The principals behind Los Angeles-based editorial company Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) and visual effects company a52 announced the launch of a new, full-service, design-driven company named Elastic.
To support their new venture, RPS and a52 co-founders Angus Wall and Linda Carlson have hired Alex Gorodetzki as Elastic's executive producer and Trevor Shepard as its creative director of design.
"Elastic has grown out of the needs of our clients and the desires of our artists to make pictures and tell stories," said Wall, who together with Carlson launched RPS in 1992 and a52 in 1995. "It's great to operate as a little studio and produce projects from beginning to end. RPS, a52 and Elastic will be working as autonomous companies and a complete digital production studio." Elastic will represent all in-house editors and VFX artists from RPS and a52 for projects ranging from title to type design.
"Both Trevor and Alex have created a lot of high-profile projects requiring hybrid production approaches," Wall added. "Alex has facilitated projects ranging from broadcast network launches to Super Bowl spots. The plan is for Alex to work closely with a52 EP Ron Cosentino and RPS EP CL Weaver to present a unified force in offering our clients creative solutions."
Elastic already has assignments underway for Nike and many other prominent international brands. The first Elastic spot is Andrew Hall's Nike "Spider," produced through Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and their clients at Nikelab and offering a perfect example of visual content requiring the type of hybrid production approach Elastic was created to address.
"The agency creatives wanted a spot showcasing the new Nike 'Flywire' technology, featuring a spider creating a shoe-shaped web with the flywires," Hall explained. "I shot the live-action plates using a Canon 1D camera and shooting at 12 frames per second to capture the aesthetic of the piece, and shot a series of time-lapse shots over a number of days. We then set about creating the spider and the webs it laid down to form the shoe in Maya; for that, a52's Max Ulichney worked closely with me designing the look of the spider to be an extension of the shoe."