(cartilage);

It’s been a long wait, but now we can finally share the...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:13:00 -0400

It’s been a long wait, but now we can finally share the new campaign from Ontario Public Health, shot by our Jamie Way, which points out that it’s not always better to give than to receive.

Developed by Toronto agency Rain 43, the “Friends don’t give friends Chlamydia” campaign uses a series of 15-second videos, English and French posters located on college campuses, and a dedicated website to inform young adults about the disease and help them avoid the shame of passing it on to an unsuspecting partner.

The videos tell fragments of a story about a young man named Jason who contracted Chlamydia after a sexual encounter with a woman he met at a party.

CLICK TO VIEW JAMIE WAY’S REEL

Best Canadian Commercial of 2012

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:48:00 -0500

Best Canadian Commercial of 2012:

George Strombolopolous called #TheUndeading the “Best. PSA. Ever.” If you agree, we hope you’ll help vote it as the Best Canadian Commercial of 2012.

Click here to go to the Huffington Post site, scroll down to the slideshow of nominees and vote!

After much secrecy, we can finally show you our latest project,...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:24:00 -0400

After much secrecy, we can finally show you our latest project, theundeading.ca. The campaign, created by Agency59 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, aims to equip the pubic with the right moves to perform hands-only CPR. The PSA (seen above), directed by Vincenzo Natali and produced by Cartilage, was launched on October 4th with a public event in Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square.

Cartilage devised a digital strategy, including theundeading.ca site, the Facebook page and a multi-character Twitter narrative, that will continue to unfold throughout October. The entire campaign is set to finish on October 25th with an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for CPR training at Canada’s Wonderland.

In just one week the video has gotten over half a million views on YouTube, along with praise from Marketing Mag, CBS NEWS, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and CTV News. It was featured on the home page of Mashable, the Financial Post called it a “viral hit” and George Strombolopolous says it might be the “Best. PSA. Ever.”

Check out our behind the scenes video, Bringing #theundeading to Life, for interviews with Agency59, Cartilage Inc, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Vincenzo Natali.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible:

Agency59, Married to Giants, Alter Ego, RMW, Cartilage’s digital team, Actra, Space Network, Toronto Zombie Walk, Canada’s Wonderland, Vibe Dance and Fitness Studio, Laerdal, Angus Rowe Macpherson

Now in its second year, BioSteel, a bubble gum pink...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:22:00 -0400

Now in its second year, BioSteel, a bubble gum pink performance drink, aims to prime NHL players for pre-season training camp by putting them through their paces in the gym and on the ice. They set up shop in a private, undisclosed location, provide players with top shelf training from Matt Nichol (BioSteel’s creator) and Gary Roberts, and all the BioSteel they can chug between drills. We teamed up with Y&R to capture some of the NHL’s finest in what could be the only pro hockey we see all season.

To cap off the camp, a round-robin scrimmage, the Biosteel Cup was held between four teams: Team (Steve) Stamkos, Team (Stephen) Weiss, Team (Mike) Cammalleri, and Team Seguin. Each team was paired with a celebrity coach, including George Strombolopolous, Gerry Dee and Canada’s most recent Olympic gold medalist, Rosie Maclennan.

Our crew, led by producer Matt Kloske, set up a 3-camera shoot resembling that of a live NHL game complete with play-by-play provided by CTV broadcasters. We then streamed it online for all hockey-hungry viewers who headed to the BioSteel Cup microsite. We caught all of the action on and off the ice, including an almost unfathomable shootout goal from Steve Stamkos and the final win by Team Seguin. To complement our footage, Sportsnet was on hand for commentary and locker room interviews.

To drive awareness and trial of Dessert Bites – bite-sized...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:23:00 -0400

To drive awareness and trial of Dessert Bites – bite-sized chocolate candies that come in classic dessert flavours, including raspberry cheesecake, apple pie and key lime pie – Cundari, created the “Justice for Helen” campaign.

The campaign pits a sweet grandma, Helen Wogonowski, in a battle against the “scoundrels” at Allan Candy who stole her prize-winning recipes. The drama plays out through vlogs filmed by her encouraging grandson, Matty. Video by video, Helen goes from slightly frustrated ranting to a full-on street campaign where she plasters downtown Toronto with posters and defaces Allan Candy print ads. In turn, Allan Candy puts their rebuttal in video form but finally concedes defeat when they realize the theft could be traced to their R&D department.

Cartilage director, Brett Blackwell and producer, Matt Kloske worked with Cundari to shoot, edit and then seed the videos through the Justice for Helen accounts on Facebook and Youtube and the Justice for Helen blog.

If you’re a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) commuter...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:23:00 -0400

If you’re a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) commuter it’s possible that you spend up to a month per year in your car. But how would you feel if that commute was truncated into a single month?

The Month In a Car campaign was created to draw awareness to the three month long MOVE Expo (June 30-Oct 28, 2012) housed at historic Evergreen Brick Works. MOVE is presented by Evergreen in collaboration with Institute without Boundaries, to explore the past, present and future of urban transportation in Toronto, and around the world.

Working with Rethink, we provided production support and digital expertise to the Evergreen Month In a Car project. First, we outfitted a Honda Insight, supplied by Autoshare, with Go Pro cameras for additional in-car camera coverage from the car-bound spokesman, Tanner Zurkoski. Brett Blackwell, as Director/DP, provided out of car coverage of Month In a Car events, such as the launch on June 26th at the Evergreen Brickworks. Brett also edited a project wrap up video for the web.

Next, we outfitted the car with LED monitors that ran off the car’s own power. They made the car into a live billboard with content fed via a web portal. This allowed Rethink to display a feed of interesting facts via infographics on the outside of the car. We also gave Tanner a laptop and an LTE rocket stick to engage with people online.

Tanner was chosen amongst a talent-filled list of candidates, the fourth-year Toronto film student would then spend a month in the car starting June 26. While living in the car, Tanner endured record-breaking heat waves, flash floods and traffic jams of two hours or more. Along the way, he recorded his adventures, conducted interviews with green transportation experts and keep the conversation going on Facebook and Twitter.

When people who have been in the industry for 20+ years claim...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:16:00 -0400

When people who have been in the industry for 20+ years claim that THIS set, THIS project is the best they’ve ever worked on, YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT.

This weekend we got to work with the incomparable Vincenzo Natali on an amazing zombie apocalypse scene that we can’t wait to share. All we can right now is, keep watching this space.

Lessons learned: Maybe more attention to wrapping the set...or maybe not.

If You're Looking for Phil Dussol...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:41:00 -0400

You can now find him at Cartilage!

We’ve known Phil for quite a while now and we’ve always been a fan of his beautiful and thrilling spots for brands like Ford, Nike, Pepsi, Toyota and Pontiac.

After being an actor for five years, Phil learned to direct while working on movie sets, including Die Hard III. He wrote, directed, produced and acted in the short film “Easy Money”, an award winning project in many international film festivals.

In 2000 he began directing commercials in Europe and the USA, still with the same determination and creativity, in a dynamic and innovative cinematographic style. He won “Best Young director at Saatchi & Saatchi Award” in Cannes for his Mercedes commercial.

Noticed by Columbia Pictures and by David Fincher, Art Linson and Jonh Linson for his technical mastery and audacious framing in “Easy Money”, Phil is asked to shoot some original sequences for the feature film “Lords of Dogtown”.

Check out his reel and if you want to work with this delightful guy, please give us a call.

PHILLIP DUSSOL REEL

Encorp, a not-for-profit that stewards the recycling of beverage...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:16:00 -0400

Encorp, a not-for-profit that stewards the recycling of beverage containers, took an unexpected leap with a set of four spots crafted by Wasserman + Partners and directed by Peter Rhoads. Wasserman took the typical message of “recycle and be a nice person” and turned it over into “karma’s a bitch”. The scripts featured Muppet-style puppet drink containers that chastise those who are delinquent in their recycling habits. The first one released features two hockey players on the bench. One asks the other why he isn’t being passed the puck and his teammate answers matter-of-factly that those who don’t recycle don’t get passed to. The rogue non-recycler then gets hosed down with water from what the camera reveals is a vengeful plastic bottle in puppet form who shoots the player the hairy eyeball.

Peter Rhoads is no stranger to working with both puppets and top-shelf comedy. “Our director search for these spots was pretty specific,” says Allen Forbes, Wasserman Copywriter. “We needed someone with a thorough understanding of working with puppets, but also someone who understood the kind of deadpan, natural comedy we were going for. Some directors had the right comedy, but no puppet experience or vice versa. Peter had both.”

Peter is notorious for his comedic styling, most distinctly seen in his spots for the web-based Tostitos campaign and his short film, Patching Cabbage. “I see comedy in everything. You could give me a mortuary script and I can see the dark comedy instantly. The scripts were quite good and with a clear message, and quite funny from moment one. The challenge is making the team see what is rattling around in my noggin. By the end of my exhaustive treatment, I was confident that the Wasserman boys saw the spots with the same funny bone that I did.”

We flew out to Vancouver, Cartilage producers from Toronto and Peter from NYC and captured all four 15 second spots in two days. Peter enjoyed Vancouver, working with the Wasserman team, watching blue-suited puppeteers crawling around on set and catching some time to hit the slopes.

“As people will tell you, working with puppets is no joke,” says Forbes. “It’s a lot more technical than you might think. From initial pencil drawings to the finished fleece product, there’s a lot of back and forth that happens between the puppet maker and creatives. Some directors might say, ‘You guys handle the design. Just tell me when we’re ready to shoot.’ But Peter was on every phone conversation. He knew the puppets were going to make the spot, so he was there from beginning to end making sure we got the details right. And all the up front input paid off, because these puppets are awesome.”

While the puppets aren’t mean to act as mascots for the product stewardship corporation, Wasserman holds out hope that they may be treated as such by viewers. “We created some real characters that will be great for the Encorp brand down the road. Now we’ll just wait and see how much love there is for the puppets out in the general public. If initial feedback around the agency is any indication, we’re hoping the campaign does very well.”

CLICK TO VIEW PETER RHOADS’ REEL

Just in time for the Bruins to kick off their NHL playoff run...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:00:00 -0400

Just in time for the Bruins to kick off their NHL playoff run tonight comes a new online show called The Bear and the Gang, which features a handful of Boston Bruins players and their unofficial mascot The Bear in an 80s style sitcom. Among the cast you’ll see Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Jack Edwards and Rene Rancourt. Arnold Worldwide brought director Nick Spooner back to his hometown of Boston to execute the big, ambitious project.

New episodes can be found on the official Bruins app and on YouTube but a quick search for ” The Bear and the Gang” reveals that both advertising and sports writers are sharing the videos far and wide. One of the show’s greatest attributes, at least in my opinion, is its appeal for even non-fans. Hell, throw a huggable bear into your video and I’ll put on any team jersey you hand me.

Nick is right to assume that revealing the real budget and timeline of the Bruins spots could set a bad precedent but it’s safe to say that both factors were tight and yet didn’t get in the way of the idea or execution. Nick describes the process as being like putting on a show in your own backyard. And it’s all worth it, he says, because it’s a good idea. Nick drew from his long history of working in commercial film - he was a child actor and did various on-set jobs as he was coming up the ranks - to help incubate this particular good idea. No job was too far outside of director role. Nick mended the bear costume, helped build the set and even burnished the bear’s eyes, nose and mouth with KY jelly. It’s an old trick, he says, for making those features come to life on screen.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW NICK SPOONER’S REEL

With growing workloads and strained numbers, British...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0400

With growing workloads and strained numbers, British Columbia’s nurses are being stretched thin. Each one seems to be shouldering what would typically be the work of several and without awareness and support from the government, the problem keeps stacking higher. Alvin Wasserman (Creative Director), Liam Greenlaw (Creative Director), Tana Kosiyabong (Art Director) and Allen Forbes (Copywriter) of Wasserman + Partners came up with a concept for the BC Nurse’s Union illustrating the strength and benevolence of nurses and how they grapple with their ever-growing duties. To bring the scene to life on screen, Wasserman were specifically looking for a director who could seamlessly marry live action with VFX. Right away, we knew that Jonathan Desbiens was the perfect fit. He has a striking visual sense and his hands-on approach means that he plays director, editor and animator on most of his projects.

Jonathan connected right away with Wasserman’s idea, likening the nurses to the mythological Atlas who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Not only did he take great care in communicating the message, he even got a personal thank you from the client; an unexpected nicety in the advertising world.

At 25, Jonathan is our youngest director and one of the biggest dreamers and hardest workers we know. His reel is packed with projects that he’s guided from concept to final cut in this way, which positions him among the new breed of directors who are filling out briefs like the one above. Asked if he thinks that this is where directors are heading these days, Jonathan says, “Definitely. I don’t think all directors should and will do it, but there are certainly more and more directors cutting and making VFX for their own stuff. I think it gives an added value to the work as the technical and graphical aspects can become more personal and unique to the director.”

What’s up next for Jonathan? “I’ve recently worked on some commercials in Montreal for Kijiji (Ebay) and Le Lait, an account in Quebec. Also, my last music video for Cypress Hill and Rusko got released three weeks ago.”

CLICK FOR JONATHAN DESBIENS’ REEL

Rain 43 teamed up with Cartilage Inc. to help The Canadian Lung...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:47:00 -0500

Rain 43 teamed up with Cartilage Inc. to help The Canadian Lung Association make their message viral.

When Rain 43 were asked by their client, The Canadian Lung Association, to help educate Canadians on the dangers of coughs that last longer than three weeks, they came up with a delightfully cheeky and surprising campaign with a unique set of components that could live online and on television. To make the project possible, Rain 43 approached Cartilage Inc. and our director Jamie Way to execute the integrated offering.

Under Jamie’s direction, Cartilage executed all elements for the campaign, including the TV spot, photography, the soon-to-be-released viral (featured above) and content for the micro-site, with a real respect for the top-shelf comedy conceived by Rain 43’s John Farquhar and Bernice Allinson. With style, Jamie helped introduce the campaign’s spokesman, a smooth-operating phlegm ball who channels his inner Sinatra to direct TV viewers to the 3weekcough.ca microsite. On the site, the phlegm ball returns inviting the audience to take a quick cough test. The questionnaire helps users determine the severity of their cough and what action they should take next.

The ad has been placed on History, Slice, W Network, CMT, The Weather Network and APTN. Online, they can be seen on Weather.ca and Facebook and will specifically target eHarmony users 45-55 who indicate that they are smokers.

HoHoTO has become a notorious party for many reasons. It started...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:50:00 -0500

HoHoTO has become a notorious party for many reasons. It started as a notion on Twitter and has since grown to become one of the biggest fundraising events for the Daily Bread Food Bank.

This year, they raise over $70,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank through sponsors, ticket sales, a raffle and a post-party “hangover” auction. Pretty impressive for an event that started only a few years ago; almost unheard of for one that started over Twitter.

Cartilage Inc. was excited to help out, while spreading our own social media wings, and we did so in the only way we know how. We made a short-sweet-n-shareable web documentary. Director Brett Blackwell and producer Matt Kloske worked with the HoHoTO crew to grab interviews from founding members and plenty of footage from the event held at Mod Club. Here we present to you the teaser, and once we reach 5000 views we will release the full documentary.

Here’s the full link if you want to copy/paste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjQnAOUVH1A&feature=youtu.be

Share hard!

On Super Bowl Sunday, while the butt indents in La-Z-Boys got a...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:06:00 -0500

On Super Bowl Sunday, while the butt indents in La-Z-Boys got a little deeper and the sound wave of 100 millions beer bottles being opened caused New Caledonia to shift an inch Westward, director Wade Sherman was thinking happy thoughts. A year’s worth of his work on CTV’s London Olympics 2012 BELIEVE campaign was finally launched during Super Bowl XLVI.

Unveiling the first of the BELIEVE spots during the Super Bowl was a smart move for CTV. Not only were they able to introduce the campaign to millions of viewers but they grabbed the attention of ad folks who no doubt watched the media-steeped event on more than one screen, their fingers toiling away on their latest tweet or play-by-play commercial break critique. Super Bowl ads are famously laden with sex, celebrities and humour, but amid Kia’s bikinis babes and Pepsi’s Sir Elton John with gold lame platforms (though is he ever without?), the BELIEVE spots provided a welcome eyeful of beauty, pride and international brio.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Wade has lensed the nation’s hope and exitement for the Olympics. You may remember his original award-winning BELIEVE campaign debuted in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games - helping to inspire a nation through the exuberant words of young Canadians. The London 2012 BELIEVE campaign rekindles that feeling of national pride from Vancouver 2010, while engaging new Canadians by showing how the Olympic spirit of BELIEVE is alive in their homelands. Wade has spent nearly a year traveling through Italy, Poland, Windsor and Portugal to capture that feeling. “The idea,” says Wade, “was to take the Vancouver 2010 campaign to the next level, showing that the movement that took place here in Canada has now spread around the world. With their home countries as stunning backdrops, I wanted to film real people showing ‘they believe’ in their own Olympic athletes competing in London 2012.”

So far, two spots from the campaign aired during CTV’s Super Bowl coverage, a 60 second and a 30 second, as a teaser for what’s to come in the months leading up to the London 2012 games. The #Believe hashtag when into full throttle.

More of Wade’s BELIEVE spots, featuring scenes from Italy, Poland and Portugal, will be unveiled throughout the Spring leading up to the London 2012 games. Not to sound greedy, but we’re glad to have Wade back for some upcoming projects on his home turf.

CLICK TO VIEW MORE WORK FROM WADE SHERMAN

CARTILAGE INC. HAS A NEW HOME!

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

“I’ve been talking about creating one connected company between commercial production and digital development for some time and now I have a website that does it as well.” ~William Cranor (Cartilage Inc. Managing Director)

The new Cartilage Inc. site is a showcase of our work as a digital savvy production company. It perfectly represents the producers, developers, directors and designers that make up the new Cartilage Inc.
Every decision we made while dreaming up and developing the site was focused on making a place that perfectly housed the work of our directors and displayed our expertise in digital media. What we have now is a website that allows users to experience our work in the way it was intended: big, beautiful and ready to share.

We have now set up shop in Liberty Village, what Ron Tite calls the next Madison Avenue.

Our new address is: 219 Dufferin St. Suite 207B Toronto, ON, M6K 3J1
Our phone number is still: 416 - 362 - 7696

We look forward to working with you!

The Cartilage Inc. team

"One day, we will all live in the future."

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

“One day, we will all live in the future.”

We asked some of the best and brightest minds from the Toronto...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:24:00 -0400

We asked some of the best and brightest minds from the Toronto advertising community to help us define Cartilage for those who don’t yet know us. You’re welcome.

CONGRATULATIONS, SEAN WAINSTEIM!

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Last night, our man Sean was named Director of the Year at the 2011 Much Music Video Awards. Sean did a beautiful job shooting the video for You Say Party We Say Die’s “Lonely’s Lunch” and we’re excited that he got some much deserved recognition.

We hope you’ll join us in saying a big CONGRATULATIONS!

DIRECTOR JONATHAN DESBIENS TALKS ABOUT INSPIRATION, BEAUTY AND HIS DEBUT INTO COMMERCIAL FILM

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

“It’s not a passion; more of an obsession, really” (Jonathan Desbiens)

Jonathan Desbiens began “playing” with Photoshop, After Effects and a VHS camera at age 11, but didn’t put down the Lego until age 14. His work since has become a continuation of that play, and he is dead serious when he says his 24/7 job is to keep that childlike creativity alive. After establishing himself in the music video scene, Jonathan made the jump to commercials in the Montreal market. He has enjoyed a busy year shooting spots for Bell, the Government of Quebec and a gorgeous music video for Deftones (pictured above).

What was the first ad you shot?

The Bell commercials for the Montreal Canadiens’ games.

How has a music video background helped you with your commercial work?

To simplify complex ideas that can’t be expressed with words. It’s obvious and cliché, but commercials are short and need to send a clear message, but most importantly to me, this message has to be charged with clear and perfectly aimed emotions to make sure the product connects with the viewer. I think that music videos are a good way for me to resume these really abstract emotions and it allows me to develop an efficient cinematographic language based on that.

I love the CREA spot (pictured below)! Tell me about how the project developed and did you contribute or shape the creative direction?

First off, this project was a co-direction with a Montreal director I respect a lot, Yan Giroux (we have complete opposite directing styles and I like that). The client, Infopresse, gave us a blank card. We simply brainstormed crazy ideas and were kind of studying the concept of portraits, and came with this idea concerning identity, and about what’s real and not, since advertising is all about playing with the perceptions. So that’s why we decided to play all the characters by ourselves and digitally paste the faces of the juries over our green masks and outfits.

Where did you go to school?

I studied french literature, arts and communication at the college Laflèche in Trois-Rivières (for a DEC diploma), and have a degree in fine arts from the UQTR (University of Trois-Rivières). I tried to study cinema in Montreal but got turned down by all the universities there, I was frustrated for 24 hours then I realized I didn’t want to study cinema, but make my own cinema. So, I went to a bank and ask for a mortgage and bought a camera the next week. I told myself that one day I will gladly turn their teaching proposal down. This experience taught me that if I am to “purely” create, make a living out of it and offer valuable content to the viewer, I have to free my mind of all pre-built concepts. I can explore the technical aspects by myself without problems.

Do you have a particular approach when you are planning out and shooting a project? Take me through that process.

The last answer explains it partially. First off, when possible, I always go out and drive my car in the countryside to think about the project, it’s a way of making my mind feel in continuous motion! Then images, colours, rhythm and actions are automatically taking place in my mind according to the brief. Then I come back home and write everything down. Then for the shoot, I have only one rule: to make sure it’s fun and intense. I don’t mean it has to be a party, but it has to be an intense experience to make sure every single person feels involved and important, because they are! The most simple shots have to be intense and valuable, cause otherwise they’ll end up being used as fillers in the edit.

Live action, or graphics/animation - what comes first when you are planning a project?

Technically live action, but from a creativity point of view, it’s all the same to me. Paintings, drawings, 3D, traditional animations, live footage, are all ways to express something through images. I’m interested by images in motions. But live action is more important to me, first of all because it’s a lot more fun and intense. It’s the moment in a project where you can create a momentum and take of advantage of it!

Who in your life has directly inspired or motivated you?

My girlfriend is the person who allows me to be myself everyday, but from a creative and professional point of view, nobody in particular. I’m a lot more interested by what’s going on around me, by the simplicity and beauty of life. I think mountains and trees inspired more emotions, stories and images than anybody could.

I think I’m motivated by the simple fact that I have a vision and opinions about life that I haven’t really seen elsewhere. But don’t get me wrong, I don’t pretend to invent new ideas, concepts or techniques cause we are all influenced by movies and art that is all around us, but I deeply pretend that I can bring people into worlds of my own that will make them feel emotions they have never felt before. Maybe this is something that I haven’t been able to do so far in my work, but that will happen soon.

Finally, it also means for me that the technique will never become a concept, simply because that’s not how my brain work: technique will always serve a purpose and not the opposite. To put it simply, impressions are timeless and last; techniques will always get old.

Any new projects you can tell me about?

I’m working on a music video for Underoath, a Grammy-nominated band I’ve been listening to for years. It’s like a teenager dream that became true, and I also had a great time discussing, hanging out and shooting with them in the freezing cold of Montreal (they’re from Florida). They gave me a blank card so it’s gonna be very personal.

CLICK TO VIEW JONATHAN DESBIENS’ REEL

Director Sean Wainsteim’s visual storytelling skills are tapped...

alanawhitneyarmstrong — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Director Sean Wainsteim’s visual storytelling skills are tapped for a second time with a new music video for the Canadian dance-punk band, You Say Party’s new hit single, “Lonely’s Lunch”. We spoke to Sean about his creative process and shooting on location in India.

How did you get involved in this project for You Say Party?

The band, whom I’d collaborated with previously on “Monster” shot in Prague, approached me with the notion that they wanted to take their videos in a different direction. Lead singer Becky was less interested in doing performance pieces and more interested in opening up their videos to artistic collaborations - letting filmmakers freely explore a visual pairing to accompany their musical narrative. They offered a level of trust that was very inviting (and a great track) and lured me out of music video retirement.

Can you describe the creative concept for the video?

The conceptual genesis was two-fold. Firstly, I wanted to create a piece that reflected the discomfort associated when an armed police force casually (in some cases) occupies an urban center (found in London, Tel Aviv or my own Toronto during the recent G20 summit). Secondly, I wanted to collaborate with Shanker Raman, an Indian cinematographer I had worked with a decade ago and kept in touch with as he moved on to features. Since those police forces (and ensuing gradual erosion of civil liberties) often operate under the guise of working for the public good or are masked by religious doctrine, it made sense to transpose that scenario into another culture so it would stand out as foreign even more starkly. This gave way to India and the elephant headed masks. It all made sense.
Ultimately my goal was to create an engaging and driving visual that worked with the mood of the music, and to use that military presence as more of a backdrop than as a soapbox.

What was it like shooting in India?

With an extremely tight budget, I set off … during the monsoon season.
Smart. I slept on floors (belonging to my gracious cameraman and some of his friends) and spent time exploring cities in between trying to figure out how to pull off this production and dealing with a touch of “Delhi Belly” - you know something is wrong when you’re shivering in India during the day and asking people if they feel cold too. I went to shoot in Pune, a few hours away from Mumbai, depending on traffic, where a local producer and his casting director wife worked tirelessly to accommodate the needs of a challenged production budget.
Steve Manale, another frequent creative collaborator joined me in India to help out with art department, second unit and many assorted other things that needed aid. He slept on a floor too.

Did you face any challenges during the shoot?

The first day of shooting was on my birthday. There were issues (why weren’t the cameras rolling when the elephant went by? Why are you telling me now that Indians don’t like to run?) but by the time the sun set on the first day, production and language issues went away and the scotch tasted
mighty fine (it was my birthday… I deserved that scotch). We had two more days of shooting that went incredibly smooth - much of it not being possible in most countries (like taking over people’s kitchen’s to shoot out a window at a moments notice, or rope-tying an injured guy to the back of a motorized rickshaw so he could hang on to the guy holding the camera, promoting someone to AD so we’d have an AD — y’know… fun stuff). I encountered so much friendliness and warmth. So much spirit of life and positivity under very, very adverse conditions.

What was the most rewarding aspect of filming the music video in India?

Overwhelmed with kindness and hospitality, exhausted I left India. I learned how to eat with my hands but not how to wipe with my hands… and I was okay with that. Thanks to the incredibly generous help of my post-production team and scotch, the project was completed. I’m thrilled
with the edit, the colour correct, sound design and effects (some of which I did) - provided by friends who are damn good at what they do and damn kind to work with me (sometimes on multiple occasions).

It was one of the most challenging, yet also least stressful and most fun times I’ve had shooting. The band and label have been totally positive and encouraging throughout the process. I can’t thank them enough. It means a lot when you go all out on projects and have that kind of appreciation. That’s the best reward. That and not having Delhi Belly.

CLICK TO VIEW SEAN’S REEL