MARINA DEL REY – May 29th, 2002: For the recent national :30 for Cingular Wireless, (BBDO, New York, Atlanta), Rhythm & Hues had a big design challenge in trying to balance the graphic white design of Cingular with the saturated, comic-book look of “Spider-Man” for director Sam Raimi and visual effects designer John Dykstra. The R&H Black Box team, assisted by its in-house Design Division and led by CG Director John-Mark Austin, created an elegant and exciting solution. Using shots from the film, as well as new live action and CG “Spidey” elements provided by Sony Pictures Imageworks, R&H created a bold graphic world that makes the building hopping web-meister feel right at home.

The result is surprising, but the source is not. The stunning landscape was created by the same team that developed the anime-style world for Nissan's new action CD-ROM, "Master of the Sixth Speed" which featured environments, vehicles and composites created digitally by Rhythm & Hues' Black Box artists.

According to Austin, "the interesting thing for us was seeing the team, which is primarily involved with commercial production, rising to the challenge of creating imagery that would integrate seamlessly with the film work done by Sony. Based on the positive feedback we got from Raimi and Dykstra regarding that, I'm quite proud of the job our team did."

The spot opens with a black and white CG aerial map of the United States and Puerto Rico. The camera zooms in to the New York City skyline, which is also CG. Suddenly, Spiderman (a combination of live action and CG) swings through on his web. We then cut to live action footage of people in the city watching Spiderman as he swings by them, creating a gust of wind that blows toward them. In a series of shots, Spiderman continues on his journey, swinging past some of the most recognizable US national monuments. He lands on his final destination, the Golden Gate bridge, and shoots his web. The spot closes with the same black and white CG aerial map of the United States and Puerto Rico that was seen earlier in the spot, covered with Spiderman's web.

ABOUT RHYTHM & HUES:

Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2002, Rhythm & Hues is the largest privately held facility of its kind in Southern California, with more than 300 full time artists and staff. R&H produces quality character animation, visual effects, live action and concept design for feature films, commercials, theme park attractions and music videos.

The studio's work is featured in four high profile Summer of 2002 movies: “The Sum of All Fears,” “Scooby Doo,” “Men in Black 2” and “Stuart Little 2.” Recent R&H film productions include ”Harry Potter,” “Cats & Dogs” and “Dr. Dolittle 2.” The studio is currently at work on “Daredevil” and “Gigli” for release in 2003. The studio’s Commercial division produces such award winning work as the Coca Cola "Polar Bears," along with recent spots for Ritz and Geico. The newly launched Design Division has implemented campaigns for Infiniti, Coke and Nissan, and serves as a concept and production design resource for the studio’s feature film and commercial productions.

In 1995, the studio received the Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects for its work on "Babe." R&H is also the recipient of two Scientific and Technical Academy Awards, as well as first place awards from virtually all the international competitions which recognize excellence in computer graphics.