Scottrade Character Headlines FOX News

Star Power Amidst L.A. Showers

     Despite all the excessive rain and cold that has been plaguing Southern California over the past week, our Choice Hotels shoot pressed on.

     Backyard director Rob Pritts teamed up with John Ratzenberger, the trademark voice for Pixar Studios for one of the spots. A hero among voice actors, Ratzenberger is the only person to voice a character in each of Pixar Animation’s feature films including: John in WALL-E, Hamm in the Toy Story series, and Underminer in The Incredibles, to name a few. We are also huge fans of the star from his iconic role on "Cheers" as the bar know-it-all Cliff Clavin, a beloved character who also guest-appeared on "Frasier" and "the Simpsons."

Mac’s the word amongst our agency guests from Leo Burnett, Chicago

     By the time the spots air all this rain will be a distant memory... Stay dry!

BACKYARD’S PRITTS JOINS THE BATTLE FOR AVATAR AND LG

Backyard director Rob Pritts brings one cell phone shopper knee-deep into the alien world of Avatar in a new :30 “Portal,” for LG out of BBH, Singapore. Promoting the new LG Chocolate phone and the upcoming James Cameron sci-fi epic, the spot features in-movie action as the shopper flees from a vicious creature on the planet of Pandora. Avatar opens nationwide this Friday, December 18^th.

“Portal” opens inside a suburban mall at an LG kiosk. A young man approaches the kiosk where a new LG Chocolate is on display, playing a scene from Avatar in beautiful HD. He picks up the phone, marveling at the HD LCD screen, and is suddenly thrust into an intergalactic wormhole. Transported almost instantaneously to the jungle planet of Pandora, the man stands stunned—and still holding the phone—amidst lush ferns and towering trees. From out of nowhere, a dinosaur-like creature of skyscraper proportions rises above him, ready to pounce. Two azure skin-toned characters from the film appear to scream, “Run! Definitely run!” The young man does, hurling himself off of a waterfall, back through the wormhole returning to the mall kiosk where he stands panting and soaking wet. Passersby stare, unaware of his split-second intergalactic journey. A voiceover concludes, “Feel like you’re there with the 4-inch, HD LCD Chocolate. See things differently.” The Avatar and LG logos appear, accompanied by LG’s tag, “Life’s Good,” closing out the spot.

Credits:

Client: LG

Products: LG Chocolate phone and “Avatar”

Title: “Portal” :30

Airdate: December 13, 2009

Where Shot: LA

Production company: Backyard Productions, Venice, CA

Director: Rob Pritts

DP: Christophe Lanzenberg

Producer: Carr Donald

Exec. Producer: Kris Mathur

Advertising Agency: BBH, Singapore

Executive Creative Director: Johnny Tan

Head of Production: Rebecca So

Creative Director: Kelly Pon

Producer: Krystie Koh

Editorial Company: N/A

Editor: Bob Mori, Santa Monica, CA

Visual Effects Company: Radium, Santa Monica, CA

Exec Prod: Jeff Blodgett

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