CP+B LA has hired creative directors and longtime creative partners Barnaby Blackburn and Gustavo Kopit.
Blackburn and Kopit come over from Wieden+Kennedy London where they spent the past two years working together as a senior creative team on Nike and Danish butter brand Lurpak. Their “Freestyle” campaign for Lurpak last year was awarded three Cannes Lions, three Clios and a D&AD wood pencil. The Lurpak “Freestyle” spot was also one of two entries which helped director Juan Cabral of MJZ earn a DGA Award nomination in the commercials competition.
Prior to their stay at W+K London, Blackburn and Kopit were with RKCR/Y&R London, working across all of the agency’s clients including the BBC, Land Rover, Oxfam and Virgin Atlantic, while also helping to win the Visit Britain global business. Most notably during this time, they created the BBC’s 2014 Winter Olympics campaign which won a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Television Craft and a Creative Circle Gold. They also created Land Rover’s “Hibernot” campaign, which is still running today.
“I’ve admired Barnaby and Gustavo’s work from afar for a while now, and am very grateful that they’d agreed come join us in LA,” said Kevin Jones, chief creative officer, CP+B LA.
Blackburn, originally from London, and Kopit, from Brazil, met at the post-graduate Watford Creative Ad Course, where they teamed up before leaving to take jobs at RKCR/Y&R. In addition to their work in the industry, both are keen musicians and Barnaby is preparing to direct a small-budget film in December.
Review: Director-Writer Megan Park’s “My Old Ass”
They say tripping on psychedelic mushrooms triggers hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia and nervousness. In the case of Elliott, an 18-year-old restless Canadian, they prompt a visitor.
"Dude, I'm you," says the guest, as she nonchalantly burns a 'smores on a campfire next to a very high and stunned Elliott. "Well, I'm a 39-year-old you. What's up?"
What's up, indeed: Director-writer Megan Park has crafted a wistful coming-of-age tale using this comedic device for "My Old Ass" and the results are uneven even though she nails the landing.
After the older Elliott proves who she is — they share a particular scar, childhood memories and a smaller left boob — the time-travel advice begins: Be nice to your brothers and mom, and stay away from a guy named Chad.
"Can we hug?" asks the older Elliott. They do. "This is so weird," says the younger Elliott, who then makes things even weirder when she asks for a kiss — to know what it's like kissing yourself. The older Elliott soon puts her number into the younger's phone under the name "My Old Ass." Then they keep in touch, long after the effects of the 'shrooms have gone.
Part of the movie's problem that can't be ignored is that the two Elliotts look nothing alike. Maisy Stella plays the coltish young version and a wry Aubrey Plaza the older. Both turn in fine performances but the visuals are slowly grating.
The arrival of the older Elliott coincides with her younger self counting down the days until she can flee from her small town of 300 in the Muskoka Lakes region to college in Toronto, where "my life is about to start." She's sick of life on a cranberry farm.
Park's scenes and dialogue are unrushed and honest as Elliott takes her older self's advice and tries to repair... Read More