This spot is the ultimate product shot, with special significance attached. Also unlike conventional product shots, the product is seen deteriorating before our very eyes.
A supered message begins the spot. It reads, “An empty bag?”
Soon it is joined by a second question: “Or a step towards a greener future?”
We then see a discarded empty bag of Sun Chips on a patch of ground and through time lapse over the course of 14 weeks see it decompose before our eyes into the soil.
The camera pulls back to reveal time lapse of the sky, with clouds and different types of weather, night and day passing before our eyes as a plant grows in the soil and eventually blossoms into a flower.
A super then appears which reads, “The world’s first 100% compostable chip bag.”
And then we’re informed that this green marvel is “Coming Earth Day, 2010.”
An end tag relates, “That’s our small step. Tell us yours,” at which point a website address, greeneffect.com, is revealed.
Robert Maya directed and shot “Our Small Step,” produced by Mad Films, Toronto, for agency Juniper Park, Toronto. The flower was CG out of Topix, Toronto.
Maya related, “We captured the time lapse of the Sun Chips bag above ground. The project had to be monitored by an independent lab and a group of biochemists and scientists for its authenticity.
“Even though I am a cinematographer first and foremost I chose to do the photography with still cameras–Canon D5’s and slave them to Mac PowerBooks. I used a program where I could view the live pictures and computer screens 24/7 when required. I had two of these set ups so as to always have a backup in case of any technical errors along the way. None occurred other than a power failure along the way due to a severe snow storm–only lost one day of shooting and a total of 100 hundred frames or :03 of screen time – a fraction of the entire project. I set the cameras to take a photo every 15 minutes, four per hour, 96 per day–for a total of 8,064 pictures of the bag bio-degrading or 268 seconds to cut down to a 45-second finished product. I lit the bags in the tanks filled with compost and cross-lit with 2 ft 2 bank Kino Flo’s– being careful with reflections. It took three days of blocking, lighting, and testing before we were up and running–all this and scientists watching over my shoulders to insure that I was not affecting the outcome. By the end of the three days (of general set up) they were intrigued with our selected medium and technology.
Maya continued, “We shot the above ground time lapse in sunny Florida with its beautiful cumulous clouds and its passing showers to simulate all the typical conditions of outdoor composting. Again I chose to go digital, this time with the Red cam and its 4k imaging capability, comparable to the more than 15 mega pixels of the Canons and its built in intervelometer. We camped out under the stars with the agency and the clients had campfires and s’mores and exchanged war stories. In the end we were all happy to take our small step to a better future for our planet.
The Juniper Park team included art director Dani Maisels, writer Erin Kawalecki and producer Bette Minott.
Visual effects supervisor/editor for Topix was Rob Del Ciancio.
Composer/singer was Marc Robillard of Pirate, Toronto.
Jane Schoenbrun Jolts Cannes With Queer Slasher Movie “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”
"A good electric chair" is how Jane Schoenbrun describes their first Cannes Film Festival premiere.
"I really felt like my body was in a state of convulsion," says Schoenbrun.
The day after the premiere of "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," a bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, Schoenbrun and their co-stars were still buzzing from the ecstatic response. The movie, one of the most prominent American films in Cannes this year, gave the festival a gonzo jolt.
For Schoenbrun, the leading trans filmmaker of their generation, the film extends their intensely personal exploration of gender and the movies that defined their youth. But their first two films — 2024's "I Saw the TV Glow" and 2021's "We're All Going to the World's Fair" — were the raw, burning products of Schoenbrun's transition. "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," drawn from Schoenbrun's happy, exploratory post-transition life, isn't that.
It's about desire and sex. It's a biting satire of reboot-mad Hollywood. It's a schlocky and subversive slasher movie homage. It's a lot of fun, and quite tender, even when bodies are blood-spurting geysers.
"This is the first movie that feels like it represents the fullness of who I am," Schoenbrun says.
But Wednesday's moment of triumph in Cannes was hard-won. Ten years ago, Schoenbrun, now 39, was working in the film industry in a job they hated.
"The first time I came here, I just felt like, 'Oh my, god. I can't believe I'm in Cannes.' I went to, like, 'The Lobster,' at the Palais in my boy tux. I was like: 'This is it. I've done it,'" says Schoenbrun. "Then the next year I came back and I was so depressed. I decided to quit my job. If I'm depressed at Cannes,... Read More