Passion RAW Starts to Cook
The live action division of UK-based animation and design studio Passion Pictures has added new talent and is setting its sights on the US.
Passion RAW Starts to Cook
The new live action division of UK-based animation and design
studio Passion Pictures has added Directors Jonathan
Gurvit and the French directing team JACK.
By Anthony Vagnoni
Passion RAW, the recently launched live action arm of the global visual effects and production company Passion Pictures, is starting to cook.
The company is spearheaded by Executive Producers and Managing Directors Dan Scott-Croxford and Penny Verbe and Head of Sales Kat Downs. While based in London, they have a presence in the States via Passion Pictures' growing New York office there (which recently named former Psyop EP Rich Rama as Executive Producer).
Passion RAW was launched in January of this year. It's just signed two new directors: the South American CD-turned-director Jonathan Gurvit and the French directing team known as JACK. Passion RAW has them for the US, the UK and selected countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Neither has been represented in the US or UK prior to this.
Gurvit is a former Creative Director at Ogilvy in Argentina; during his time there he won 18 Lions in Cannes. His first spots as an independent director include work for Citroen, MTV and Santander. They demonstrate his taste for kitsch art direction and high-gloss visuals, mixed with his ability to integrate visual effects. They also reveal that he has a sense of humor, which is not unexpected when working with directors who have a flair for effects.
This is particularly apparent in his "Hair Conditioner" spot for the financial services brand Santander, produced via EL.EI Studios in Buenos Aires for Ogilvy. In the spot, we see a car floating down the road, covered in long, flowing brown hair. It's an arresting image-a hairy car? As the music track plays, the camera sweeps around to the driver's side and a man sticks his head out; he's completely bald, but is clearly luxuriating in the feel of the car's strands of hair blowing in his face. The tag line explains it all: "Very personal loans."
Different sides of Gurvit's taste are seen in two other spots he just shot. In his MTV spot, "Teddy," a stop-motion animated stuffed bear helps shield small children from witnessing the bad behavior of the adults around them. And in "Telephone" for Citroen, part of a three-spot campaign produced for Euro RSCG/Buenos Aires, old-style telephone receivers are seen melting on an eerie set. The point is that the stylish and modern Citroen DS3 sports sedan is 'Anti-Retro.' Both MTV and Citroen were produced through Primo Buenos Aires.
The directing duo JACK, also known as Julien and Camille, are ex-Wieden + Kennedy creatives. Specializing in mixed media, they combine elements of design, animation, 3D, motion graphics and still photography into their work. They've traveled around the world on assignments for publications such as Vogue and for brands such as Nike, and have now settled in Paris, where they first launched their directing careers in 2009.
JACK has directed a number of music videos for artists such as Lafayette (see "Les Dessous Feminins") and Cocosuma (see "The Jar"), as well as a clever and engaging spot for the French Ad Club that uses stop-motion and computer-generated animation to promote its awards competition. They broke into commercials last year with a bouncy spot titled "36,000 Solutions" for the European retail chain Darty via agency H Paris that includes live action, animation and computer graphics in a split-screen romp that includes countless vignettes and edits, all of which reveal how the store has things that make life easier. The French Ad Club named it the best debut commercial for a director or directing team earlier this year.
Passion RAW's roster also includes Director Willem Gerritsen, who's had a banner awards show season, racking up honors around the world for his "Liquid Mountaineering" web video for Hi-Tec and agency CCCP, Amsterdam and TomTom and agency Pool Worldwide, also Amsterdam. Both were produced by Czar, Gerritsen's production company in the Netherlands.
The Hi-Tec video purports to show enthusiasts of a new sport that entails running across the surface of lakes and rivers. The video was so convincing in its presentation that a TV station in the US actually thought it was legitimate and ran a news story on this surprising new fad.
Awards show juries agreed. Hi-Tec won a Bronze Cyber Lion in Cannes, a Bronze Pencil at the One Show in New York; two Silvers at the ADCN in the Netherlands, in the web film and interactive categories; a Bronze in the European-based Epica awards, in the interactive category. It also took the Grand Prix for virals at the Spin Awards in Amsterdam and was named Best Viral Mockumentary at the Ad Age Viral Video Awards in New York.
Gerritsen's TomTom spots, titled "Darth Vader" and "Yoda," are web shorts promoting the fact that TomTom users can opt for directions being read to them using the voices of their favorite "Star Wars" characters. In both spots, we get to watch the hijinks that went on during the recording sessions behind these ventures.
The campaign won Silver at the Art Directors Club in New York and at D&AD in London. They were also chosen for the 2011 Chipshop Awards. The "Yoda" spot won a Silver at the Eurobest Awards, while the "Darth Vader" spot won a Bronze Cyber Lion in Cannes and a Gold for Best Content at the Spin Awards in Amsterdam.
Also getting attention for new work is Passion RAW director André Maat, whose new German Red Cross spot, titled "Give Blood, Give Life," was co-directed with Henk Loorbach and produced via Markenfilm for agency Heimat in Berlin. The spot shows images taken from what look like home movies projected onto a woman's face; they come to an abrupt end with the sound of a car crash, followed by a drop of blood trickling across the screen, and then a shot of the woman as she smiles.
SourceEcreative checked in with EP/MD Dan Scott-Croxford to ask what's the secret to a hot new company launch.
"We pride ourselves on being an innovative production company that's able to tap into the resources of a global award-winning network," says Scott-Croxford. "We have access to an amazing, Oscar-winning studio and animation facilities, plus a feature documentary department that's also won an Academy award," he notes, referring to the work of Passion Pictures and its highly-regarded capabilities in the US, the UK and Australia. But the RAW offering goes further, he adds. "We've signed an elite roster of talented, up-and-coming live action directors, breaking fresh talent into the market."
Where does Scott-Croxford see RAW headed in the next year? And does he expect to raise the brand's profile with the latest talent additions?
The answers, not surprisingly, are yes and yes. "With our two most recent signings, JACK and Jonathan, rounding out our roster, and our first few projects under our belt, I'd say we're ready to roll," he says with enthusiasm. "We've just finished shooting on a big project but unfortunately can't release it until the end of the year," he adds, "so watch this space! In the meantime, we're truly looking forward to the rest of 2011 and the future projects and collaborations on the horizon."
Published 20 July, 2011
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