Green energy
Stardust Studios and Kirameki have created two ‘green’ HD spots for J-POWER
Stardust produced the project in collaboration with Kirameki, on behalf of McCann Erickson Japan and their clients at Tokyo’s Electric Power Development (J-POWER).
‘Global’ and ‘Environment’, which began airing in April in Japan, are 30-second HD spots, directed by Stardust’s founder and creative director Jake Banks.
“The main focus of these spots was to show that J-POWER creates energy and makes everything possible for daily life,” Banks explained. “One was an environmental spot, and the other was a global spot that speaks to the industries, businesses, infrastructures and everything that the company powers.”
Although the original approach called for the use stock footage, Banks and the agency’s creatives, including creative director and copywriter Isamu Nakamura, and art directors Takehiko Araki and Kenichi Horie, ultimately agreed on the greater benefits of capturing original live-action footage for the project.
“We wanted to have more control over those elements to give the project a creative twist, and give it a more design feel, as opposed to it being photo-real,” explains Banks.
During one day of green screen shooting on a soundstage in Tokyo, Banks and director of photography Naoki Noda captured uncompressed HD footage of actors and various animals using the ARRIFLEX D-21 camera package.
Artists at Stardust’s Santa Monica studio then used Autodesk Maya to create the natural habitats, the turbine and many other elements for both spots, Adobe Creative Suite was used for illustration and design and Adobe After Effects was used for visual effects and compositing.
Music for the spots was by Hifana, produced by Masayo Okino, while additional postproduction and mixing was carried out by Sony PCL and Omnibus.
See the spots on Vimeo
Contact Kirameki
Metadata Title: J-POWER “Global” and “Environment” Director: Jake Banks Production: Kirameki, Inc. (Japan) & Stardust Studios (USA) Production Leads: Naoki Noda (DOP); Sachiko Tamaru (Production Manager) Client: Electric Power Development Co., Ltd (“J-POWER”), Japan Client Creatives: Isamu Nakamura (Creative Director/ Copywriter) Agency: McCann Erickson Japan, Inc. Agency Creatives: Takehiko Araki (Art Director), Kenichi Horie (Art Director) Design/animation: Stardust Studios (USA) Creative director: Jake Banks Executive producer: Paul Abatemarco Design director: Neil Tsai Producers: Jody Mackinnon, Clara Park, Steven Poulsen Designers: Neil Tsai, Gretchen Nash, Tosh Kodama, Bill Bak, Ling Feng, Angela Ko, Jenny Ko, Juliet Park Animators: Sang Lee, Angie Tien, Brian Broussard, George Longo, Damon Snyder, Ryan Hooks, Marisol Baltierra, Catherine Yoo, Giancarlo Rondani, Maithy Tran, Thomas Horne 2D artists: Brian Williams, Davina Sanchex, Stephen Edwards, Kristen Swanson Post Production: Sony PCL Editor: Masashi Hosoda Mixer: Tsutomu Higa Final Mix: Omnibus Mixer: Norisato Nakauchi Music: Hifana (Artist), Masayo Okino (Producer)
