Raleigh, North Carolina—June 1, 2005—Red Truck Films, one of the Southeast region’s top commercial production companies, teamed with recently-signed director Robert Latorre on a series of spots for Rubbermaid Foodservice Products.  Directed through North Carolina-agency Clear Blue, the spots will air nationally during Early morning and Prime Cable programming.  The Ad highlights a Rubbermaid® food storage container and is based on a storyline called, “Hurricane,” which features some cleverly-executed visual effects surrounding a calm mom and the otherwise frenetic world she lives in.
 
“Hurricane” opens in a kitchen where mom placidly packs lunches for her busy, hurricane of a family whose members streak past her in a blur as they get ready to leave for school and the office.  “Ordinary containers won’t do for this group,” says mom as her speedy family sets paper towels streaming behind her on the counter, a vase of flowers blowing in their wake and a circular spice rack spinning.  “We need Rubbermaid TakeAlongs®, the durable disposable.”
 
The spot cuts to vignettes showing Rubbermaid TakeAlongs’ “really secure seal” -- dad fumbles and drops his sandwich container in the office, daughter’s salad container tumbles from a precarious perch in her locker, the sons’ propel the containers packed in their backpacks over their heads.  Rubbermaid TakeAlongs never open accidentally or spill their contents.  The commercial concludes with mom popping her own Rubbermaid TakeAlongs into her tote bag as she, too, speeds off screen.
 
“The creative concept was well thought out and positions the product well in the marketplace,” commented Red Truck’s Executive Producer and Visual Effects Director, Jim Riche.  “We were also impressed with Rubbermaid and the agency’s desire to keep everything local, drawing on the extensive resources available in the Southeast for production, audio and visual effects (from Serious Robots) and acknowledging the world-class talent we have in the region.”
 
Director Latorre enjoyed the opportunity to seamlessly blend live action and visual effects in “Hurricane.”  “This was a fun job,” he observed.  “My take on it was to really tell a story more than have a product demonstration.  Directors look for ways to be more cinematic like calling on in-camera tricks, blocking the spot in a way that was engaging and giving the hurricane, and the family members engulfed by the whirlwind, personality.   They’re not inert objects, but human beings.  We’re all on the rush, living hectic lives; viewers can identify with this family and what happens when we’re hurried and rushed and drop things.  What doesn’t happen with Rubbermaid TakeAlongs is breakage and spills.  I tried to show in little slices of life simple illustrations of Rubbermaid TakeAlongs’ sturdiness without using product demos.”
 
The big payoff shot is the hurricane effect.  “It’s very cool,” noted Riche. “We did it all with no motion control -- it was all shooting techniques and Flame in postproduction -- even though there’s a camera move.  The team shot single passes of people in the whirlwind and a master shot.  Then, in Flame, a series of mattes were cut to separate and adjust the speed of the family members as they interact with mom.  All scenes where mom interacts with other cast members were shot in same pass; additional people were shot separately.  Also, in the opening frames, all the props in the background that are affected by the wind -- paper towels, flowers, the spice rack -- were all shot separately.”
 
“Red Truck and Robert LaTorre truly know how to make brands and products look their best in every frame and in every way.  It will be a pleasure to work with them again and again,” noted Clear Blue Creative Director Robin Konieczy.
 
“Red Truck was so knowledgeable and so well prepared that our first experience with Robert and Jim could not have been better,” added producer Pam Campagnoli.  “They really delivered.  They were perfectly matched to the project and so connected to it.  And they’re nice people.  I can’t wait to work with them again.”
 
Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Truck Films is a TV commercial production company that represents directors from around the country  to advertising agencies in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest.  Its diverse roster of directors displays expertise in storytelling, comedy, food/tabletop, slice-of- life, image and documentary-style spots.  Red Truck Films is a division of Trailblazer Studios.  For more information about these and other Red Truck Films directors, please visit the web site at http://www.redtruckfilms.com