(Minneapolis, Minnesota--March 10, 2009) CRASH+SUES recently joined forces with the Not For Sale non-profit organization and Martin/Williams to create “Shadows,” a spellbinding 60-second spot informing viewers that slavery still exists - and closer to home than they know.
The full-service post house created seamless animated transitions, performed extensive compositing, and executed the online finish for the spot, which recently made the prestigious ADC Young Guns Award’s short list. Echo Boys, the sibling company of CRASH+SUES, crafted the message’s affecting score and sound design.
Not For Sale, headed by Dr. David Batstone, author and professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco, was created to educate and mobilize an international abolitionist movement through open-source activism. Students, entrepreneurs, artists, people of faith, athletes, politicians, social workers and many others have united under its banner to fight the global slave trade, which currently holds some 27 million people in bondage – and last year generated more revenue than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
“Shadows” features the early art of hand shadows to relate a story of present-day human trafficking. Its message is brought home by a compelling voiceover narrative: “When I was little, I had big dreams,” says a young woman. “I would stare at the clouds and wonder what I would become. My imagination ran wild. One day a man came promising a better life far away. Now that I’m big, my only dreams are of when I was little -- when I was free.”
Director of Photography, Joel Sheagren shot illusionist Bob Stromberg’s hand shadows, which took the form of protagonist, victim, animals, and background elements. The spot opens on a bird with wings outspread. A sequence of shapes drives the compelling storyline as Stromberg’s hand shadows take on the uncanny likeness of everything from a predatory man smoking a cigarette, to a rabbit, to a deer, to a bird, to a tree with branches that close transforming it into an arm with a clenched fist. The silhouette of a young woman taken into captivity is framed inside the window of a building, her wrists shackled. The spot closes with her hands pressing together once again, creating a free-flying bird as the chains dissolve and “Re-abolish slavery at notforsalecampaign.org” appears.
Stromberg performed almost every element individually against a scrim, while CRASH+SUES’ lead animator and compositor, Adam Celt manned Autodesk’s Discreet Flame to make the transitions unspoiled. He animated extended-bicubics to warp the images in 2D and 3D space, then keyed and composited all elements together. Additionally, he tracked in generated smoke for the man’s cigarette and keyed bird footage used in the transition into his logo animation.
Using the After Effects platform, additional animations for the project were created by CRASH+SUES own Sean Hall, and the work of animator Matt Sattler was employed in creating particle animation to craft smoke for the boat as well as the chimney of the building.
“It was a great collaborative effort with the agency,” notes lead animator Celt. “As the spot grew from 30 seconds to 60 we wanted it all to look like it was performed live, so we were challenged to see how far we could push the shadow technique in post and merge it with Bob Stromberg’s performance.”
Echo Boys’ composer Ross Nelson wrote the heartfelt score, which begins light and child-like as the narrator shares her innocent and optimistic childhood dreams. The music grows progressively ominous and foreboding as the storyline unfolds and she is ultimately enslaved. It ends on a wistful, melancholy note with the narrator recalling the days when she was free.
Nelson recorded all the instruments in Pro Tools HD 3 Accel. He played piano, synthesized harp and trumpet, while colleague Alex Berglund took on the stringed parts of the composition. Ross Nelson mixed the music on Echo Boys’ Pro Tools and remained on the platform to perform the spot’s final stereo mix. Echo Boys’ owner Tom Lecher created the sound design marked by the eerie stylized wails of captivity in the city.
“Shadows” debuted during the Minneapolis premiere of “Call and Response,” Not For Sale’s rockumentary feature about human trafficking. The CRASH+SUES team pushed the envelope creating a unique and imaginative credit sequence, which followed the spot. “Everyone on the shoot did Alfred Hitchcock-esque silhouettes of ourselves,” says Celt, citing the signature style of the classic TV series from the master of suspense.
The spots are airing internationally on Setanta TV in Europe. CRASH+SUES has also created a Spanish-language version for the Ricky Martin Foundation, which will use it to raise awareness about human trafficking in Latin America.
CRASH+SUES specializes in the seamless integration of cg, visual FX, animation, motion graphics + design, color correction, creative editing, finishing, audio and multimedia services. For additional information, contact executive producer Donna Drewick at 612.338.7947 or visit our website at: www.crash-sues.com.
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