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postings LENDING A 'HAND' C HICAGO — Filmworkers (www.filmworkers.com) created a new spot that promotes author Derek Haas' upcoming novel, "The Right Hand," which is due out in November. The spot plays like a preview to a summer movie, with a silhouetted figure in a perfectly-tailored suit appearing in an ominous, nighttime setting. Guns, explosions, motorcycles and a naked Medusa figure visualize the drama and secrecy of the storyline, with a VO that emphasizes the length that covert operations can go to. Matt Egan concepted, directed and edited the project for Filmworkers. Live-action elements were shot in 4K using a Red Epic on a stage at Resolution Digital Studios. Egan cut the project using Final Cut Pro V.7.0.3 and roughed out the graphics in Photoshop. Most of the animated design and compositing was done in After Effects, and additional compositing was via Smoke. 3D elements were created in Maya by affiliate Vitamin, and a Baselight system was used to color the footage. Final conform took place in Smoke. Filmworkers hopes that the spot will serve as an example of the work that can be done for book publishers. Credits on the project also include EP Lisa Long, DP Frank Donnangelo, Flame artist Justin Winkler, and colorist Fred Keller. FOOTBALL READY L TRAIL MIX N OS ANGELES — Iron Claw (www.ironclaw.com), here, produced and posted the opening sequence featured in EA Sports' new videogame Madden NFL 13. The two-minute video stars Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, pictured in a dark locker room, shar- ing his insight as to what it takes to be the best. Iron Claw art director Jeremy Wabiszczewicz directed the live- action open. The piece differs from the motion graphics-driven open from Madden NFL 12, which Iron Claw also created. This time around, client EA gave the studio a canvas to create a true narrative. The shoot took place in LA using a Red Epic; the team jumped immediately into post, augmenting the live-action shots with CG created using Maya. Compositing was performed in After Effects. Iron Claw's Davon Ramos cut the open using Final Cut Pro, with Anthony Golibersuch assisting. Brendan Eddy, Kevin Lim and Tim Ryan handled 3D animation. 2D animators included Ryan Levitus, Ramzi Hogan, Link Huang, Adam Smith and Luis Vega. SQUIRREL-Y SPOT P EW YORK — Several member of the advertising and production community got together in July 2011 to share their love of the outdoors. As part of The Muir Project, the group hiked the entire John Muir Trail, travelling 219 miles in 25 days, and capturing their experiences along the way with video, photo- graphs, digital audio, music and paintings. While they expected to capture the beauty of the trail, they were surprised by some of their other encounters, and upon returning learned that they had enough material to put together a feature-length docu- mentary, which they've titled Mile... Mile & A Half. The film's co-director/DP was Ric Serena, who is a director at Moving Parts, and was previously an editor at CBS. Sound engineer Durand Trench currently runs his own location sound mixing company, Sasquatch Sound (www.sasquatchsound.com), and was previ- ously with 740 Sound Design. Paul Bessenbacher is partner at Emoto Music (www.emotomusic.com), and is also the frontman for Opus Orange, the band that provided the film's music. The project was shot using a Nikon D7000 and Canon's 5D Mark II. Stills were shot using a Nikon D3S. The feature was edited in Final Cut Pro by Edward Chin. All promotional materials, such as the trailers, were edited in Final Cut Pro by co-directors/ DPs Jason Fitzpatrick and Serena. The team used Kickstarter to help raise funds to finish the project. ORTLAND, OR — Animation and visual effects studio Hinge Digital (www.hingedigital.com) teamed up with agency BVK to create a series of advertisements for Carrington College. The campaign includes two animated and live-action broadcast spots, as well as three online outtakes, print ads, plush toys and more, all of which showcase Hinge's original character designs. The first :30 spot, Carrington College Squirrel, introduces bird mascots Goldie and Blue, who encourage a squirrel to take a chance on achieving his goal. Comedic outtakes can also be viewed online. Alex Tysowsky oversaw a 30-person crew that worked on concepts, storyboards, character designs, modeling, animation, VFX and editing. The timeline took less than three months, and the studio used its proprietary plug-ins, along with Maya for 3D animation, Shave and a Haircut, Mari for 3D painting, Nuke for compositing, Mudbox and ZBrush for modeling, Headus UVLayout, and Mental Ray and SquidNet for rendering. Shotgun, Revolver, Tweak RV and CineSync were also employed. 42 Post • October 2012 www.postmagazine.com