This Buck Piece for David Blaine is One of the Year’s Best Commercial Efforts
Buck created this 105-second intro, “Spectacle of the Real,” for the latest magic special by David Blaine. They call it “a palette cleanser to get people excited for a bumpy night ahead.”
Sayeth Buck:
Inspired by David’s mind-bending magic and the Paul Auster penned script which was voiced by Christopher Walken in the style of a side-show barker, we crafted a hero’s journey of sorts, a psychedelic trip into the spectacle of the real.
The spot is, in my view, an impeccable marriage of form and content that reaffirms Buck’s place as one of the finest commercial houses currently around. And I say that fully aware that Buck didn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel; the spot is an amalgamation of many commercial animation trends we’ve seen over the past few years, like the stippled-texture rendering style and lava-lamp psychedelic morphs.
The piece also contains undeniable references to 20th century art and animation: in general, to the biomorphic cartoon-Surrealism that was popular in the mid-20th century, and specifically, to Marcell Jankovics’s trippy early 1980s feature Fehérlófia, which I’d be surprised to learn wasn’t studied closely by the makers of this piece.
But if not entirely fresh in its inspiration, Buck still managed to reassemble the pieces in an original fashion and executed flawlessly, delivering a top-shelf commercial piece that celebrates the imaginative and fun side of graphic art. Here are the creative credits on the piece:
Directed By: Buck
Executive Creative Director: Orion Tait
Creative Director: Thomas Schmid, Daniel Oeffinger
Storyboard: Justin Fines, Olivia Blanc, Thomas Schmid
Design: Daniel Oeffinger, Jaedoo Lee, Justin Fines, Lucas Brooking, Olivia Blanc, Thomas Schmid, Yeojin Shin, Yker Moreno
Cel Animation: Benjy Brooke, Gonzalo Menevichian, Harry Teitelman, Jake Armstrong, Jaedoo Lee, Kyle Mowat, Olivia Blanc, Thomas Schmid, Tim Beckhardt, William Trebutien, Yeojin Shin
After Effects Animation/Composite: Andreas Bjoern Hansen, Alex Perry, Daniel Oeffinger, Fede Reano, Rasmus Bak, Wei Shen Wang, Yeojin Shin
3D Animation: Arvid Volz, Bill Burg, Bill Dorais, Chris Phillips, John Karian, Tao Ye
Editor: Chad Colby, Daniel Oeffinger
Audio: Antfood
