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Gavin O’Connor teams up with Trojan and Colangelo for his first commercial directorial debut!

01 / 28 / 2014

Trojan’s New Ads Are Subtle, Playful and Even Safe for Kids: Colangelo’s new TV ads for Trojan are refreshingly quiet and subtle, with adults and a male teenager alluding to sex without snickering or blushing. That said, the subject behind the dialogue-driven ads, which break today and were directed by Gavin O’Connor in his commercial debut, is never in doubt.

In “Big Date,” the teen, in an interesting role reversal, plants a condom in the shirt pocket of his middle-aged dad who’s leaving for a date. “Miss You” shows a boy longing for his traveling dad as much as his mom misses her man, only to smile when she finds a Trojan present from him in a dresser. “Happy Birthday” is the only ad set in bed, with a thirtysomething couple celebrating some early morning action. But hey, they’re relaxed about it, so you don’t feel creepy watching them.

Indeed, this campaign is more mellow than naughty, so much so that TV networks will air the ads earlier in the evening than they have in the past, according to Dave Clemans, Colangelo’s executive creative director.

The tagline, underscored by three simple piano notes, is “Real. Good. Sex.” Continue reading at Adweek.com.

From CreativityOnline: Trojan Brings Sex Into The All-American Family In Latest Spots: These are condom ads with a difference; the protagonists in Trojan’s latest spots are All-American family types who behave as if they’re in a campaign for soap powder or Cheerios. Trojan says it’s hoping to promote the “positive, healthy” side of sex with this campaign from Colangelo (kicking off in time for Valentine’s Day), rather than relying on what it calls “a bunch sophomoric humor to hide the fact that we’re talking about sex.”

The first spot, Big Date, features a teenage son sending off his middle-aged father before Pop’s big date, telling him to have a good time and tucking a Trojan BareSkin Condom into his chest pocket. Another features a wholesome mom telling her son how much she misses Daddy, who’s away. Then she finds a wrapped present from Papa in her underwear drawer–a Trojan vibrator! The third features a couple having some fun in bed with the brand’s lubricant before they go to work. All carry the new tagline real.good.sex. The spots were directed by Saville Productions’ Gavin O’ Connor. Continue reading at CreativityOnline.com.

Behind-the-scenes with Jennifer Lopez and director Rob Cohen for Kohl’s

12 / 05 / 2013

Take a behind-the-scenes look at photographs on Rob Cohen’s latest shoot with Jennifer Lopez for Kohl’s Thanksgiving Black Friday Sale. Agency: Peterson Milla Hooks.

from Kohl's commercial

from Kohl's commercial

from Kohl's commercial

from Kohl's commercial

from Kohl's commercial

from Kohl's commercial

To view the rest of the photo set, please visit the Saville Facebook Page.

Oscar-winning actress and director Anjelica Huston releases her highly anticipated memoir “A Story Lately Told”

11 / 20 / 2013

Anjelica Huston

In a sea of Santa Monica whites and tans, it was hard not to stare at the formidably chic woman with the dancer’s posture dressed in head-to-toe black.

Anjelica Huston was scanning the lobby of the Shutters hotel, and I needed to get her eyes on me. “Witchturla!” I shouted, a bit too enthusiastically. It worked. Her black eyes lit up in recognition as she made her way through the lobby’s soignée boulevardiers.

It was her secret word, although the secret was out when her evocative memoir of growing up expat Hollywood royalty in Ireland, “A Story Lately Told,” was released last week. She says she invented the word to torment her childhood friend Joan (who grew up to be Joan Juliet Buck, the editor of French Vogue; everyone in Ms. Huston’s sphere grew up to be somebody) when she was ignoring her for another playmate. She kept using it, and refused to tell Ms. Buck what it meant. “It means nothing, but doesn’t it sound really, really filthy?” Ms. Huston said, eyes sparkling. Somehow this seems to me to be pure Huston, this calculation to quietly keep our attention with the promise of something just a little scandalous.

Continue reading the article at NYTimes.com.

Behind-the-scenes with David Harner for CenturyLink

10 / 17 / 2013

Emmy-award winning director David Harner teams up with Peter Mayer Advertising on the latest commercial campaign for CenturyLink. Take a look at behind-the-scenes shots with the director, cast and crew. See the rest of the photographs on Saville’s Facebook Page: link.

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Behind the scenes on CenturyLink campaign

Sean Ellis’ Oscar nominee ‘Metro Manila’ wins over Philippines

10 / 09 / 2013

Britain’s nominee as Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars features an all-Filipino cast and a story that traces the sacrifices and hopes of an impoverished family from the countryside that tries its luck in the dark and squalid ghettos of the Philippine capital Manila.

Metro Manila, written and directed by Briton Sean Ellis, is one of three foreign language films nominated in the best foreign language category for next year’s Oscars which delves into the lives of Filipinos.

The Philippines’ nominee Transit focuses on the struggles of migrant Filipino workers in Israel, while Singapore’s entry Ilo Ilo is about a Filipino nanny who works for a Singaporean family.

The US film academy will select the finalists in January ahead of the Oscar ceremony on March 2.

“I thought it was a very beautiful and poetic story about family and about sacrifice and about hope,” Ellis said of his movie, which won an audience award at the recent Sundance Film Festival. The movie premiered in Manila last week and opens in Philippine cinemas on Wednesday.

Continue reading here.

Saville’s Executive Producer Interviewed on CBS’s KCAL9

08 / 15 / 2013

Saville Executive Producer Rupert Maconick is interviewed by KCAL9 reporter Serene Branson regarding the dangers of texting and driving, in association with Werner Herzog’s 35-minute PSA “From One Second to the Next – It Can Wait.”

VENICE (CBSLA.com) — A Venice-based production company is trying to save lives by alerting drivers to the dangers of texting while behind the wheel with a 35-minute PSA.

Saville Productions made the half-hour documentary “From One Second To The Next – It Can Wait”. The short film, helmed by German director/actor Werner Herzog, was funded by AT&T and other major wireless carriers. It features testimonials from victims whose lives were forever changed when they were struck by distracted drivers tapping messages like, “I’m on my way,” or taking swift glances at their cell phones.

XZavier Bilbo, eight, is among those victims. He was run over by a texting driver while holding his sister’s hand. He is paralyzed from the neck down. His legs, gone. “There are times when the pain is so bad I can’t breathe,” XZavier’s mother says.

Saville Productions’ Rupert Maconick hopes sharing the boy’s story, and others’, will be a catalyst for texting drivers to change their behavior when they see the devastating outcomes their actions can have.

Continue reading on CBS.LosAngeles.com.

Adweek’s Ad of the Day: Werner Herzog Makes It Heartbreakingly Simple—Don’t Text and Drive

08 / 14 / 2013

Don't text and drive image

If you haven’t already, make sure you make time to watch Werner Herzog’s new documentary on the dangers of texting and driving.

At 35 minutes, it’s long for a PSA. It was sponsored by AT&T, with the support of the other three major wireless carriers—Verizon, Spring, and T-Mobile—and created with the help of AT&T’s agency, BBDO New York. You may want to spread it across a few viewings. There are natural breaking points, with a format that tracks four different stories of devastating accidents, told by the people involved—victims, perpetrators, families, and responding officers. But get through the whole thing.

The first story is about Xzavier Davis Bilbo, an 8-year-old paralyzed from the diaphragm down after a driver distracted by texting ran a four-way stop sign and hit him while he was crossing the street with his sister. Narrated in large part by his mother, it’s heartbreaking enough on its own.

But there’s powerful insight throughout the entire half-hour, much of it in the conversations with the two drivers—Chandler Gerber and Reggie Shaw—who agreed to appear on camera. Each killed more than one person, in separate accidents. While you’ll probably want to hate both of them, they don’t make it as easy as you might think.

Continue reading on Adweek.com.

Variety calls Werner Herzog’s documentary “one of the most effective public service messages ever”

08 / 10 / 2013

As gripping as scenes from “Grizzly Man” or “Into the Abyss,” Werner Herzog’s new 35-minute documentary on the dangers of texting while driving might be one of the most effective public service messages ever. If the classic driver’s ed scare movie “Red Asphalt” were imagined by one of the world’s eeriest auteurs, the result would be “From One Second to the Next,” an educational effort sponsored by AT&T that is available on Youtube and will show in more than 40,000 schools

The docu begins with the anguished mother of Xzavier, a boy who was paralyzed when a women failed to stop while she was texting. It continues — for viewers strong enough to keep watching — with a man who killed two Amish children, a woman with catastrophic medical bills and families that lost their fathers.

Continue reading on Variety.com.

Werner Herzog Tackles Texting and Driving in Devastating Documentary

08 / 09 / 2013

Thirty-five minute film ‘From One Second to the Next’ promises to scare drivers straight

It can be ridiculously tempting to text while driving. The phone lights up. It’s right there on the seat next you. Maybe a fast glance wouldn’t be so bad.

German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s new documentary on the topic will guarantee you never touch that phone while behind the wheel ever again. From One Second to the Next examines lethal situations from both the victims and perpetrators’ perspectives to show just how devastating texting while driving can be.

The film was commissioned by AT&T and will shown to high schools, safety groups and government agencies across the country, the Associated Press reports. Though it has a clear, educational agenda, it’s no less emotionally resonant than Herzog’s other films, which often find the director plunging into the extremes of human existence.

“What AT&T proposed immediately clicked and connected inside of me,” Herzog told the AP. “There’s a completely new culture out there. I’m not a participant of texting and driving — or texting at all — but I see there’s something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us.”

Continue reading on Rollingstone.com.

Werner Herzog’s New Documentary “From One Second To The Next” Probes Dangers Of Texting While Driving

08 / 08 / 2013

from don't text and drive

One woman was texting “I’m on my way.” Another man was typing out “I love you.” And another can’t even recall what he was writing.

Those three messages, typed by drivers at the wheel, cost five people their lives and an 8-year-old boy the use of his body from the diaphragm down.

The drivers’ stories, and others’, are the subject of a new, 35-minute documentary directed by acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog focusing on the perils of texting while driving. Herzog’s “From One Second to the Next” profiles the victims of distracted driving and even features conversations with the drivers themselves.

The wrenching film expands on a series of short videos Herzog directed for a public awareness campaign, “It Can Wait.” The campaign was sponsored by AT&T in an effort to curb the practice of texting while driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 3,331 people were killed by distracted driving in 2011, and that “at any given daylight moment across America,” 660,000 drivers will be using mobile devices while at the wheel.

Herzog, whose previous films include “Grizzly Man,” “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Aguirre: Wrath of God,” among many others, told the Associated Press that although he doesn’t text himself, he was drawn to the project because the topic “has to do with catastrophic events invading a family.”

“In one second, entire lives are either wiped out or changed forever. That kind of emotional resonance is something that I knew I could cover,” Herzog told the AP. “I’m not a participant of texting and driving — or texting at all — but I see there’s something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us.”

Continue reading on Huffington Post.