Superfadtastic

Superfad has just relaunched their site, and to make sure they start things off right, they’ve also posted a jaw-droppingly epic :60 Pioneer spot entitled “Enter.”

I’ve long been a fan of Superfad, so it’s very vindicating to take a spin through this updated portfolio full of solid work. The Pioneer spot alone should help edify their position as a premier motion house. It’s the kind of balls-to-the-wall virtuosic display of talent that encourages frame-by-frame review.

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

30 Comments

Binky

The “action poetry” posted in the quickies also contains a piece done at FAD, and a comparison between the two would read like the latest Fast and Furious flick vs. 2001: A Space Odyssey. One is lyrical, the other is lacquer.

Is the lacquer REALLY holding your attention?

Lightweaver

daaaaaang. that was righteous.

david

god damn…. can we get a full credit list on this…

Joe Clay

Wish I could have heard it. For some reason, I don’t have the codec. Who uses Qualcomm Pure Voice? Howabout AAC, MP3, or anything else?

Tristate

Great piece of motion design. I wonder how many people were involved with the Pioneer project..

kmfix

that’s some nice work…

justin

Full credits:

Client: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.

Spot title: Kuro TV “Enter� 1 x :60
Advertising Agency Location: TBWA/Chiat Day
Creative Director: Worldwide CD: Lee Clow
CD: Jerry Gentile
Producer: Brian O’Rourke
Asst. Prod.: Cia Restraino
Copywriter: Gage Clegg
Art Director: Becca Morton

Live Action Production Company/Süperfad
Director: Will Hyde, Justin Leibow, John Hilton
DP: Brendan Galvin
Executive Producers: Kevin Batten
Producer: Scott Ludden

Animation/Visual Effects/Süperfad:
Creative Directors: Will Hyde, Justin Leibow
Exec. Producer: Kevin Batten
Producer: Amy Russo

Artists: Will Hyde, Justin Leibow, Bryan Cox, John Cherniack, Eric Lee, Grace Lee, Tim Kadowaki, Will Campbell, Matt Lavoy, Matt Rosenfeld, Ryan Kirkwood, David Silvers, Dan Fraga, John Riggs, David Viau, Eric Edwards, Ajit Menon, Phiphat Pinyosophon

Editorial Company: Süperfad
Editor: Charles Jenson

Colorist: Beau Leon of The Syndicate

Music Company: Machine Head/Venice, CA
Composer: Jason Moss
Music Producer: Vicki Ordeshook

Sound Design Company: Stimmung/Santa Monica , CA
Sound Designer: Gus Koven
Sound Producer: Jack Catlin
Associate Sound Designer: Peter Lauridsen

Audio Mixing: Eleven/Santa Monica, CA
Mixer: Jeff Payne

babby

i don’t think i’ll ever get where you’re coming from justin. the vast majority of your entries pretty much follow the template of “{key theme or technique} is nothing new, but they pull it off without descending into {negative adjective}”

i’ve often been reading, wondering what it takes to break your ambivalence, and i was surprised it was over a pompous, bombastic mishmash like this.

different strokes i suppose.

zeniamai

The Pioneer spot is fabulous.I love the transitions from one clip to the next and the various media techniques used to achieve the spot… I love it!

Yot

The first time I saw “enter” I was convinced that every single person on this blog would flat out hate it. The angelic woman in white releasing an insect and entering the mechwarrior’s mouth are two instances I imagined to read long rants about; but alas, nothing. All in all, it’s slick, but it’s not the site’s highlight. Check out the “Target: Art Connects”. Wow. It’s much more meaningful and tastefully done. Rock on Justin.

Simon Robson

Well Yot, here’s what you’ve been waiting for I guess:
This to me is an almost incomprehensible mish-mash of styles and techniques, none of which in my opinion really ‘fly’. And, it’s so cliche ridden, i can’t actually believe it. From the aforementioned angelic woman to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ esque script at the end. And the New Orleans style jazz trumpeter makes me want to beat my head against the table. I just don’t get this at all. There is an undeniable flexing of technique muscles here and without doubt the studio is a talented one. But it seems to me that the art director must have ben under the influence of something stronger than 7Up.
I am sorry i don’t have anything more positive to say as without doubt a huge amount of effort has gone into this…

Marc B.

Agree with you Yot. I didn’t want to sound cranky again as i think it’s technically well done. Just on the aesthetic level it leaves me confused. Kind of 90ies juxtaposition of visual effects. Sometimes less is more even if you have to communicate the abundance of possibilities.

The target spot is nice by the way.

jasonk

zoinks. i have to agree; it’s like they took every well-executed 30 second idea from 10 separate spots and rammed them into one :60.

i understand that this is exactly what happens when the client asks for ‘everything’ in their spot; the brief probably said “games! tv! music! kitchen sink!”, and in that sense they got exactly what they asked for. while i think superfad are an ok shop, my guess is that this was more of an agency failure.

jasonk

to your point, babby: my guess is that justin is comment-proofing his posts. for a while there, things were getting a little too personal – “if you liked that, you must be a moron!” or “eff that, BNS did it in 2004!”.

ya ken eh.

jasfish

If you turn off the music and use something like Roisin Murphy’s “Overpowered” .. this actually works really well as a demo reel :)

monovich

I think the spot worked well for its intended product (a TV). A television is a portal to ANYthing. You change emotions, channels, and mediums (shows, movies, games) on a whim. People want dazzling imagery and over the top experiences, and this spot (over)promises that this TV will do that, and does it better than any other TV.

Superfad throws the kitchen sink at it, but isn’t that what their name promises they will do?

THA_DON

some really cheesy sections in my opinion. I woldent say there is any design in there, this is more of an VFX and compositing piece.
I really like the smoke stuff coming off the basketball player, it looks like energy or something. The woman in slow motion who turns into an albino makes me wish I had a fantom camera to shoot silky shit flowing in slow motion on some woman half naked, or coming out of water or walking in the desert with a blue moon in the background or something. The horse shot is cool, i like that photoshop dodge and burn look on some desolate grassy hill and single dry tree with menacing clouds as a backdrop, thats always a winner, makes me feel like “there is a storm coming” or something, really cool. i also love the art beats stock footage randomly thrown in there for good measure.

gds

hmm, that logo looks familiar.

pancake

The Superfad logo? Yes i agree!

I am having a hard time with this spot. Not because its cheesy, which it is. but because it had potential to be amazing! seems like superfads reel is made up of almost good spots.

pancake

OK im going to ask the question.. Why does the superfad logo look incredibly similar to the psyop logo?

ster

perhaps borrowing the umlaut from tröllback wasn’t enough.

ster

excuse me…trollbäck.

ster

btw…i hear that eye, ear and mouth zooms are making a huge comeback.

Marc B.

Oh yeah and they even ripped off motionographer’s website. Their logo is on the upper left too. How dare they!?

JMac

All you haters and bandwagoners… Lame. FAD was founded in 2001. What about Psyop? Marc B. has the right idea, lets just say everything is a rip-off of something else… Get over it. Love the fresh site and the versatility of the Pioneer piece. A nice spot overall, but I agree with JasonK, the agency asked for what they got, cliche as parts may seem.

oeuf

Psyop, i believe, was officially founded in 2000, but I think the core group of peeps started it in ’98.

SuperFad’s got some nice work on their site, this is not one of them.

renascent

justin fines aka. demo-design, designed psyop’s logo a few years ago. https://demo-design.com/v5/psyop1.htm

Nespresso designed mine…

i enjoyed the energy thats in the spot, yes it’s cliche, yes the transitions could be more seamless, and yes nobody besides us care…

i think superfad capabilities shine through in this spot much more https://superfad.com/player.php?project=96&item=190

tinapinxit

They clearly stole the umlaut from the German alphabet! They obviously stole the red and white colors from the Canadian flag and they totally stole the template for their website from someone, somewhere. That font is totally stolen too. And as far as the spot goes, I’ve seen that horse somewhere.
WTF?
This might not be their strongest work, but let’s not get carried away…

bicycleman

Nice piece, but the audio sounds muffled on my MacbookPro

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