Chelsea's Michael Muller shoots "True Blood" for "Entertainment Weekly" Covers

Michael Muller shot three covers for Entertainment Weekly’s June feature on HBO’s True Blood, which premiered season 4 on June 26th.  The American Gothic inspired covers feature Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) posing with each of the men in her highly complicated love triangle: Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello).

Keep your eye out for upcoming EW issues with Michael’s other iconic painting inspired work featuring the True Blood actors.

 
 

Chelsea Discovers Best Way to Beat Summer Heat

Chelsea has been pondering ways to cool down from NYC’s sweaty subways and sweltering summer sun—without turning our offices into AC tundra.  The only possible answer is of course gelato.  Over the summer, Chelsea NY will explore downtown Manhattan's best gelato and rank them based on texture, packaging, and most importantly – taste!

Eager to start our adventure off right, we popped into two gelaterias this week: Il Laboratorio del gelato on Ludlow St and Grom on Bleeker St.  Our only two constant flavors are vanilla and pistachio.

Laboratorio gelato in their fantastic packaging.

                                    

Our intern, Evan, delivered bourbon pecan, pistachio, vanilla, espresso, and chocolate hazelnut in baby blue lunch box coolers. Very chic!

Kudos for Laboratorio for creative flavoring.  Everyone enjoyed the decadant bourbon pecan gelato.  The chocolate hazelnut was not that creamy and very thick, almost like a fudge. Unfortunately, the pistachio and espresso came prepacked instead of freshly scooped. This definitely took away from the gelato. The pistachio was weak and the espresso very grainy – almost like they used the beans and not the coffee.

Overall, we ranked Laboratorio a 6/7 out of 10 for creative flavoring and packaging.

 

Intern Sara Haile (left) and Staffer Pietra Impastato (right) show off Grom's gelato.

For our second gelateria, we chose more traditional gelato: nocciola, vanilla, chocolate, and tiramisu. Grom packages their gelato ecofriendly biodegradable bags. We love how green they are!

Grom’s gelato is so smooth and creamy. It was hard for us to pick a favorite flavor – they were all very delicious.

Our rank for Grom: solid 8.5 out of 10.

Director Colin O'Toole Joins Chelsea's Roster

Chelsea welcomes visual effects and documentary director Colin O'Toole to our roster.  Known for his high concept special effects and unvarnished real-life moments, O'Toole has created insightful work for clients such as Nike, Playstation, Alfa Romeo, Adidas, and Reebok.

The diversity of O’Toole’s commercial work is mirrored by the diversity of his larger body of work. Deeply involved in the music world, O’Toole has shot a number of music videos, particularly for cult musician Ian Brown and Polydor Records.  His love of music also lead to the creation of Let Us Be Golden, O’Toole’s documentary hit at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival.  Moving from film to television, O’Toole was also co-director on the recent BBC 4 series Drivetime, and he won a D&AD award in 2009 for his PSA “Pick It Up,” for the Home Office Anti-Knife Crime campaign. 

Colin O'Toole Reel

Chelsea's Alex Gibney interviewed on NPR about his new documentary "Catching Hell", which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, and will be screening at upcoming Silverdocs & Chicago International Film Festivals

In Game 6 of 2003's National League Championship Series, a Chicago Cubs fan reached for glory ... and caught hell.   In his new film , Oscar-winning Director Alex Gibney records the fallout of a fateful flub.  Along with half a dozen other Cubs fans, Steve Bartman stuck his hands out for a fly ball hit by Florida Marlin Luis Castillo just as Cubs outfielder Moises Alou also went after it. But Alou didn't quite make it. Instead, the ball glanced off Bartman's hand and into the crowd.

 

     

          Bartman reaches to catch the ball that will change his life forever. 
 

Gibney tells NPR's Neal Conan that Bartman was immediately singled out after the incident. "The entire stadium focused their ire on him and almost tried to kill him," Gibney says. When he saw just how furious everyone got over someone doing the most innocent thing a fan could do, Gibney says he knew there was a story there.

Superstition plays such a huge role in sports that Bartman's name is now inextricably connected to the Cubs' loss. But Gibney says there's also something darker going on.  "Very often, we look to find scapegoats," he says. "Bartman was a perfect scapegoat."  That day changed Bartman's life forever. 

Click here to listen to the rest of the June 22 NPR interview.

Neil Abramson heads north for Red Lobster

The "set"

Chelsea director Neil Abramson recently wrapped a new Red Lobster spot for Grey NY, and we had the pleasure of working a little outside of our usual turf, heading all the way up to Alaska for a scenic shoot. We thought we'd share a couple snaps of the gorgeous locations, not to mention the crew that made it possible. Thanks to the Grey team for a wonderful shoot.

The full team

New trailer: Alex Gibney's The Magic Trip

After a well-reviewed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past winter, Alex Gibney's documentary The Magic Trip is heading into wider release, and you can now check out the trailer, embedded above.

Along with co-director Alison Ellwood, Alex put together 16mm footage that author Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters took on their road trip, famously chronicled by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The film includes rare footage of culture figures from Timothy Leary to The Grateful Dead, much of it never before seen by audiences. The Magic Trip will be available to view on demand in July, and will hit theaters in select cities this August.

Lauren Greenfield examines "Beauty Culture"

Lauren Greenfield's Girl Culture

More great news for Chelsea director Lauren Greenfield, who earlier this month was honored by the Art Directors Club and the Webby's: her photography and a short documentary film are being shown in the new "Beauty Culture" exhibit which opened this weekend at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.

In addition to snapshots from some of Lauren's most well-known projects including Girl Culture, she was commissioned to shoot a 30-minute documentary for the exhibition that the New York Times called "one of the show's highlights." The film plays every hour at the exhibit and includes footage that ranges from toddler beauty pageants to female body builders, interviews with photographers featured in the show as well as a Harvard Medical School professor, as well as models, actresses including Jamie Lee Curtis.

"The whole point of [the exhibit] from my approach is deconstructing the world we live in and understanding what's behind these pictures in the magazines — understanding what we're seeing," Lauren told the LA Times. "We are so influenced by these things and most of the time we don't question them. It's [as common] as the air we breathe."

We couldn't be more excited for Lauren, who was honored at the opening gala on Friday. The exhibit opened to the public on Saturday and will run through November 27. For those of you who will be in L.A. soon, we hope you get the chance to stop by, and if not you can check out Lauren's reel over at the Chelsea website.

On set with Charles Mehling and Olay

Last week was a fun one here in the NYC Chelsea offices, with Charles Mehling in town from Paris shooting his third Olay spot for Saatchi & Saatchi NY. Courtesy of EP Pat McGoldrick, here's a behind-the-scenes shot from Friday's shoot, featuring Charles (center) first AC Pete Morello (right), and model and Olay spokeswoman Emily Caillon (background). Thanks to Emily and the Saatchi team for a fantastic shoot, and stay tuned for the final product.

Watch: Johan Kramer's Bye Bye Super 8 in full

As we mentioned before, Johan Kramer's touching short film Bye Bye Super 8 - a tribute to the Super 8 film he grew up using - premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. You can now watch the full short online - take a look above, and enjoy.

Lauren Greenfield honored by Art Directors Club and the Webby's

Lauren Greenfield's stunning film and fashion photography for New York Magazine has received honors from both the Art Director's Club and the Webby's.

Last year Lauren was invited to be New York Magazine's featured photographer for the Spring Fashion Issue, and shot during fashion week in New York, Paris, and Milan. The resulting portfolio, a mix of gripping behind-the-scenes and runway shots, was used for both an 11-page featured spread in the magazine and a short film for the website. The photos are now set to receive a Gold Cube for Magazine Editorial photography at the upcoming Art Directors Club awards in New York, and the film will be an Official Honoree at this year's Webby's.

Needless to say we're all very excited for Lauren and "Fashion Show" - check out the film above and see more of her work at the Chelsea website.

Watch: trailer for Johan Kramer's Bye Bye Super 8

We posted a couple of days ago about all the Chelsea action at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and with three screening times still left for Johan Kramer's lovely short Bye Bye Super 8, wanted to give you a peek at the trailer.

Check out the clip above, and click through to the Tribeca website to pick up tickets for a screening.

Trio of Chelsea directors come to Tribeca Film Festival

Everyone over here at Chelsea is proud to announce that the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, kicking off this week, features exciting contributions from three of our directors, Alex Gibney, Johan Kramer, and David Gordon Green.

Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) will be screening his new documentary Catching Hell, which follows the infamous foul ball that sealed the Chicago Cubs’ loss in the 2003 National League Championship Series with Alex’s signature incisiveness and eye for complex human emotion. Audiences will have the opportunity to discuss in person with Alex after the April 24 screening, when he’ll be sticking around for a post-screening conversation as part of the Tribeca Talks series. In 2010, Alex scored a hat trick at Tribeca, which featured three of his projects from that year: feature film My Trip to Al Qaeda, "Sumo," a section of the blockbuster ensemble documentary Freakonomics, and ‘the hottest ticket of the festival,' Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.

In this year’s Narrative Shorts competition, Johan Kramer is screening his latest project, and it’s one that’s close to his heart: Bye Bye Super 8 is a sensitive tribute to the film that has the most beautiful colors in the world, and the medium in which Kramer first honed his filmmaking skills.

On the heels of his latest film premiere with Your Highness, David Gordon Green comes to Tribeca as a member of the jury deciding on awards for the Narrative Feature competition, and as a panelist for the Tribeca Online Film Festival, where he’ll be participating in an online Q&A from April 20^th through May 1.

Click through to the Tribeca site to pick up tickets, find out more about the films, or submit a question for David.

Bottoms up at BBDO

Denise Blate Roederer, Theresa Loguercio, and Pietra Impastato

Too bad this doesn't happen every time we hold a screening - last week we visited BBDO to screen some new work from Chelsea and Lair directors, and after things wrapped up we were met with an unexpected round of tequila shots, compliments of Joe, the BBDO bartender. Pictured above are Chelsea's Denise Blate Roederer and Pietra Impastato, along with Lair head of production Theresa Loguercio (middle)  - Partner/EP Lisa Mehling was behind the camera on this one. Cheers to a very good screening.

Rick LeMoine's second MGD 64 spot "Hands" now airing

On the heels of "Toast" being named a SHOOT "Top Spot of the Week," Rick LeMoine's second spot for MGD 64 is now making the rounds and it's just as hilarious as the first. Check out the above clip for "Hands," airing now.

David Gordon Green and longtime collaborator Danny McBride profiled in The New York Times

Everyone has been talking about David Gordon Green's new comedy Your Highness, and with the movie opening nationally this week, The New York Times has profiled David along with friend and co-conspirator Danny McBride, who also stars in the film alongside James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey Deschanel. As it turns out, David and Danny actually came up with an early idea for the movie years ago - take a look at this excerpt from the article:

In the 15 or so years it took them to get from Winston-Salem to Hollywood, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green found ways to pass the time. Since meeting as undergraduates at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Mr. McBride, who plays the mullet-haired, showboating pitcher Kenny Powers on HBO’s “Eastbound & Down,” and Mr. Green, the director whose films include the stoner comedy “Pineapple Express,” have established a tradition of brainstorming preposterous titles for hypothetical film and television projects, then inventing premises to fit those titles.

Recalling a bygone example, Mr. McBride said, “It’s called ‘The Face of Danger,’ so Steve Danger is a plastic surgeon, and he solves crimes by changing his face with plastic surgery.”

It was during one such alcohol-fueled session, while they worked on Mr. Green’s 2003 feature “All the Real Girls,” that a similarly ridiculous reverie came to them.

“It was going to be called ‘Your Highness,’” Mr. Green said. “And the poster was going to be Danny in a chain-mail leotard, with a joint in one hand and a sword in the other. And it was going to say, ‘Put this in your pipe and smoke it.’”

Read the rest of the hilarious profile over at the Times, and check out the trailer for Your Highness below, hitting theaters tomorrow: