Rob Shaw directs “GPS” for the new Pop Tarts 2D campaign. Working with Leo Burentt Chicago, “GPS” is the first spot out the gate:

See it here:

PopTarts “GPS” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

The Creds:
Title of spot(s): Pop Tarts “Leash and GPS”
Airdate: “GPS” aired 3/28/13
Client: Kellogg’s

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon
Director: Rob Shaw
Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Nate Baston
Production Coordinator: Robert D’Esposito

ADVERTISING AGENCY
Advertising Agency/city/state: Leo Burnett Chicago
Producer: Mary Cheney

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY: Bent Image Lab
Composite Artists (After Effects): Cameron Carson, Orland Nutt
Animators: Sam Niemann, Temris Ridge

POST
Editor: Ben Blankenship/Ben Mercer

Wednesday night brought the return of the One Show, where the advertising elite joined together to showcase and celebrate the finest work in the biz. Bent Image Lab, working with agency JWT, provided the visually evocative interstitials introducing each award category at the show. Moving the audience through a mystical journey of destruction and rebirth, and steeped in iconic imagery, the interstitials combine live action and CG elements. Directed by Joshua Cox, the interstitials were woven together by the band Starfucker’s song “Leave It All Behind”.

Watch them here:

One Show FULL SEQUENCE from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

The Creds:

The One Show interstitials

May 8, 2013

Client:  The One Club

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Production Company/City/State:  Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon

Director:  Joshua Cox

Creative Partner: Chel White

Executive Producer:  Ray Di Carlo, Tsui Ling Toomer

Associate Producer: Nathanael Horton

Art Director: Joshua Cox

Art Department Coordinator: Evan Stewart

Animator:  Jen Prokopowicz

Designer/Prop Fabricator: Morgaine Faye

Wardrobe/Body Painter: Kate Fenker

Hair/Make up:  Jayme Hanson

Casting Producer: Trever Stewart

Director of Photography: Octavia Hunter

AC: Ian Barrett

Gaffer: Matt Hazelrig

ADVERTISING AGENCY: JWT/New York City/New York

Executive Creative Director/Head of Art + Design: Aaron Padin

Art Director: Bianca Guimaraes

Designers: Emely Perez, Ana Jovane, Soyeon Yoo, Akira Nakamura

Copywriters: Carl Mallia, David Canavan

Chief Creative Officer, North America: Jeff Benjamin

Chief Creative Officer, New York: Matt MacDonald

President, Chief Integration Officer, North America: Mike Geiger

Senior Creative Producer: Vishal Dheiman

Project Manager: Bill Barrett

NY Head of Production: Lisa Setten

Director of Brand production: Matt Anderson

One Club Client Team: Mary Warlick, Kevin Swanepoel, Seth Callaway,

Emily Isovitsch

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY:  Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon

Technical Director: Joshua Cox

Composite Artists (After Effects):  Paul DeSilva

CG Animator:  Jen Prokopowicz

POST:  Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon

Editor: Michael Ward

MUSIC

“Leave it all Behind” by Starfucker

Label: Polyvinyl Record Co.

Ken Lidster brings us the latest spot from Mini Wheats entitled “Man Next Door”.

Check it out here:

Mini Wheats “The Man Next Door” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

The Creds:
Title of spot(s): Kellogg’s Mini Wheats “The Man Next Door”
Airdate: 4/22/13
Client: Kellogg’s

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon
Director: Ken Lidster
Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Nate Baston
Production Coordinator: Robert D’Esposito

ADVERTISING AGENCY
Advertising Agency/city/state: Leo Burnett Toronto
Producer: Melanie Palmer

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY: Bent Image Lab
Composite Artists (After Effects): Orland Nutt
Head Technical Director: Stef Kofman
CG Technical Director: Robert Moyer
Animators: Sean Burns, Kevin Phelps

POST
Editorial Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/OR
Editor: Ben Blankenship/Ben Mercer

Chips Ahoy’s wildly successful ‘Convertible’ campaign launched the brand in China. Since then, Chips Ahoy! Cookie Guy has kept igniting the enthusiasm of cookie fans with his amusing singing and dancing performances.

This year’s campaign “Love Story” is a tribute to the original campaign, serving as a saucy sequel to the cookie guys’ road trip in “Convertible”.

The new campaign sees our Cookie falling in love on the road with a Chocolate Lady – her chocolate kisses leave a lasting impression on him.

Kraft & Draft FCB were keen that this year the Cookie Guy gets more recognition, not only for his fun personality, but also for the rich chocolate chips packed in his delicious cookie. The new campaign was created to expand the consumers’ awareness and appetite.

Tom Shum, Group Creative Director at Draft FCB Shanghai describes the new campaign as “The best combination of beauty and taste. The product truth – told in a romantic and fun way.”

“After years of research, we finally found what the brand means to local consumers’, said Denis Dong, Brand Manager at Kraft. ‘It’s greatly satisfying to present the brand attributes and emotional benefits in such a fun approach. All thanks to a great strategy and top-call execution.”

The production companies, BENT IMAGE LAB animation (Portland), and TRIBE (Shanghai) were thrilled to be part of “bringing convertible back” to the Chinese public. Director Paul Harrod says, “It is great to continue the storyline of the original “Convertible” spot that was done by his friend, Bent Director Ken Lidster. Tribe and Bent have been collaborating with Kraft and Draft FCB Shanghai for the past 3 campaigns.

“We love working with Kraft, Tribe and Draft FCB on these spots,” says Bent Executive Director Ray Di Carlo. “The humorous stories and charismatic cookie characters always make great spots for Bent to produce.”

 See the spot here:

Chips Ahoy “Love Story” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

 
The Creds:
Title of spot(s): Chips Ahoy “Love Story”
Airdate: 3.18.13
Client: Kraft China
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon
Director: Paul Harrod
Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo
Producer: Andrew Harvey
Production Coordinator: Stephen Grossman
Animators: Mike Wilson, Zach Rahman
ADVERTISING AGENCY
Advertising Agency/city/state: Draft FCB China
Group Creative Director: Tom Shum
VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY: Bent Image Lab
Lead Compositor: Evan Thomas Phillips
Compositor: Cameron Carson
Technical Directors: Shirak Agresta, Gina Burgess, Stef Kofman, Brian Danielson, Duncan Beck
POST
Editorial Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/OR
Editor: Brent Heise

Paul Diener has been promoted to Bent Image Lab’s new head of production. Diener who joined Bent in April of 2012, brings a wealth of animation and production experience to his new role as Bent’s H.O.P.

“We are thrilled to have Paul Diener head up our production team,” says Bent Executive Producer Tsui Ling Toomer. “His creative eye and confident management style help keep everything running smoothly at Bent.”

Diener’s impressive list of producing accomplishments include the Emmy Award winning “Claymation Easter Special” for Will Vinton Studios, the Grammy Award winning music video for Michael Jackson’s “Leave Me Alone” and the MTV Award winning music video for Tears for Fears “Sowing the Seeds of Love”. He also worked as a development executive at Laika Studios for several years.

“Paul Diener and I teamed up on several ground breaking projects during my first years in Portland, long before he joined Bent,” says Bent Director and Partner David Daniels. “He would produce my work with an eye to the creative, and always made things better on screen.”

Diener grew up in New York City, where he was influenced by a couple of his uncles in the biz. One uncle worked Mad Men style at an advertising agency and educated him in motion picture advertising. Another uncle was a film curator, critic and teacher, and helped introduce the avant-garde film movement to the states.

“I was fascinated by filmmaking as an impressionable youth,” says Diener. “When my uncle projected a 16mm copy of Saul Bass’s Why Man Creates on the wall of his Greenwich Village apartment, I was hooked.”

After graduating from USC Film School, Diener spent his early career working in Los Angeles post-production houses. After he moved to Portland, he ran into an old college friend who got him started at Will Vinton Studios. He later left Vinton to work on music videos with the venerable Jim Blashfield, but eventually returned to produce half-hour specials and commercials. After Vinton transformed into Laika Studios, Diener worked on developing Laika’s feature film The Boxtrolls which is currently in production.

“Paul is a great asset to our team. His wealth of experience in production and animation speaks for itself,” says Bent Partner and Executive Producer Ray Di Carlo. “Plus his March Madness brackets are unmatched.”

Diener started at Bent as a senior producer where he produced multiple commercial projects. He later transitioned to the role of visual effects producer to oversee the company’s work on NBC’s Grimm. He was promoted to H.O.P. in February.

“I have a long and varied experience with filmmaking, animation and artists,” says Diener. “Sharing that experience and putting it into action on a studio-wide basis is both rewarding and challenging.”

“The awareness aspect in this spot is really important,” says Burbridge. “If everyone were more aware about the things that we were accidentally throwing away, we would be able to use a lot more recycled material in the bottles that are made.”

An assembly of images such as floating brightly colored bottles, anamorphic art sculptures, and a handcrafted forest landscape composes the 1 minute 14 second spot and educates the audience on how much waste we actually accumulate in discarded recyclable bottles. Through animated copy lines the spot relays the fact that over 2.8 billion plastic bottles ended up in California landfills last year. To promote recycling, Arrowhead launched its new 500ml “ReBorn” bottle made with 50% recycled plastic and released this video.

“Recycling is something that someone had to address and I think it’s awesome that Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water is branding themselves with it,” says Bent Art Director Greg Arden. “It’s part of their concept to be kind to nature, so it’s really cool to work with them.”

Arrowhead and its corporate parent Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) have made it part of their company’s responsibility to promote environmental consciousness. To name just a few of its sustainability accomplishments, NWNA has reduced the amount of PET plastic in their most popular .5 Liter bottles by 60% over the last 15 years, they reduced CO2 emissions by 30% for every liter of water they produce, and built 9 LEED certified bottling plants.

To keep in line with the recycling theme the Bent team incorporated as many reusable elements into the production as possible. Recreating the forest image from the Arrowhead label, the crew used buttons for rocks, paper for trees, discarded green sweaters for landscapes and tin foil to build mountains like the ones from which Arrowhead spring water is sourced. For other sets they used recyclable bottles of all shapes and colors. One art piece comprised multiple hanging bottles suspended in a circular pattern which, when horizontally spotlighted, reflected an image of the earth.

“The earth piece comes from a type of art that’s been around for a long time,” says Burbridge. “It’s called anamorphic art which is usually a sculpture or sometimes a painting that looks one way from one direction and completely different from another.”

“There’s so many art elements and production techniques involved in this video and so many different sets and scenes,” says Bent Producer Amy Rosko. “I hope people enjoy it and appreciate all of the creativity in recycling and the unique elements that went into making it.”

The Bent crew hopes that the spot will catch the audience’s attention and make them think about the importance of the message of recycling.

“From top to bottom the whole recycling idea has been incorporated in every aspect of the production,” says Bent Executive Producer Ray Di Carlo. “Hopefully every little bit will help.”

Arrowhead’s “Recycling Is A Beautiful Thing” video was released online on February 13, 2013.

See it here:

Arrowhead “Recycling is a Beautiful Thing” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

The skit “Demo Monster”, featuring a highly opinionated animated man/robot, debuted during Comedy Central’s new series Kroll Show. The animated portion of the live action skit was produced at Bent Image Lab and directed by Bent’s Rob Shaw.

Inspired by the 80’s movie RoboCop, “Demo Monster” features a stop motion robot programmed with male stereotypes and asked to give his opinion on TV shows. As a group of marketing executives display various clips the “Demo Monster” gives his approval with an ok or thumbs up sign. That is until they show him something he doesn’t like…

“I wanted it to be a true homage to RoboCop,” says Shaw. “RoboCop is super influential from a stop motion stand point because Ed 209 [from the film] was created in stop motion.”

Shaw was recruited to direct the animated segment of “Demo Monster” after he worked with Kroll Show Director Jonathan Krisel on a previous project at Bent. Shaw designed the robot with input from Nick Kroll (the show’s star) and Krisel. The stop motion “monster” features 5 arms, 3 legs and a machine gun. Each hand holds something an 18 – 34 year old male would want, including a pizza (that turns into a throwing star), a football, a cell phone, and a human hand to type on his phone or work his video game console. His three legs consist of a basketball clothed leg, a robotic leg and a skate board leg. A spring attaches a can of beer to his tiny brain that is enclosed in a plastic cylinder. A computer is glued to his chest next to some kind of gauge.

“They wanted this robot to be a conglomeration of all these different male stereotypes,” says Shaw. “We did a bunch of designs and refined it until we ended up with the design that we got. Then the art department [who built the puppet] went crazy for it.”

To give the monster emotion Shaw developed 2D animation facial expressions that were composited onto the robot’s facial screen. Bent also produced the effects of gun fire and blood bursts, in which the scene ends.

“Working on this project was a lot of fun,” says Bent Executive Producer Tsui Ling Toomer. “Rob really understands comedy and he loves stop motion robots, so this project was the perfect fit for him.”

“RoboCop is one of my favorite movies and one of Rob’s favorites,” says Bent Producer Nate Baston. “Stop mo lends itself perfectly to what we were trying to do.”

Shaw was happy with the results of the skit and was pleased with the reaction he got from Kroll and Krisel.

“Nick Kroll was super complimentary, very gracious and happy with everything, which makes you feel great,” says Shaw. “Jonathan is great to work with because there is trust on both ends. He trusts us to do stuff that looks good and to get the joke in the first place.”

“Demo Monster” aired on February 6, 2013 during the “Too Much Tuna” episode of Comedy Central’s Kroll Show.  Kroll Show airs on Wednesday nights on Comedy Central at 10:30/9:30pm Central.

See it here:

The Nick Kroll Show “Demo Monster” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

Bent Director Bernie Roux is speaking at the Cyprus Motion Festival this month. His topic: Appropriate Solutions for Appropriate Challenges, focusing on creative solutions to dealing with time and budget constraints. His commercials Cushelle and Turkish Airlines as well as his short film “This Crowded Thought” will screen at the festival. If you are in Cyprus around March 22 – 24th check out the festival:http://www.motionfestivalcyprus.com/talks-2013/

IFC’s hit comedy series, Portlandia, has returned with the beloved Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein as their anthropomorphic rat personas. Bent Image Lab and Director Rob Shaw resurrect Fred, Carrie and John Rat for season three of the series, whilst introducing us to a few new animated faces dotting the Portlandia landscape.

When audiences first met the rodents in Portlandia’s season two, the mischievous threesome tried to break into a non-packaging grocery store.  This season the Portlandia creative team dreamed up an expanded storyline that includes multiple segments in two new episodes.

 “This year we have a stand alone skit in one episode and three little skits in another episode,” says Shaw. “Those segments will be spaced throughout the episode so they have a real presence all the way through, which is really exciting!”

The new stories include a skit in which rat libel turns the rodents into revenge seeking DIY publishers and in another three part story arc where Carrie and Fred Rat search for a less gentrified hood to call home while anxiety stricken John interviews new roommates.  The skits include a whole host of new creatures for the rats to interact with including stoner ants, a hipster owl and a scruffy old Warf rat.

“The ants are college stoners so we tried to use the stoner aesthetic,” says Shaw. “But I think the Warf Rat is going to be people’s favorite character because he’s so weird and funny and dirty. Fred did this British accent and this insane character comes out of it! It’s one of my favorite parts of the show.”

Another new character this season is the hipster owl.  Sculpted out of foam, feathers and wire the owl also employs a cool fashion sense with red glasses, bow tie and a hipster hair cut. Splashes of red were blended throughout his feathers in order to give him more “pop” against the backdrop of the dark attic set.  “I think the owl is one of our best puppets,” says Art Director Greg Arden. “He’s another character in Portlandia that’s a slave to fashion, with the wackiest hairdo and big glasses.”

A few Portlandia characters were added to the roommate candidates’ list including “Spyke Rat,” a nod to Armisen’s bike messenger character in the series, and “Lance Rat,” Brownstein’s greasy boyfriend in the show.

“I like the fact that the show takes all these little things that actually exist in Portland and dramatizes them,” says Bent Executive Director Ray Di Carlo.   “But they all come from a kernel of an existing trait of the city, so it’s interesting to see.”

In addition to the rat segments Bent also produced another Portlandia stop motion segment called “Dolphin” in which Portland’s underwater inhabitants learn that plastic bags have been banned from the city. Also directed by Shaw, the sea creature puppets were created with a plush aesthetic as a nod to animated 80’s shows like “Fraggle Rock”.  “I love having the Portlandia style dialogue with characters that are weird and cartoony looking and then having this human voice come out of them,” says Shaw.

“We get to do a lot of cool things on Portlandia,” says Di Carlo. “We produce the rat segments and pretty much all the animated segments that happen on the show, like creating talking tattoos and shattering Carrie as if she were a fallen iPhone.”

Though Bent produces various animated storylines and visual effects for Portlandia, their coup d’état are the adventures of Fred, Carrie and John Rat.  Bent Producer Nate Baston worked closely with the Portlandia crew to meet their expectations of the rats “The confidence the Portlandia crew has given us has really helped us push through,” says Baston. “The producers and everyone there have been really great.”

“We love the rats and I couldn’t be happier with how these skits turned out,” says Shaw. “I think its better then last year, I think its funnier, the animation is better, the puppets got beefed up. Everything about it this season has really stepped up.”

The “Dolphin” segment aired in the January 25^th episode of Portlandia; the rat’s DIY publishing segment aired on February 1^st; and the rat’s search for a new home segments aired February 22^nd on IFC.

Watch the “making of” Rats 2 here:

Portlandia Rats 2 Behind the Scenes from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

Watch the “making of” Dolphin here:

Portlandia “Dolphin” BTS from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

The Creds:

Title of spot(s): Portlandia “Rats 2”
Airdate: “Book” 2/1/13, “Rats Move” 2/22/13
Client: Portlandia/IFC
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon
Director: Rob Shaw
Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer
Senior Producer: Kara Place
Producer: Nate Baston
Production Coordinator: Brianna Vitale, Nathanael Horton
Art Director: Greg Arden
Animators: Jerold Howard, Jen Prokopowicz, Javan Ivey, Becky Steele, Marty Easterday, Suzanne Twining
DP: Bryce Fortner
Lighting and Stage: Jim Birkett
VISUAL EFFECTS
Compositor: Adam Sager, Barna Howard
POST
Editor: Liam Gillies
AUDIO
Sound Design Company: Lance Limbocker Studios
Sound Designer: Lance Limbocker

Title of spot(s): Portlandia “Dolphin”
Airdate: 1/25/13
Client: IFC
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company/City/State: Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon
Director: Rob Shaw
Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer
Senior Producer: Kara Place
Producer: Nate Baston
Art Director: Greg Arden
Animators: Jen Prokopowicz, Becky Steele
DP: Bryce Fortner
Lighting and Stage: Jim Birkett
VISUAL EFFECTS
Composite Artists (After Effects): Adam Sager, Barna Howard
POST
Editor: Liam Gillies
AUDIO
Sound Design Company/city/state: Lance Limbocker Studios
Sound Designer: Lance Limbocker

On Monday, February 25th Rob Shaw got to speak to the Transportation and Economic Development Committee on house bill 2267 in support of the Oregon Production Investment Fund! He brought along a few Portlandia friends (pictured) in support of the bill.  If passed, the bill would  expand the amount of incentive funds from $6 million to $12 million in order to attract more production work to the state of Oregon.