Black Dog reeled in 16 nominations, with Floria Sigismondi’s name appearing most often on the list.  The director, repped by Black Dog for music videos and Believe for commercial work, earned noms spanning 12 categories, including Director of the Year for Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors.”  Fellow Black Dog director Christian Larson was listed for his Sigur Ros Mystery Project video “Valtari.”  Other Black Dog honorees include Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen for his Rhye video “The Fall,” Dawn Shadforth’s trippy Infinity Ink video, and Diane Martel’s too-hot-for-Youtube clip for Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.”

We’re not done celebrating just yet.  Believe director Anthony Mandler received seven nominations, and Wendy Morgan is honored four times for her Laura Mvula and C2C videos, also produced by Believe.  And one more woo-hoo, cheers and a big HOORAY for our friend Dilly Gent, who commissioned the groundbreaking Joel Compass video “Back to Me” – earning two nominations.

Congratulations and best of luck to everyone at the MVPA Awards in LA May 30th!

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Floria and Bowie have done it again. The pair reunited to deliver the second music video from the rock provacateur’s recent album “The Next Day.” Bowie himself wrote and conceptualized the video treatment, with Sigismondi executing his sacred-gone-sinful vision in her signature otherworldly style.

“The Next Day” sees the Black Dog director staging a blood-soaked bacchanal at a brothel attended by prostitutes and religious figures, while a Christ-like Bowie performs on stage wearing priestly vestments.  Actor Gary Oldman plays a violent clergyman who propositions a scantily clad Marion Cotillard for a dirty dance. As they carry on with their lusty swivel, we see images of vice and sacrilege unfold in scenes around them: money is exchanged between a cardinal and a redheaded dancer, a monk self-flagellates, and a set of disembodied eyeballs appear on a silver platter.

Marion suddenly falls to her knees and blood begins to spurt from stigmata marks.  As the blood sprays from her hands, the less-than-pious group turns to Bowie and condemns him for the scene at hand. The theatrical video closes with Bowie breaking the fourth wall, giving a meta shout-out to the A-listers, “Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Marion,” before vanishing from the biblical scene.

Apparently not everyone is as thrilled with Bowie’s return, with the Catholic League dolling out the ultimate burn, calling “The Next Day” the work of a “switch-hitting, bisexual senior citizen from London.” And although the provocative video doesn’t feature any nudity, the clip was quickly pulled from YouTube after it premiered yesterday due to its graphic religious imagery – before being reinstated hours later with an adult-only rating.

Now we’d like to give a meta-meta shoutout to Bowie and Floria – thank you both, thank you very, very much.

We want to officially welcome creative super-minds Cap Gun Collective to LA!  The commercial production company announces the opening of their Santa Monica office with the hiring of Executive Producer Jason Botkin. Hailing from an extensive production background, Botkin was the Founder and Managing Director of music video company Streetgang Films, and most recently, was the EP for commercial production stalwart Furlined. In conjunction with the west coast opening, Cap Gun Collective has launched a sleek rebranded website, featuring its expanded US directorial roster that includes founder Alex Fendrich, Docter Twins, Jeppe Ronde, Jonathan Doe, Michael Sewandono, Spooner Bonde, Tomas Mankovsky, and Tom Haines.

The newness doesn’t stop there. The website sees the launch of Cap Gun TV (CGTV) – a hybrid production studio that develops, produces, and markets original content for multiple platforms. Currently featured is the hit web series Teachers from director Matt Miller and improv comedy troupe The Katydids.  The series is showcased on The Onion’s website and is being developed into a longer format series. Also on the channel is Alex Fendrich’s pilot “The Venue”, winner of last year’s Comedy Central Pilot Competition.  Future plans for the innovative CGTV model include fostering collaboration with clients to find new ways of integrating brand participation into original content.

Cap Gun Collective was originally founded in Chicago in 2009 by Executive Producer Matt Abramson, director Alex Fendrich, and producer Kaitlyn Parks.  The company quickly grew, and opened its London office in 2011 with Executive Producer Oliver Allgrove.  Cap Gun Collective is part of the prolific motley of Whitehouse Post  “One Roof” partner companies that includes Gentleman Scholar and Carbon VFX.

From left to right:  Executive Producers Jason Botkin and Matt Abramson

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Director Jonathan Notaro of Brand New School calls out the history of humanity’s tooth-cleaning habits in the Philips Sonicare spot ”Stick with Technology.” The ad for Ogilvy + Mather takes us on a time-traveling “Odyssey,” raising the question of why, despite adopting technology at a rapid rate, haven’t the majority of people held their oral healthcare to the same standard?  To illustrate this dilemma, the Brand New School NY team created a vivid story covering one man’s journey through 5000 years of manual tooth-brushing technology (which essentially remains simply rubbing our teeth with bristles on a stick.)

“We wanted the actor to literally ‘brush his way through time,’” said Notaro. “So we practically tethered the actor to the camera/dolly and dragged them through the various period-specific scenes.” The actor is centered in the foreground, his environment and wardrobe changing behind him as he passes through vignettes of historical eras – from caveman times to modern day.

The films were shot on location in Budapest, including a Victorian train station with a locomotive, as well as on studio lots with constructed medieval sets.  In order to get the most realistic results with wardrobe animation, Brand New School shot on green screen mannequins with garments run across them. The team also developed other complex animations using stop motion techniques at the BNS film studio stateside. The result is a visually stunning primer of civilization that confirms that 2013 is the year that our oral healthcare should get with the times.

In “Date,” Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo let poor Carl know that the girl he wants to ask out is way out of his league; determining him as a “four,” – no, a “three and a half,” to save him the embarrassment of being shot down by a legit ten.  ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning take their usual debates to the dinner table. – with Mike Greenberg reviewing Mike Golic’s mothers’ mashed “Potatoes” as he would a game,  going so far as to rank Aunt Edna’s signature dish, “second string potatoes.”  And then there’s poor Checkers. In “Dog,”  Colin Cowherd lets a neighbor know that his pet isn’t all that special, demoting Checkers to a “serviceable family dog.” The neighbor’s crestfallen expression proves that brutal honesty is great on the air of ESPN sports talk shows, but in real-life – maybe it’s better not to say anything at all.

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One woman mystifies swimmers when a gentlemen trio presents her with an unmarked “Button” to press poolside.  Another woman inexplicably pulls a baby “Chick” out of her purse and drops it off at a table mid-meal, and in “Cactus,” a masked party-crasher performs a puzzling ritual with the plant.  Each situation commands the attention of the people witnessing the oddball behavior, leaving everyone to wonder the same thing: “Where did she get that?”

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British singer Laura Mvula has teamed up with the master of the dance video, director Wendy Morgan, to create a visual as vibrant as the thumping rhythms of her third single “That’s Alright.” Singing with the soul of a modern-day Nina Simone, Mvula dances along to the jazzy, 40’s vibe tempo with a posse of incredible male dancers. The Believe Media director embraces the defiant spirit of the track, framing shots that play against the contrast of colors throughout the house.

At one point, Mvula enters a dark world wearing a striking red dress, where she sings a fierce proclamation of self-love, “I will never be what you want and that’s alright, / Cause my skin ain’t light and my body ain’t tight.”  The beautiful, energetic visuals unlock the self-affirming message of the song, celebrating all those that march – or dance – to the beat of their own drum.

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The Chime for Change organization founded by Gucci has released the inspiring “It’s Possible” campaign to rally voices for the empowerment of women worldwide.  Edited by Charlie Harvey of Whitehouse Post London, the PSA enlists celebrities Beyonce Knowles-Carter, John Legend, Halle Barry, Salma Hayek Pinault, Zoe Saldana, and a host of others to introduce the 3 pillars of Chime for Change: women’s education, health and justice. Weaving together the star-studded snippets, Harvey delivers the organization’s mission statement with a unified, powerful punch: empowering women, empowers communities and ultimately empowers the world.

The campaign, created by The Sunshine Company and directed by Alex Stapleton, brings big names and technology together to show how easy it is to discover stories and find various projects to support worldwide.  Chime for Change shows us that “It’s Possible” to change the statistics in 2013, by raising our voices and creating posssibilies for every girl, every woman, everywhere.

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Rising stars Wolf & Crow visualize the power of sound for Skullcandy’s new “Crusher” headphones.  The spot for the bass-heavy headphones stars Oklaholma City superstar Kevin Durant and Grammy-nominated rapper Wale, set to a French Montana remix of Wale’s “We Back 2 Ballin.” The team at Wolf & Crow handled the full scope of the project, from concept to storyboard, live action shoot to VFX and final Flame finish at their Los Angeles studio.

Skullcandy approached Wolf & Crow with the challenge not only of visualizing sound, but doing it in a way that hasn’t ever been tried before. The Wolf & Crow crew came up with a synesthetic approach, manifesting the sense of vibration from the bass-driven headphones to the viewer. When Kevin Durant puts on his Crushers, the big bass beat is so strong that it ripples through his skin. Wolf & Crow created this effect by modeling Durant’s head, texturing the skin on it and matching the lighting, then layering in some compositing magic to finish.

The second interpretation of sound is the most prevalent through the spot. Once Wale’s track really kicks in, the physicality of the audio explodes out of the headphones into the environment. The VFX elements are glossy and clean, representing the sleek aesthetic of the Crusher headphones, but still aggressive enough to highlight the audio power that the user experiences when wearing them. Wolf & Crow perfectly capture the technology and power of the Skullcandy’s Crushers in the ad, creating the sensory effect of sound that you can actually feel.

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When Beyoncé speaks, the world listens. We’ve been listening for over a decade now – from the pre-millennial days of “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Since that Destiny’s Child era, we’ve followed – nay, studied – her reign, chiming in on the great debate of Beyoncé as Brand, and watching her post-baby body shake the power out of the Superdome.

The R&B diva furthers her living legacy with the first commercial of her lucrative global marketing campaign with Pepsi. The debut spot, created by agency 180 LA, opens with Queen B rehearsing new dance choreography alone in a mirrored studio. The pop star takes a swig from the blue can, which acts as a catalyst for visions of memorable incarnations throughout her career to appear in the mirrors around her.  A dance battle ensues; there’s “Bootylicious” Beyoncé, “Crazy in Love” Beyoncé, “Single Ladies” Beyoncé, and a fearless Sasha Fierce going toe-to-toe. Yet, most powerful is contemporary Bey who encourages us to, “Embrace your past, but live for now.”

Believe Media’s Jake Nava directed the promo, who previously collaborated with Beyoncé on some of her most iconic videos, “Crazy in Love” and “Single Ladies,” which she revisits in the ad. Though the spot chronicles these past personas, Bey reminds us that she’s all grown up now, using the commercial to unveil her new Timbaland-produced track, “Grown Woman.”

It’s a brilliant marketing move for Pepsi, attaching Beyonce’s most memorable moments to the drink brand.  Most importantly, they endorse her current self as the most inspiring – the perfect visual compliment to Pepsi’s “Live For Now” brand mantra.