Santa Monica, CA & New York – (August 4, 2014) – Led by Director Seth Epstein, the creative team at Stardust has just completed an innovative film, commissioned by DC Shoes for DC brand featuring Design/Graffiti and Art Collective CYRCLE. Created primarily for digital distribution, the campaign features two of DC’s sponsored Skaters and original designs by Cyrcle taken from the new product capsule designed in collaboration with DC Shoes.
We’ve developed a short hand with the team at DC,” explains Stardust Managing Director Dexton Deboree, “finding unique and evocative ways to craft films that showcase their stellar product, the culture of their brand and the community of loyal fans it serves. That’s not always an easy, three-part task. But with the great team at DC and synergies between us, it’s been both fun and very rewarding. Inviting Cyrcle into that dynamic was explosive, invigorating and inspiring. Those dudes are full of talent and life. They were a very integral part of the campaign from the early stages of concepting into filming and through the final finished film.”
"After we met initially, we got to work brainstorming and putting together visuals that could tell the story,” adds Stardust Director Seth Epstein. “They had a specific narrative to get across, which is the infection of a virus. The CAMO pattern was a challenge to animate and bring to life at all different scales. Additionally, we had a practical skateboard with grip tape and a matching pattern on the bottom we needed to make using a vinyl. We wanted to film the skateboarding sequence in a way that our audience would resonate with, while being non sequitur and glitchy in the edit and working for the virus animation.”
This project also marks the first film shot on Stardust’s new shooting stage, located just a few blocks south of their main Studio location in North Santa Monica. Deboree concludes: “We are excited to add a shooting stage to our growing arsenal of tools that we can offer clients. There’s a great deal of flexibility and control owning your own space allows; and there’s a myriad of creative opportunities to shoot a wide range of things that might otherwise prove prohibited by time, money or other logistics. We love the idea of offering clients the opportunity to shoot in the morning, walk down the street and cut, design, animate and finish in the afternoon. Not all in the same afternoon, of course, but a small village of complete filmmaking nonetheless.
Creative Credits:
Client: DC Shoes
Creative Director: Deven Stephens
Brand Marketing Director: Megan Easley
Senior Producer: Zeynep Taslica
Creative: Cyrcle
Rabi (David Torres)
Davey (David Leavitt)
Production Company: Stardust
Director: Seth Epstein
DP: Chris Walters
Executive Producer: Dexton Deboree
Creative Director: Sean Starkweather
Line Producer: Scott Ludden
Post Producer: Melina Osornio
Editorial/Visual Effects Company: Stardust
Editor: Theodore Neckar
Storyboard Artist: Judah Dobin
2D Animator/Compositor: Evan Stalker
2D Animator: Rachel Yonda
Intern: Wendy Yuen San Wong
Original Music: Massive Music