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postings SURPRISE VISUAL EFFECTS L OS ANGELES — Screaming Death Monkey (www.sdmfx.com) created over 130 visual effects shots for the new music video from Canadian punk band Billy Talent. The Surprise, Surprise video was directed by Michael Maxxis and interprets the song's social commentary as well as artwork from the band's album, Dead Silence. Screaming Death Monkey was brought on board by producer John Nadelin of Toronto's Rose- mary Film Productions. SDM founder Jeremy Hunt spoke with Maxxis and looked at design refer- ences, ultimately going with a hybrid of live action, animation and surreal imagery treated with a graphic novel aesthetic. The studio worked closely with the director during production to make sure each shot was right from the get-go. In addition to 3D animation and matte paintings, SDM also handled live action compositing. The facility relied on a combination of NewTek LightWave 3D, Autodesk Smoke 2013 and Eyeon Fusion to create the 130 shots, which represent 85 percent of the video's total run time. AGOODNEIGHBOR… N THESOUND OF A KING EW YORK — The Now Corporation's (www.thenow- corporation.com) Jesse Reisner recently edited two commercials for State Farm that are part of the insurer's "Like A Good Neighbor" campaign. Agency Translation conceived the spots, which fea- ture State Farm customers singing the company jingle and being rewarded with useful savings. Those who don't use State Farm awkwardly find out that their insurance company just isn't the same. Furlined produced the spots, with Ted Pauly directing. The commercials were shot using an Arri Alexa. Reisner cut them on an Avid Media Composer system running V.6.5 software. CO3 in New York City handled color grading, and Sound Lounge performed the audio mix. Online took place at Smoke & Mirrors. HELLO, CHERI C N EW YORK — Silver Sound (www.silversound.us) engineer/mixer Cory Choy headed down to Charles D. Owen High School in Black Mountain, North Carolina, last spring to teach a film class with director Andrew Wonder (best known for his subver- sive viral video Undercity) and director of photography Fletcher Wolfe. EDARHURST, NY — DMJ Digital Media (www.dmjdigital.com) was hired by Mullen in Boston to produce a short digital film celebrating the 10th anniversary of "Lifebridge" for Springfield, MA's MassMutual Insurance. The program offers free life insurance to qualified participants as part of MassMutual's efforts to give back to the community. The one-day shoot was produced by senior producer/director David Jasse, and involved two cameras. Jasse oper- In addition to their normal class workload, the "Warhorse Filmmakers,"got hands-on production experience while crewing on King, a feature film set in and starring talent from Black Mountain and the surrounding areas. King is a modern retelling of the classic "Of Mice and Men" and follows siblings Madison and Teddy as they prepare to leave town. Back in New York at Silver Sound, Choy has been working on sound design rooted in ambiences and specific effects recorded on location by Owen High senior Luke Ferry with a PSC Alphamix/Oade Brothers modified Edirol R-44 combination. He has also been collaborating with musician Charlotte Littlehales, who wrote and performed the score. ated a Canon 5D camera, while DP Ron Marrazzo shot on a Panasonic AF100. DMJ's Carolyn George was the produc- tion manager on the project, and staff editor Travis Hoggard handled much of the post production. The two-minute short, titled Meet Cheri, is featured on MassMutual's Website (www.massmutual.com). It was edit- ed using Apple Final Cut Pro. Mullen credits include senior producer Ken Kingdon, art director Danielle Jalbert and copywriter Dylan Klymenko. All of the sound work has been done in what Choy calls "the incredibly versatile DAW Reaper," with heavy hitting from plug-ins DMGAudio Equality, Spin- Audio RoomVerb, ValhallaDSP ValhallaRoom, Izotope RX 2 and Waves RComp. King premiered at the Asheville Cinema Festival. www.postmagazine.com Post•November2012 41