From our hearts to your mailbox...very soon.
Well, it's been a long time coming. Advertising agencies are getting called out for their in-house post production - primarily editorial services - by the governing body of all things post, the AICE...
“Our primary goal in issuing this statement is to raise awareness on the part of the advertiser community and urge them to seek a greater level of transparency from their agencies when it comes to how their post production work is handled,” says AICE Executive Director Rachelle Madden. “While we certainly don’t expect agencies to eliminate their in-house facilities, we simply want to bring more transparency to the process and help level the playing field in terms of competing fairly and honestly for their clients’ work.”
“Our main goal is to call for greater transparency in the process of awarding post production work and to raise clients’ awareness of what’s involved when they let their agencies handle post assignments in-house. We want a fair playing field, where our bids and our creative work can be evaluated fairly and accurately, without being manipulated or gamed in any way.”
The argument, in a nutshell is that the deck is stacked unfairly against post production vendors due in part to the incentivizing of agency staff to use internal services as much as possible. These incentives can come in many forms, the most obvious of these being bonuses followed by recognition of said agency ‘saving their client money’ by taking certain parts of a project in-house.
Obsidian represents a wide range of talent underneath the post production umbrella and while we do [and always will] think that competition in any form is a good thing, the AICE’s call for advertising agencies to show increased levels of transparency in their practices should be laid out as clearly and concisely as possible not only for the benefit of their vendor relationships, but also to their own clients who trust agencies to use their best judgement on all things creative. This transparency will aid in the good kind of competition, i.e. the best idea wins, and who doesn't love that [hint: probably the ones with shitty ideas]?
Obsidian would like to thank Screen Magazine for this article
your patience has been rewarded. obsidian’s quarterly newsletter is back highlighting the best of our clients’ work in the third quarter. this issue features news and work from Cosmo Street Editorial, Gifted Youth, Humble TV, and some sick interactive tricks from Wildlife
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This 4 minute rant is pretty much amazing. Watch the whole thing and remind yourself, just like Kevin Spacey from American Beauty that "...it's just stuff".
(thanks to my friend Winter for sharing)
Last night, comedian Jerry Seinfeld deadpanned at the CLIOs: "I love advertising because I love lying..." The 55th annual CLIO Awards, the most prestigious international advertising awards, were held in NYC. Whoopi Goldberg hosted the event, which also featured a performance by Aloe Blacc and lively acceptance speeches from CLIO Honorary winners Blondie (Debbie Harry and Chris Stein) and Jerry Seinfeld.
Last weekend Riot Fest invaded Humboldt Park. For the un-initiated, Riot Fest is a 3-day music festival/carnival that typically caters to the punk & alternative rock scene. Anybody that knows me at all knows full well that I wait all year for Riot Fest and this year was no exception. The line up was [in my humble opinion] considerably better than Lollapalooza and completely blew Pitchfork out of the water
*NOTE TO HATERS: I attended both those festivals as well and they sucked*
Riot Fest has a history of being able to book bands that [a] don’t necessarily tour a lot [b] broke up 10+ years ago [c] re-unite for the first time in the aforementioned 10+ years [d] maintain a cult following despite all of the above. I want to give credit where credit is due to the event coordinators, but this 'alchemy' that is performed in putting these epic lineups together requires an X-Factor and that’s what I want to talk about for a minute. How is it that a band that faded into obscurity in the late 90’s / early 2000’s can take a stage at a festival in Chicago and draw a crowd that gives ANY Lollapalooza performer a run for their money? Emotion.
The Used
Let me explain why this one-word answer is so important. At some point, probably in or around high school [at least for myself] we discovered music that we thought would shape the rest of our lives. It doesn’t matter if it was Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, Mineral, or Nickelback - actually if Nickelback emotionally resonates with you, just…stop. ANYWAY, that was the music that we connected with; could have been right place/right time; could have been the lyrics, there are no right or wrong answers. My point is that there was a connection that went beyond having a crush on the lead singer and his too-perfect application of guy-liner…an emotional component. That component is what makes you feel like that lead singer is singing directly to YOU and that they’ve been through the things that you are/were going through - in other words there is a bond.
Rise Against
The emotional bond that is created between you and a particular performer, band, song, etc. is something that doesn’t go away. You may have ‘grown up’, but when that song plays you remember EXACTLY where you were the first time you heard it, why? Because that bond isn’t broken by age, time, distance, etc. That bond, although pushed to the back of the mind re-emerges, unbroken as soon as you hear the first chord of that one song - it’s just as powerful as olfactory [scent] memories. That feeling, that emotion is the X-factor that I’m trying to explain, the intangible that Riot Fest planners see. Once that connection is made, it’s nearly impossible to forget it - it’s the reason I was singing/screaming every word of every song during New Found Glory’s set. Do I still listen to them? On occasion, but I do remember that initial connection from my Freshman year at Wheaton North High School. The alchemy that Riot Fest has been performing is nothing more than bringing in bands that have been able to create those types of bonds with their fans - it does not matter in what year that bond was created because those fans REMEMBER and they will show up in droves [even in the driving, sideways rain] to collectively remember.
Saosin w/ Anthony Green
You can call me Emo. That’s fine, I definitely was [and still kind of am], but as an advertising agency, isn’t the goal to engage viewers/users in a way that resonates with them; a way that creates the kind of bond that these 'old punk bands' have created so effortlessly? Ask your clients, I’m fairly certain I know the answer. Perhaps there *is* something to be learned from punk rock & emo culture - two genres of music that are unapologetically geared toward eliciting an emotional response from listeners. Yes punk has become commercialized and yes emo is all but gone, but Riot Fest demonstrates one very important thing: we CANNOT discount the effect of emotions. These bands make what they make and they never gave a shit about who was going to like it. They sang/screamed [off key] with all their hearts and you know what? People connected despite the lack of polished, produced, sonic perfection. Maybe it’s time advertising got a little more punk.
Die Antwoord
Riot Fest 2014 Spotify Playlist
Client: Honey Maid // Agency: Droga5 // Edited by: Stephen Mirrione // Editorial Company: Cosmo Street
The blended family is celebrated in this long form piece for Honey Maid also touting the #NotBroken and #ThisIsWholesome hashtags [:30 TV spot breaks tonight]. The spot was edited by Cosmo Street's Stephen Mirrione [IMDB] who has also worked on the Chevy business for the World Cup this year.
...in spirit.
Client: Campbell's Chunky // Agency: Y&R // Directed by: Fatal Farm // Production Company: Gifted Youth
Directing collective Fatal Farm just launched their latest spot for Campbell’s Chunky Soup featuring Seattle’s Richard Sherman and of course…his mom. The spot, care of Y&R which is part of a longer format web-only version was featured in Creativity, AdAge and all our favorites, AgencySpy. Click here for the Creativity write up.
Client: Pepsi Max // Directed by: Peter Atencio // Production Company: Gifted Youth
Funny or Die commercial production unit Gifted Youth emerges victorious in the extremely competitive Humor category at this year’s AICP in New York. Director Pete Atencio, best known for his work with sketch comedy duo Key & Peele was tapped to follow up Pepsi Max’s incredibly successful “Joyride” campaign. When a Jalopnik blogger calls BS on Pepsi’s original execution, Jeff Gordon suits up as a cab driver in this elaborate prank to prove once and for all that his driving is no laughing matter.
Second Quarter came and went and now we're here. Halftime is over, we've got new clients, new work, and some new hardware! We present the Razor Report, you're welcome.
In keeping with Obsidian’s M.O. of only representing/sharing things that are [a] new and/or [b] awesome, we are pleased to announce the addition of LA based production company Gifted Youth to our roster. Gifted Youth is the commercial production arm of the wildly successful website Funny or Die [.com]. The directing roster consists mostly of comedy directors including the most recent addition, former Caviar director Jake Szymanski. Like many production companies Gifted Youth boasts an in-house design & VFX department dubbed Visual Creatures. You can learn more at giftedyouth.com or just take my word for it.
As always, you’re welcome.
Brothers [and founders of LA based interactive design studio Wildlife] Jake & Scott Friedman recently received another accolade, not an FWA or Webby, they've already got those. They were featured in SHOOT's 2014 DGA New Directors Showcase which is intended to spotlight up and coming talent in the live action space. This further legitimizes the current crossover of interactive and live action work and adds another layer to Wildlife's already impressive offering.
The piece that was submitted for consideration, "You Only Live Twice" was initially meant to be a pre-roll for PROMAX. The short film about an stranded astronaut was concepted and completed 100% in house at Wildlife's LA studio.
Directed by: Jake & Scott Friedman
Production Company: Wildlife
Yes, it's that time again. Obsidian's quarterly recap of all things awesome, aptly named The Razor Report is now available. Click HERE to see a condensed version of what we've been up to so far this year.
Today, Decon chalked up another Top Pick for Creativity. This time for the first in a series of many "Oreo Hacks". Directed by Claire Cottrell, chef Roy Choi dishes up a tasty Oreo snack for those times when you're really drunk, er... hungry in the middle of the night. Click HERE for the full spot as well as the write up in Creativity.
Once a skater, always a skater. It’s a mentality just as much as it is the actual act of skateboarding. I’ve been skating since I was about 12 years old…on and off as I got older [and more prone to injuries]. Skateboarders, though perceived as counterculture social outcasts, see the world through a different lens- where one person may see 6 stairs leading up to a library or school, a skateboarder immediately wonders if they can kick flip that stair set or if there’s enough clearance to boardslide that ledge to the left. The whole world becomes a secret playground accessible only to those who know where to look and what to look for. Growing up, I absolutely idolized Rodney Mullen. I wanted to be this dude so bad, but his skating was on another level, a place reserved for gods.
I would highly recommend watching this interview with Rodney Mullen. He is much older now than he was in the above clip, but listening to him speak is just as interesting as watching him skate.
I always had respect for Rodney because he could some of the most incredible things with a piece of wood on wheels. Things that I would never be able to do even with all the practice time in the world. It’s easy to write it off by saying “he’s a gifted skateboarder” or “he’s professional and that’s all he does”. Both are true statements, but there is something else and it’s even more simple of an explanation: he gets up after he falls. Again and again and again. It’s something more than persistence that gets him back on that skateboard - watch the clip of him skating again or even the TED clip [below] and listen to him even speak about skateboarding and tell me that there is anything less than sheer joy on his face. He skates to live, and he expresses himself through the innovation and invention of tricks. If you watch the interview piece above, you’ll see an emotion that can’t be faked when he talks about skateboarding and what it means to him. It’s almost as if he needs it to live…skate or die - that was what really struck me most.
What would it look like, and more importantly feel like, if we as creators had this connection to our creations? Not just the successful projects, but the myriad failures that lead up to that one success? If we looked at each failure as an opportunity to get up, adjust, and try it again. When innovation or creation is our life then we better feel and speak the way about these lives the way that Rodney Mullen speaks about skateboarding. One of my favorite parts of this interview was the anecdote about the professors after TED talk. These were MIT faculty coming up to Rodney and expressing their inability to teach this exact intangible to their students. These decorated, highly educated professors can understand and teach some of the most complex subjects on the planet, but they cannot teach their students drive. This drive comes from within and you either have it or you don’t. The question is, do you have what it takes inside to overcome what happens on the outside?
The creative industry is gnarly, no doubt. We’re not Blunt sliding 30-stair railings or boosting 30’ out of a vert ramp, but we’re putting everything we have on the line every day - our names, our reputations, our ideas - things that could just as easily be kept safe and sound inside our minds. So why subject ourselves to the torture of critiques and potential rejection? Because we BELIEVE in our idea, design, application, screenplay, etc. We believe in our idea so much that putting it out there is the only option. We want to innovate, and in a way, give back not just to the creative community, but also improve lives outside of our immediate community. Nobody gets innovation right on the first try just as a skate rarely stomps a trick the first time they try it. Here’s the best part - even if a skater stomps the trick on their first try, what do they do next? You guessed it, they try and use that trick in combination with another. This drive is internal and they do it [innovate] not because they like the sound of the word ‘innovator’ [or entrepreneur], but because they simply wonder if it can be done. Obsidian wants to encourage everyone to push themselves creatively, professionally, and personally. Just make sure that you remember why you are pushing yourself in the first place. That is all.
Additional TED Talks w/ Rodney Mullen
"On Getting Up Again"
Rodney Mullen is widely considered to be the most influential skateboarder in skateboarding history. He shares with humility and passion how the constant search for improvement has led to outstanding innovations and how we can all learn from lessons of great skateboarders.
"Pop an Ollie and Innovate"
The last thing Rodney Mullen, the godfather of street skating, wanted were competitive victories. In this exuberant talk he shares his love of the open skateboarding community and how the unique environments it plays in drive the creation of new tricks -- fostering prolific ingenuity purely for passion's sake.
Nike "Risk Everything"
Los Angeles, CA -- boutique music and sound design shop Squeak e Clean was tapped by Weiden & Kennedy to create an original score and sound design for the follow up to Nike's "Write the Future" spot. This spot, called "Risk Everything" tracks Christiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Wayne Rooney on their journey to the world's stage this summer. The spot, directed by Jonathan Glazer gained AdWeek's Ad of the Day today. Click HERE to read the article and below to view the spot.
![Working Hard to Get What You Want -OR- [the ugly] American Dream](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52701b9be4b0147930303fda/1401308400596-DTC5EOFI4CFD9D9BZ302/blog_headerbar_thumbnail_blank_%5Bblack%5D.png)
A month or so ago [during olympics] a television commercial aired, well many television commercials aired, but one in particular got a little more attention than others [sorry PETA, it's not P&G's work]. The first time I saw the spot my television was muted so I didn't pay much attention. It would continue to run throughout the 2014 Winter Olympic games...I eventually got a chance to see it audio and all. The spot was a :60 piece for Cadillac's new hybrid ELR via agency Rogue. Just last week amid an apparent barrage of outrage [neither Huffington Post nor Fox News count as anything more than a never ending soapbox-style counterpoint to anything that could ever be considered logical]. Aside from the fact that I tend take issue with both the extreme left and extreme right of anything, the sheer ignorance of both sides made take to the intarwebz.
*If for some reason you have not read Advertising Age's article about this then I would encourage you to do so now...I'll wait. If you have already read the article and for some reason have not seen the spot then here you go...
Are you done? Good. Hold your questions until the end please. Since we have an American theme going here, we'll start from the left and work our way right.
Ah the Huffington Post, taking "news" and selectively spoon feeding it to the bleeding heart set since 2005. Their argument here is that the takeaway from this spot is that the American Dream is "to work as hard as possible, take 0 time off and buy expensive shit". Here's a few thoughts on this: do we know that this person is the only one working and bringing home any money in the family? His wife looked pretty buttoned up to me. Also, are we to assume that this person is slaving away at some desk job for a fat cat boss? I look at this dude, I see the determination of somebody who to quote the end of the spot "makes their own luck" and probably owns their own business and EMPLOYS OTHERS. Helping to grow the economy of whatever city we are to believe he lives in; in other words putting people back to work which is what America really needs. Sorry HuffPo, I'm not buying that one.
If you've gotten this far and are starting to develop a feeling that I'm a right, wing bible banging hawk of war then you can kiss my ass, then go read a book. Myopic points of view breed thought processes not unlike the one I just described. Let's look at Fox Business' view of this. To paraphrase, it is a "celebration of profit seeking, productivity, and material posessions", I've got to meet this guy. Only somebody with those three things on his or her mind CONSTANTLY could garner that from a :60 commercial for a hybrid vehicle. I'll bet he says the same thing when he sees a girl scout selling cookies in from of the Home Depot or a Lemonade Stand at the corner of his pristine suburban street. This is a pretty decent testament to how out of touch the right can seem. Let's settle this - money does not buy happiness, money *can* buy peace of mind and peace of mind is a valuable commodity in our economic climate. Certain people feel that peace in different ways - walled up inside their castles, hunched over their favorite craft brew in that hip hole in the wall bar that nobody's heard of [yet], 2-putting for birdie at that exclusive country club or behind the counter making the city's sickest latté. Everybody wants to feel secure [don't look at me, look at Maslow], but everybody has a different definition of comfort. Some are currently comfortable and some want to be more comfortable than they currently are, cool? Cool.
How should we view this ad? Quite honestly, If Obsidian wasn't in the business of advertising then this one would have passed right by me. I would not have questioned it or it's motives - here's why: this advertisement is meant for a very specific person and just because it's on television doesn't mean that it's targeted at you like some internet banner ad [i'm looking at you, entitled Millenial]. To call this a celebration of a material possessions is equally ridiculous, the character says it all, it's just "stuff". Are we as Americans wrong for valuing our individuality? No way. Some of us pierce our faces and some of us buy cars, and some of us start businesses. They're all statements, and we're free to make them, ALL OF THEM because we live in America. Fact is, we don't know that this person is actually as rich as some of the arguments would have us believe or if he's just leveraged to the hilt, underwater in his 40 year interest-only mortgage addicted to looking rich...does anyone remember 2008?
Here's the takeaway - there is nothing wrong with working hard. I do it. Everyday [no, I do not drive a Cadillac]. The reason I work hard is because I want Obsidian to be the best, not "pretty good". Is that egotistical? Not a chance. This is America founded on the idea that we had a better way of doing things than the Brits. That idea has lead to countless revolutions, many because the right person invested in the right idea...Yay Capitalism! Yes we have disagreements, but we're allowed to - whether you live on the right, the left or in the middle one thing has not and will not change, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave.
