With a focus on the advertising market, Silver Spoon has launched a virtual production hub in Secaucus, NJ, and hired Ryan Duggan as executive creative director. Duggan joins Silver Spoon from Ntropic, the motion graphic and visual effects studio, where he was creative director. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, he’s spent his entire career working in various forms of motion graphics, character design and animation, mostly on brand content and ad campaigns.
Located just minutes from New York, Silver Spoon’s virtual production hub is a 12,000 square foot, multi-level space featuring a 50-foot LED stage, a 30-foot green screen stage and full motion capture capability. It will serve as Silver Spoon’s R&D center for virtual production and creative experiences.
Silver Spoon is making these strategic moves after a season of acclaimed work that captured the attention of audiences nationwide. The studio produced the award-winning mixed reality broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII for Nickelodeon featuring SpongeBob SquarePants, which utilized cutting-edge AR, XR, and real-time motion capture, earning numerous accolades, including Sports Emmys. More recently, Silver Spoon enhanced ESPN’s ESPY Awards broadcast with innovative graphics while also delivering visuals for commercial campaigns for such brands as Verizon, Cheetos, and Frontier.
Duggan cited his prior experience with Silver Spoon as one of the reasons he joined the company–in addition to having worked with Dan Pack, Silver Spoon’s managing director, when both were at the effects and animation studio Click 3X. Their paths crossed frequently over the years. More recently, Duggan collaborated with Silver Spoon on an independent rebranding and marketing assignment that gave him a deeper look behind the curtain to see how the studio was achieving its breakthrough results, an experience he found intriguing.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of brand-driven experiential projects,” Duggan said. “It’s just a different world than the traditional 30-second TV spot, and there’s something really addictive about creating experiences for people. And that’s where Silver Spoon is at the forefront. In our industry, the future is coming at us fast, and all of the advertising creatives I’ve been working with are wondering what’s coming next. Many believe that experiential is where things are leading, so joining Silver Spoon lets me play a role in this foundational shift.
“I’ve been watching them from their earliest evolution from a small motion capture studio that’s transformed itself today into this real-time, Unreal Engine powerhouse,” Duggan continued. “I’ve always been a big fan, as are a lot of my peers. So for me, this is a great opportunity.”
Pack said, “What struck me the most about Ryan is that he was always interested in what’s new and what’s next. He’s always been pushing visuals in a way you don’t normally think about, regardless of the medium, discipline or delivery format, and he’s had his hands into so many different kinds of projects, from work for Sphere in Las Vegas to 3-D billboards and everything in between. He’s a perfect fit for us as at Silver Spoon, since there’s such a wide range of projects we take on.”
Pack stated that the virtual production hub will be an appealing option for creatives and producers looking to see just what they can do with this highly versatile technology. “We’re going to be taking that tech, combining it with our knowledge base and experience, and applying it to all the other tools in our arsenal, from live action to motion capture to CG and projection, to create new ways of storytelling,” he commented. “This space allows us to test unconventional theories about production and discover what works best, leading to truly unique looks and techniques.”
Duggan added that part of his new role as ECD is to smooth the way for agency and brand clients to explore the potential of merging virtual production with live action, motion capture, Unreal Engine, AR and other approaches, and doing so in a way that provides them with both comfort and security. “Our goal is to really bring these creatives into the fold and make them our true creative collaborators,” he remarked.
“Ryan’s going to be guiding those creative teams at agencies and their brand counterparts into what, for many of them, will be a new way of thinking about how to produce content,” observed Pack. “And given his vast experience working with them, he knows how to do it in a way that doesn’t completely upend their established workflows and practices.
“For us, our secret sauce is not really the technology; rather, it’s been combining people with different backgrounds and skill sets and letting them work together,” Pack summed up. “Initially there can be this chasm, but often it’s like two atoms colliding. It creates this sudden energy and flowing of ideas, with people challenging each other. And in our experience, that’s how you create unbelievable new things.”
