Fischer Edit/FX Blog

Fischer FX’s Alicia Reece and Matt Collings got the opportunity to flex their 3D inspiration on a recent broadcast campaign for Cox Business through Minneapolis based ad agency Periscope. The team promised their ability to bring Sir Roger, a 3D medieval knight, to life for the spot intended to capture the youthful, online gaming crowd.

Reece, a 3D artist and modeler at Fischer FX, who has worked on 3D and motion graphics projects for clients like Target, Activision and Microsoft, saw this job as “paving the way to do more character stuff” in the future. Visual Effects artist Collings attended the shoot with the real Sir Roger, taking reference photos and observing the mood of the spot.

While Reece began building the knight, Collings modeled the stone fortress background, texturing the location and lighting the whole scene. The team approached the movement of the knight carefully, inducting a volunteer, a broom handle and some lobby couch cushions to ferment the knight’s movements on tape and inevitably help the animation process through film reference.

As it turned out, the original request turned into two scenes lengthening their time frame. After which the team composited and matched their textures to reference images resulting in the final image seen below.

Fischer Edit’s Tim Taylor edited the spot with online by Fischer FX’s Jay Holgate and Jake Parker as Flame Artist, the final mix was provided by Modern Music.

Watch it below:

Animation by Fischer FX in this Cox Business Spot from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

Washington Lottery’s “Birds” edited by Fischer Edit’s Lindy Wilson took a Cannes Silver Lion last week, cementing its moniker as the spot that keeps on giving. Over 3, 400 spots were entered in the 2009 Cannes Lions – Advertising Festival, among them only 18 spots were from US agencies. “Birds” which originated from Publicis of the West, also took the title of “Best Entertainment & Leisure” spot in the world. The spot’s director Jerry Brown of Sticks + Stones studios was one of thirteen US directors to be recognized.

The Cannes Silver Lion is a major coup for Editor Lindy Wilson whose awards credits also include a Golden Bear, Clio and Emmy among others. “On this spot, I used my vast resource of storytelling skills that go back to my days as an editor at the Sundance Institute Feature Film Lab. I couldn’t be happier that “Birds” has been recognized for this many awards, and those of such great value to editors, directors and the advertising industry.”

This win follows its awards for “Best in Show” from the ADDY awards and “Best of Minneapolis” at the AICE show this spring.

Fischer Edit’s Lindy Wilson edited this new spot from Land O’ Lakes featured as Ad of the Day on Adweek. Check it out here.

Best Of Show ADDY Honor Is For The “Birds”

Washington State Lottery’s “Birds”

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 09, 2009, — From SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery in June 2008 to a year later earning Best of Show distinction at the 2009 ADDY Awards in Washington, D.C., this past weekend (6/6)–that’s the progression for a Washington State Lottery TV spot titled “Birds” directed by Jerry Brown of Sticks+Stones Studios, Los Angeles, for Publicis in the West, Seattle.

In the commercial (which also copped a Gold ADDY), enterprising people take it upon themselves to give the gift of flight to birds who can’t otherwise–namely a penguin, a chicken and an emu. The means toward that end are hang gliders with harnesses on each to accommodate the penguin, chicken and emu, respectively. After we witness each bird get its debut flight experience, a voiceover and an accompany super relate, “Every bird should get to fly.” A tag appears with the Washington State Lotto logo and the slogan, “Whose world could you change?”

Director Brown noted that the penguin, chicken and emu didn’t actually fly in the spot. A prime challenge of the project, he said, was “how to seamlessly composite birds with hang gliders and still make it feel spontaneous and observed.” This meant that Brown had to capture the birds “enjoying flight” even through they weren’t experiencing it. Brown and DP Tom Olgeirrson deployed camera angles that “while interesting, didn’t stretch credulity,” said the director. “The animal trainers worked with the birds for more than a week, suspending them in harnesses and getting them used to being in their rigs.” Jake Parker of Fischer Edit, Minneapolis, served as VFX supervisor/Flame artist on the job. Fischer’s Lindy Wilson was the editor. Attracting Brown to the job was its positive, uplifting spirit, focusing on the good deeds lottery winners can perform–”to show someone,” said the director, “doing something for someone that they couldn’t do themselves.”

The Publicis in the West ensemble included creative director Dan Fietsam, art director Scott Rasmussen and copywriter Jeff Siegel. Among the other Gold ADDY winners were: Federal Express’ “Carrier Pigeons” directed by Tom Kuntz of bicoastal/international MJZ for BBDO New York; the American Legacy Foundation’s “Tough Love” (part of the “Truth” campaign), also directed by Kuntz, this time for Boston agency Arnold; and the Environmental Defense Fund/Ad Council’s “Polar Bears” directed by Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Ogilvy New York.

The annual ADDYs competition is conducted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). For a full rundown of this year’s ADDY Awards winners, log onto www.aaf.org and click on “awards.”

Washington Lottery “Birds”, edited by Fischer Edit’s Lindy Wilson with Visual Effects Supervision from Fischer FX’s Jake Parker, swept the 2009 ADDY Awards show taking “Best in Show” and a “National Gold Award.”

The awards show put on at the American Advertising Federation National Conference in Washington D.C, crowned all kinds of advertising both professional and student, including broadcast spots. Out of roughly 1600 entries judged in the national competition, “Birds” was chosen out of the 330 ADDY Awards presented.

This win trails on the spot’s win at the AICE in May, taking “Best of Minneapolis.” It’s been quite the year for this spot out of Publicis in the West, production company Sticks + Stones and director Jerry Brown.

Read what’s been said about this spot and its win:

“Best of Show ADDY Honor Is For The ‘Birds’” Shoot June 9, 2009

“News in Brief” Shots June 10, 2009

“Publicis In The West Takes 2009 ADDY Awards Best of Show” AAF June 9, 2009

“Those Birds Really Know How To Fly” Washington Lottery Press Room

“Publicis In The West Takes 2009 ADDY Awards Best of Show; Locally One Trick Pony Gets Gold and Silver” Philadelphia Ad Club June 10, 2009

Fischer FX’s Alicia Reece and Matt Collings got the opportunity to flex their 3D inspiration on a recent broadcast campaign for Cox Business through Minneapolis based ad agency Periscope. The team promised their ability to bring Sir Roger, a 3D medieval knight, to life for the spot intended to capture the youthful, online gaming crowd.
Reece, a 3D artist and modeler at Fischer FX, who has worked on 3D and motion graphics projects for clients like Target, Activision and Microsoft, saw this job as “paving the way to do more character stuff” in the future. Visual Effects artist Collings attended the shoot with the real Sir Roger, taking reference photos and observing the mood of the spot.

While Reece began building the knight, Collings modeled the stone fortress background, texturing the location and lighting the whole scene. The team approached the movement of the knight carefully, inducting a volunteer, a broom handle and some lobby couch cushions to ferment the knight’s movements on tape and inevitably help the animation process through film reference.
As it turned out, the original request turned into two scenes lengthening their time frame. After which the team composited and matched their textures to reference images resulting in the final image seen below.
Fischer Edit’s Tim Taylor edited the spot with online by Fischer FX’s Jay Holgate and Jake Parker as Flame Artist, the final mix was provided by Modern Music.

The 2009 AICE Awards show, held last night at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles showcased the work of editors from across North America including Fischer Edit’s Lindy Wilson for her editing of last year’s Washington Lottery “Birds” spot. Wilson’s work beat out contenders also vying for the “Best of Minneapolis” category award. Wilson and Fischer FX’s Jake Parker worked on the spot, Parker attending the shoot north of Los Angeles as Visual Effects Supervisor.

Read Wilson’s explanation of her work here, as well as Parker’s involvement in helping the birds to fly.

Washington Lottery’s “Birds” edited by Fischer Edit from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

Check out Shoot Magazine’s article on the 2009 winners here.

As our move in date draws closer we’ve all been taking individual trips to revel in our magnificent new space, here are some of the most recent changes. To see the progress over the past couple of months see our first posting when Modern Music’s studio was just bare metal or even just two weeks ago before much of the flooring was applied.

Check back as we will keep the Fischer Edit blog up to date with where we’re at in our transition.

And then I found this upstairs:

We wrote over a month ago about Fischer Edit’s new building in the Warehouse District, but that was before we found ourselves delayed by a fire in the building.

We sustained very minor smoke damage and a bit of a postponed timeline. Now much to our excitement things are truly coming together. Below, a peek at what things are looking like now that some paint and wall treatments have been applied.

Check back as we will update the site with our whereabouts as we transition into a new era for Fischer Edit/FX, Modern Music and Runner Runner.

And to see where we were a month ago, visit our previous post here.

With the 2009 “Dancing With the Stars” season already in full swing including a line up featuring the likes of Lil’ Kim, Denise Richards and Steve Wozniak among others, it seemed appropriate to reveal the spots cut by Lindy Wilson for the game version of the show. Fischer Edit, Activision and Gabriel deGrood Bendt all teamed up on a large campaign of some of the video-game giant’s cache of products.

Wilson edited “Dancing With the Stars” showcasing Nintendo Wii’s game and featuring some well-known talent (including GdB Creative Director Doug deGrood’s son). The talent’s spontaneity offered up great moments for Wilson. Of the dad character Wilson says,  “My selects of him were hilarious. It was hard not to use them all.” However she notes, “You didn’t want to have the same degree of wackiness the whole way through…Doug’s very good with humor, he starts it out part way normal and then it gets crazier.”

Wilson knows what she’s looking for when she delves inside spots, talking about the embarrassment of the family at their dad’s dancing, “You want them to look like ‘Wow?! We’ve never seen Dad do this!’ and you want the wife to look like ‘Gosh I love him but – what is he doing? He’s really suprising me.’” To find unison in their reactions took some time but overall the purpose for Wilson was really to make the game look fun, something she already knew firsthand.

After starting on the job, Wilson herself went out and purchased the game which her daughters loved. “Having the enthusiasm from my kids, to be working on something that was so positive. I felt good about doing it, I knew that it was good for people and families,” she explains.

Working with agency GdB and Activision proved to be a great experience for Fischer Edit and Wilson who went on to edit spots for many more of their games last year. Additionally, Wilson’s taken to playing WiiFit’s Yoga to complement her kid’s love of all the other games.

“Dancing With the Stars” for Activision Edited by Lindy Wilson from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.