Bi-coastal production company Stardust has added Gallic directorial collective UFO to its roster for exclusive North American representation in commercials, music videos and network packaging. UFO joins a Stardust roster that includes directors Jake Banks, Brad Tucker, Alan Bibby and Neil Tsai.
"We've always admired the work coming out of Stardust, but so much of this partnership boils down to good chemistry," said Guillaume Marian, executive producer and founder of Mathematic and sister company UFO. "Stardust feels like home for us. Jake and his teams in New York and Los Angeles are fun-loving, hard-working, wildly creative, well-connected and do fantastic work. We're very excited about this partnership."
UFO, which stands for "Unorthodox Filmmaking Organization," has developed a reputation in Europe for its youthful, innovative filmmaking that moves across live action, animation, VFX and other hybrid forms. The collective's credits include music videos for La Roux's 2009 hit "Bullet Proof," Jack White & Alicia Keys' "Another Way To Die" from the most recent James Bond film, and French artist Medi's "How Would You Do it" single. UFO has also produced promo campaigns for MTV, France 5 and VIVA, and interactive digital films for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers.
The collective's key creative talent includes Marien, Creative Director FX (Francois-Xavier Pourre), Producer Rebecca Rice, Creative Director Vincent Viriot, Creative Director Arnaud Ecobichon, and Creative Director and 3D Supervisor Sebastien Ebellard. UFO also expands via a wide network of freelance designers, storyboard artists and character designers. UFO spawned from Paris VFX studio Mathematic in 2007 and functions as the studio's production arm.
"We've been collaborating with UFO on jobs for years and have always dreamed of bringing their fresh in-camera visual style to the states," said Jake Banks, founder & executive creative director of Stardust. "The commercial production industry has evolved, and Stardust has too. While we've always developed our creatives here into directors, we're now looking to grow this team with outside talent, and UFO is the first of many signings to come. These wildly innovative Parisians fit in perfectly on our roster, but have a distinctive style that we know the U.S. market is going to flip out over."
Because UFO and Mathematic are sister companies, UFO's North American representation by Stardust will facilitate more collaboration between UFO/Stardust and Mathematic, which will be brought in for large visual effects projects.
UFO is currently in production on a CITCO and SeaWorld campaign with Stardust, and a VW Beetle campaign for MTV + Viacom, as well as spotwork for Eurosport WTCC, France 5 and Lynx Eyewear.