Click 3X, provided their full-service creative and editorial operation to provide all design, animation, graphics, editorial and color correction for the project.
From a Click 3X / Trust Collective press release.
How big of a deal is Lexus' all-new CT Hybrid? It was such a big deal that the legendary automakers launched the 45-video MSN.com Fresh Perspectives original series in late April as part of the launch campaign to introduce the new vehicle. And for a big-time Web series, Lexus needed big-time postproduction talent, capable of matching the talents of media buying agency Team One, Microsoft Advertising's Global Creative Solutions team, and creative agency Walton Isaacson, along with BRW USA Directors The Sniper Twins. Enter Click 3X, who rallied their full-service creative and editorial operation to provide all design, animation, graphics, editorial and color correction for the project.
"The Lexus project was great because it incorporated all of what we offer here at Click 3X. We collaborated with the Sniper Twins from the beginning about graphics, and set them up with our team of editors to discuss their vision. Everyone did a great job, and we are all really proud of the work. We are very proud of our capability to handle a project of this scope, both in the sheer volume of videos produced and the breadth of expertise necessary to produce a top-quality final product," noted Click 3X CD Ders Hallgren. "While we have been handling VFX, color correction, and other post specialties for years, this project is an awesome showcase of our newly installed editorial capabilities."
Fresh Perspectives features six young artists - chef Craig Thornton, collage artist and painter Augustine Kofie, fashion designer Robert James, paper sculptor Jeff Nishinaka, singer-songwriter V, and photographer Tod Seelie - who create original pieces around three themes - escape, challenge, and empower - over a 24-hour period. The themes are inspired by the CT Hybrid, which challenges convention as the most fuel-efficient luxury hybrid available. Click 3X takes the varied footage and stitches it into seamless narrative montages, capturing the essence of the diverse artistic talents with videos that are themselves supreme works of art.
Escape, for example, is a beautiful 5:00 piece blending the stories of four artists as they create inspiring projects depicting the theme of escape. Thornton wanders farmers markets and works assiduously in his cavernous kitchen to prepare a dish for 10 people that evokes a forest. Kofie stands before an enormous canvas in his L.A. studio, creating a dazzling kaleidoscope of colors and angles. James produces a wild screenprint T-shirt with a montage graphic of various vehicles in motion. Seelie wanders the tattered far edges of New York's Far Rockaway, capturing an image of plastic bags hanging haphazardly from a forlorn patch of bushes.
Lexus is promoting the campaign across MSN.com, XBOX Live, and major social media sites. "As major brands migrate online for their flagship campaigns, it creates a vast array of possibilities as to what can be created, ditching the old restrictions of length and format," stated Hallgren. "The post studios that thrive in this new environment will be those with a diverse skillset that can handle any facet of any project of any length, and I am proud to say that Click 3X is one of those places."
Credits:
Agencies: Team One, Walton Isaacson
Microsoft Advertising Global Creative Solutions Team
Director(s): The Sniper Twins
Post Production: Click 3XCreative Director: Ders HallgrenManaging Director: David EdelsteinExecutive Producer: Rob MeyersProducer: Maddy YasnerAnimator: Dave RogersEditor(s): Rob James, Emily Sheskin, Sam Goetz, Nicole Turney
About Click 3X:
Click 3X and its interactive division ClickFire Media create engaging film, TV and web content. Positioned at the intersection of entertainment, advertising, and technology, the studios work in tandem or autonomously. Click 3X shoots, edits, designs, animates and creates VFX, while ClickFire Media brings those disciplines into the interactive space. Click 3X operates a full service, 11,000 square foot state of the art studio in Manhattan outfitted with 50 fulltime staffers. In 2010 audio post-production division, Sounds Like Click was launched to provide sound design, mixing and original music services.
Dan Sarto(link sends e-mail) is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
