prestemon at The Whitehouse Post, Santa Monica, with assistant editor Brian Gannon and producer Justin Kumpata.

Post production was done at Therapy, Los Angeles. Online editor was Wren Waters. Colorist was Mike Pethal at Company 3. Audio post production was done at Lime Studios, Santa Monica.

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Remember 180,000 Ex Service People Without Visitors.

Poppy Man is the embodiment of the Legion’s work. He stands for Help, Remembrance and Comradeship. After successfully starring the 2007 Poppy Appeal advertisements he led the campaign again in 2008 and helped to launch it from Basra. A series of posters featuring him supporting people who have been helped by the Legion appeared on billboards and Nationwide ATM machines around the country and on animated posters at prominent tube and overground stations in London in the lead up to Remembrance Day. He also made personal appearances all around the country and kept track of his movements through his moblog – blog.poppyman.org.uk.

Remember 900,000 Ex Service People Injured in Action.

Remember 180,000 Ex Service People Who Need a Lift.

Remember 900,000 Ex Service People with a Disability.

Remember 40,000 Families Who Need Our Support.

Remember over One Million Older Veterans Living in Poverty.

A huge towering 5 metre high tribute to The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal has been erected in Heathrow Terminal 5. Passengers checking in will be greeted by an impressive 5 metre high Poppy Man comprising of over 8,000 poppies!

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Around 200 people recorded the single at Abbey Road Studios and it is available to download through iTunes and other download stores now.

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© 2009 The Inspiration Room

Island of Misfit Toys

An adapted scene from the 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated Christmas film, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. “We’re on the island of misfit toys”, sounds the soundtrack as an iPhone swaggers onto the island. “What are you doing here?”, asks one of the toys. All becomes clear when the iPhone reveals the difference between AT&T 3G coverage and Verizon 3G coverage.

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Verizon Elves

Elves packing Christmas gifts from Santa give devices with Verizon coverage to good and nice kids. Naughty kids have to make do with AT&T coverage iPhones.

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Verizon Blue Christmas

Elvis Presley’s hit Blue Christmas is played as a man with an iPhone is thwarted by poor AT&T 3G coverage.

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Credits

The Misfit campaign was developed at McCann Erickson, New York, by chief creative officer Joyce King Thomas, executive creative director George Dewey, group creative director/copywriter Daniel Donovan, group creative director/art director Marco Cignini, group creative director Chris Quillen, executive producer Michele Ferone and agency producer Danny Miller.

© 2009 The Inspiration Room

A steeplechase horse race appears to be over for a jockey and his horse when they fall badly. The horse, voiced by Michael Gambon, tells the jockey to get up, run like the wind….

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Credits

The Steeplechase advert was developed at WCRS, by creatives Larry Seftel, Dave Day and agency producer Sally Lipsius.

Filming was shot by director Ringan Ledwidge via Rattling Stick with director of photography Jess Hall and producer Sally Humphries.

Editor was Rich Orrick via Work Post.

Post production was done at The Mill, London, by producer Gemma Smith, colourist Mick Vincent, lead 3D James Sindle, lead 2D/shoot supervisor Barnsley, Flame assists Adam Lambert and Zoe Cassey, 3D artists Teemu Eramaa, Ivor Griffin.

The commercial’s brief was simple to imagine, but as is often the case, not easy to achieve in camera. The Mill’s challenge set by director, Ringan Ledwidge, was to “make a man run as fast as a horse”, without speeding him up. During pre-production meetings, The Mill explored several different options of how this effect might be achieved visually -- from reasonably standard film making techniques to more left-field “theories”.

Shoot Supervisor and Lead Flame, Barnsley explains, “We were keen to avoid using as many standard green screen shots as possible as the viewer would be quick to pick up on this technique if used too often. In the main, most shots were achieved by shooting two plates -- one of the horses and one of our hero. We then mixed this with further tricks to effectively, ‘cover our tracks’. On some occasions we mixed the film speeds of the horses and jockey to allow the two to run together; on other shots, we allowed the foreshortening that long lens allows, to hide the disparity in running speeds. Often the jockey was lifted off his background and added to the horses’ plate.”

© 2009 The Inspiration Room