CHALLENGE

ESCAPE

FORGE

These 3 spots were created in-house, from concepting to composite. We worked in close collaboration with Walton Isaacson — developing the storylines, looks, and styles. Editorial was important for animatics and final finesse, and rendering was done both in and out of house.

Completed as Creative Director at The Famous Group. Scroll to very bottom for full credits list.

Here’s some of the amazing concept art (I didn’t draw it, I just love it)

CREDITS
Executive Creative Director: Greg Harvey
Creative Director: Joel Lava
Executive Producer: Andrew Isaacson
Senior Producer: Michael Steinmann

Art Directors:
Jesse Austin
Hemu Karadkar
Mark Branton

Post Producers:
William Hyde
Alana Blasingame
Les Jones

Post Coordinators:
Tita Poe
Danielle Kelly
Scott Rothstein

Live Action Producers
Dawn Hoffman
Stanley Sawicki

Editors: Joel Marcus, Josh Sneider

Texturing & Lighting: Giant Steps, Dan Abrams

3D Artists:
Dony Permedi
Mark Villagracia
Steve Han
Lawrence Pasion
Matt Foley
Niles Ondoy
John Ployhar
Jamie Sawyer
Julian Fitzpatrick
Robert Burton
Suzan Kim
Joseph Langmuir
Joseph Civitate
Corey Dimond
Conor Scully
Jason Taylor
Roger Huynh
Erik Fernando
James Lane
Jeff Dietrich
Dan Qureshi
Jen Sata
Daniel Edery
Sean Kim
Yas Koyama
Keith Yakouboff
Herman Kim

Compositors:
Thomas Horne
Ramzi Hogan
Scott Ulrich
Rodrigo Teixeira
Harumi Shibano
Fernando Zorilla

Storyboard/Concept Artists:
Ivan Pavlovits
Chad Glass
James Chung
Mike Jasorka
Rustam Hasanov
Gray Rogers
Gian Marayag
Albert NG
James Levy
Edmund Liang
Zach Christian

Production Assistant: Kelly Keleman

For the 2010 season, the Rams wanted to start their new era with a bang. We flew in to St. Louis and shot on their practice field. The pyrotechnics guys from gameday also came in and gave us some good times. Even the cheerleaders were in on the action. Thanks to LB Laurianitis for making it rain!

Produced as Creative Director with The Famous Group.

Director: Joel Lava
Executive Producer: Andrew Isaacson
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
Line Producer: Brian Joe
Producer: Alana Blasingame
Editor: Parker Wilson
Art Director: Jesse Austin
Design/Animation: Brian Do

PRODUCTION STILLS

For the release of the cool new EVO 3D, Agency EURO RSCG wanted to build excitement with a 3D experience that made users crave the 3D sensation of the phone.

We created a movie trailer “Present Tense” that exists in an interactive 3D world online. Moving the mouse allows the user to move around key scenes in the trailer. The icing on the cake is Facebook & picture integration, where the user’s photo is built directly into the movie as the main character.

This project required full integration from all teams: live-action, post, animation, and interactive.
Completed as Creative Director with The Famous Group

Agency: EURO RSCG
Agency CD: Michael Shirley

Director: Joel Lava
Producers: Nick Molo, Marc Rodgers, Ollie Sebelt
Line Producer: Brian Joe
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
Art Directors: Andrew Wendling, Jesse Austin
Design/Animation: Chea Gray, Luis Gonzales, Sean Garfinkel
Code & Flash: Isaac Dettman, Hayk Bezirganyan, Gerard Bauer
And many more

PRODUCTION STILLS

In this promo for the NFL Draft, Blake Griffin touts USC Tight End Jordan Cameron. It was made as a spoof/celebration of Spike Lee’s “Mars Blackmon/Michael Jordan” Nike commercial’s in the 1980′s.

This promo was put together very quickly over a couple days, and shot at the old Clippers practice facility. What makes Jordan Cameron so good? Well, it’s not the shoes!

Director: Joel Lava
Producer: House Design-Film
Camera: Joel Lava, Peter Leininger
Editor: Joel Lava

Blake Griffin, an Oklahoma Sooner, is forced to sign my daughter’s Texas Longhorn t-shirt. He claimed not to actually touch the shirt, but you can clearly see here that he made contact.

I had done a shoot with Mexican Wrestlers for Young & Rubicam, and had all this extra amazing greenscreen footage that was never used. So I made some Open frames for Lucha Va Voom, the downtown LA Celebration of Lucha.

Produced while Creative Director at The Famous Group.

FOOTAGE STILLS

What makes the Audi R8 such a powerfull machine? On the desolate plains of El Toro, the V10 was put to the test.

Hours of speed infused RED footage were captured for this spot, shot from another Audi camera car. There was total background replacement from the original footage, and 2 of the shots in the edit are completely 3D!

Completed as Creative Director at The Famous Group.

Co-Directors: Matthew Coddaire & Connor O’Brien
Driver: Nathan Swartzbaugh
Editors: Matthew Coddaire & Peter Leininger
Sound Design: Matthew Coddaire
Art Director: Hemu Karadkar
CG Supervisor: Brendan Eddy

SKY REPLACEMENT SAMPLES

In collaboration with agency Walton Isaacson, we shot a series of emotional portraits of women, seeking to increase awareness of breakthroughs preventing the passage of HIV from mother to child. We brought in a bodypainting specialist to write messages on the bellies of various pregnant women, with a handwriting style that was natural and organic.

Narrated by Alicia Keyes, ONE.org used a storyline of hope mixed with fear that is universal in all pregnancies.

Produced as Creative Director at The Famous Group.

Agency: Walton Isaacson
Agency CD: Ed Han
Copywriter: Chase Conerly
Producer: Sharon Jones

Director: Joel Lava
Executive Producer: David Kwan
Line Producer: Dawn Hoffman
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
Editor: Matthew Coddaire
Art Director: Hemu Karadkar

For the new open of UFC pay-per-view, we were tasked with presenting the intensity amongst the fighters just before they set out for the battle of their lives. We did a shoots in Las Vegas and Boston, capturing all the fighters in their locker rooms and in the badass walk to the Octagon. Armed with a Red camera and Canon 5Ds, we burrowed lights into the tiny locker rooms, and got dangerously close to the action.

Interestingly, the demeanor in the locker rooms is very calm and focused, the opposite of what you might see in an NFL lockerroom. It’s like they are kung fu masters meditating before a showdown. Nonetheless, there were still many great moments and drama. And we threw in some dope 3D camera mapping for the hell of it!

Big thanks to the braintrust at UFC – Dana White (President), Tim O’Toole (Vice President of Event Production), and Craig Borsari (EVP of Operations and Production).

Completed as Creative Director at The Famous Group.

Director: Joel Lava
Executive Producer: Andrew Isaacson
Producer: Michael Steinmann
Line Producers: Brian Joe, Stan Sawicki
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
First AC’s (AMAZING): Robyn Noble, Ben Steeples
Art Director: Hemu Karadkar
Animation: Zak Iddings, Ryan Kaplan
Editor: Josh Sneider

Chiquita.com was an entire portal — with movies, video games, and the famed Sticker generator which allowed people to design their own version of the famed oval sticker.

The three commercials were part of a larger theme on the site about an evil banana. “Don’t let a good banana go bad”. The entire site was built out in 3D, so the user could fly from category to category in physical space.

Completed as Creative Director at The Famous Group.

Executive Creative Director: Greg Harvey
Director/CD: Joel Lava
Interactive CD: Michael Marina
Producer: Kay Lynn Dutcher
Cinematographer: Chris Lytwyn
Art Directors: Jesse Austin, Jennifer Puno
Designers: Luis Gonzales, Hillary Coe
3D Modelling: Lawrence Pasion
3D Animation: Steve Han, Kyle Figgins
(and many many more awesome artists)

GAMENIGHT

HIGHLIGHTS MONTAGE

It started out as a simple endtag animation of a tongue licking lips into the DQ logo.  From there, it became a 5 year campaign of DQ’s famed talking lips!  Next came 5 second monologues, then 30 seconds, then elaborate storylines, and finally a live action appearance.

Despite the long run, the lips were always just called “Lips”, though they were occasionally called “Oliver” because Oliver Vaquer did the great VO.  It was always great fun collaborating with the team at Grey Worldwide, and the lips style and panache were mastered by animator Ian Townsend, who has since moved on to other body parts and visuals with The Ant Farm.  

Other animation talent was handled by Leigh Rens and Jun Zee Myers. Created while Creative Director at The Famous Group.

Agency: Grey Worldwide
CD: Steve Krause
Producer: Seth Gorenstein
Art Director: Doug Fallon
VO: Oliver Vaquer

Director: Joel Lava (“Game Night” live action, CG on the rest)
Executive Producer: Andrew Isaacson
Producer: Nate Occhipinti
Character Animation: Ian Townsend, Jun Zee Myers, Leigh Rens
3D Generalist: Steve Han
Art Directors: Jesse Austin, Hemu Karadkar
2D Composite: Chea Gray, Chris Chernoff
Addl VFX: Rooster
GAME NIGHT
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
Line Producer: Stan Sawicki
Editor: Parker Wilson