A dynamic, mesmerizing two-minute animated history of the products and innovations from Honda, created by ad agency RPA, directed by the noted stop-motion maestro PES of production house RESET and given a seamless infusion of visual effects and finishing by VFX supervisor and lead Flame artist Andy Rafael Barrios of a52, has been named Best in Show at the 2016 AICE Awards. Barrios also took the top prize in the competition’s Visual Effects category. The Best in Show honor was presented along with 32 other AICE Awards at the postproduction industry’s annual awards show, held this year in Chicago at Navy Pier.
During the awards presentation Editor Terry Kaney, formerly of Avenue Edit, was inducted into the AICE’s Hall of Fame in recognition of the body of work he produced during his career and his impact on the Chicago post production industry.
The winners at this year’s show were distributed among a wide array of editors, artists and companies, with several individual talents as well as postproduction companies scoring multiple winners. Rock Paper Scissors, the L.A. and New York-based editorial company, saw work from three of its editors win AICE Awards: Adam Pertofsky in the Digital Content – :90 and Under category for Brand Jordan, Ted Guard in the Fashion/Beauty category for Gap Kids and Biff Butler in the Best of Los Angeles category for Brand Jordan.
Two-time winning editors included editor Sam Rice-Edwards of The Assembly Rooms, who won in both the Digital Content – Over :90 and the newly-introduced Docu-Style categories, both for work for Mumsnet, and editor Michael Reuter of EditBar, who won in the Comedy and Best of Boston categories for a spot for join.me.Other notable winners included work from such companies as Beast, which saw editor Brian Lagerhausen win the Best of San Francisco for Fitbit and editor Angelo Valencia win Best of Chicago for Whirlpool; The Colonie, whose editor, Brian Sepanik, won the Dialogue/Monologue/Spoken Word category with a spot for GrubHub while editor Keith Kristinat won the Spec Spot category with a spot for Chevy Trucks; Rooster, which scored winners from editor Paul Proulx in the Public Service category with a piece for Moms Demand Gun Safety in America and from editor Dave De Carlo in the Regional Campaign category with a series of spots for Special Olympics Canada; and Yessian, whose composer Dan Zank won the Original Music category for work for Macy’s while sound designer Jeff Dittenber won the Sound Design category with work for GM.
This year marked the 15th anniversary of the AICE Awards, which has grown into the post production industry’s premier competition for excellence in editorial, color grading, audio mixing, visual effects, sound design and original music composition.
Commenting on the Honda “Paper” Best in Show winner, editor and partner Craig Lewandowski of Utopic in Chicago, a member of the AICE Awards Curatorial Committee, related, “this was one of the entries that rose to the top, and the more we talked about it, the more it kept rising. The people who were voting on it were editors, colorists, effects artists and audio mixers, and everyone recognized this as being above and beyond.”
Lewandowski said that “Paper” was not the only craft category finalist in the AICE Awards that was in contention for Best in Show. “To me, that’s encouraging,” he observed. “It reflects the larger definition of what constitutes post production today, and that’s what AICE is all about.”
In addition to honoring AICE Hall of Fame Inductee Terry Kaney at the awards presentation, AICE members saluted the first winners of the Camp Kuleshov Grand Prizes for Editing, Audio Mixing and Graphic Design. The association’s popular trailer competition tasks assistants with taking existing films and creating new trailers, opening title sequences and sound design segments that repositions the films as being from a different genre or director.
Last year was the first year all participating AICE chapters held Camp Kuleshov competitions working from the same brief and source films, resulting in national champions in all three categories. This list included Assistant David Rubin of Cutters in Chicago, who was the top winner in Editing; Assistant Michael Marciano of P.S. 260, who won the top prize in Graphic Design; and Assistant Mike Regan of Another Country, who won the top prize in Audio.
Here’s a rundown of category winners:
Best in Show
Andy Rafael Barrios, a52
“Paper”
Honda
RPA
Audio Mix
Joaby Deal, One Union Recording
“Rule the Living Room”
NVIDIA
AKQA
Automotive
Rick Russell, Final Cut
“Commander”
Audi
Venables Bell & Partners
Broadcast Promotion
Steve Bell, Cutters
“Name”
NHL
Baby Bear’s Porridge
Color Grading
Tom Poole, Company 3
“Future”
Adidas
Johannes Leonardo
Comedy
Michael Reuter, EditBar
“Frantic”
join.me
MMB
Design
Tendril
“The New Geometry of Time”
Audemars Piguet
Superculture
Dialogue/Monologue/Spoken Word
Brian Sepanik, Colonie Media
“Winner Picks Lunch”
GrubHub
Tandem, Inc.
Digital Content – :90 and Under
Adam Pertofsky, Rock Paper Scissors
“Melo 12 Built For More”
Brand Jordan
LosYork
Digital Content – Over :90
Sam Rice-Edwards, The Assembly Rooms
“999 for Kids”
Mumsnet
Grey
Docu-Style
Sam Rice-Edwards, The Assembly Rooms
“999 for Kids”
Mumsnet
Grey
Fashion/Beauty
Ted Guard, Rock Paper Scissors
“Anthem”
Gap Kids
Montage
Sam Ostrove, Cut + Run
“Made By You”
Converse
Anomaly
Music Video
Jeff Selis, Bonch
Beyoncé “Formation”
Prettybird
National Campaign
Andy McGraw, Cartel (Edited while at Stitch)
“Anthem” / “Stephen Curry”
Leo Scott, Cartel (Edited while at Stitch)
“Tom Brady”
Rule Yourself
Under Armour
Droga5
Online Campaign
Justin Trovato, Cosmo Street Editorial
“Family Portrait” / “Tree of Compromise” / “Vegan Christmas”
Keepsake It
Hallmark
Chandelier Creative
Original Music
Dan Zank, Yessian Music
“The Wish Writer”
Macy’s
JWT
Public Service
Paul Proulx, Rooster
“Not Allowed”
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
Grey
Regional Campaign
Dave De Carlo, Rooster
“Sport” / “Barbell” / “Pool”
Special Olympics Canada
Grey
Sound Design
Jeff Dittenber, Yessian Music
“Born To Run”
General Motors
Lowe Worldwide
Spec Spot
Keith Kristinat, Colonie Media
“Dependable”
Chevy Trucks
71 Degrees North
Storytelling
Rich Orrick, Work Editorial
“Short A Guy”
Nike
Wieden + Kennedy
Under 50K
Ben Suenaga, Friendshop!
“Revolutionary at Heart”
Philadelphia 76ers
Mother
Visual Effects
Andres Barrios, a52
“Paper”
Honda
RPA
Best of Boston
Michael Reuter, EditBar
“Frantic”
join.me
MMB
Best of Chicago
Angelo Valencia, Beast
“Dad & Andy”
Whirlpool
Digitas
Best of Detroit
Rich Smith, Hudson Edit
“Homecoming”
John Varvatos
Best of Los Angeles
Biff Butler, Rock Paper Scissors
“The Winning Moment”
Brand Jordan
Wieden + Kennedy
Best of Minneapolis
Mick Uzendoski, Drive Thru Editorial
“Puppy”
Subaru of America
Carmichael Lynch
Best of New York
Jai Shukla, Nomad (Edited while at Beast)
“Runkeeper”
IBM
The Barbarian Group
Best of San Francisco
Brian Lagerhausen, Beast
“In the Running”
Fitbit
Argonaut, Inc
Best of Texas
Logan Hefflefinger, Lucky Post
“Life In Motion”
Timberland
YardNYC
Best of Toronto
Graham Chisholm, Married to Giants
“All Sweat is Equal”
Sport Chek
Sid Lee
