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| Laika - Zune |
72andSunny Teams with Curious Pictures’ Rohitash Rao for an Out of This World Journey with Zune-Arts.net “Laika” explores the secret adventures of the first dog in space New York, NY – January 22, 2008 – Curious Pictures director Rohitash Rao has directed a short film for the new slate of web-based films created by ad agency 72andSunny for Microsoft and its Zune media player. Rao’s “Laika” can be seen on a special web site developed by the agency, www.Zune-Arts.net, where artists collaborate on short film and music projects sponsored by Microsoft. Letting friends share and discover new things is at the heart of each of the films at Zune-Arts.net, and this is expressed to its fullest in the sweet outer-space tale of “Laika.” It tells the story of the first dog in space, sent up in a rocket launched by the former Soviet Union on November 3, 1957. The film begins with archival footage of scrappy young Laika, integrated with Rao’s signature graphic style into what appears to be a Russian newspaper. “We liked the idea of using the real story of Laika as a springboard,” says 72andSunny writer Charlie Stephenson, “as well as starting at the last documented second of Laika’s life—the moment her rocket disappeared into the ether.” Once Laika gets into outer space, however, the imagery shifts from the real to the fantastic. “Getting a photo-realistic version of a dog to convey emotion isn’t easy,” says 72andSunny designer Katie O’Shea. “But Ro did a beautiful job of establishing both the joy of discovery and sense of loneliness that was crucial to this story.” “We wanted to take the realistic story from the first ten seconds and go into a land of pure fantasy—the idea of the ultimate dog planet,” says Rao. Laika lands on a brilliantly colored world filled with everything a dog could want—trees made of meat covered in Spanish moss-like bacon, a river of peanut butter, ferns that toss Frisbees and hands that grow out of the ground at the right angle for easy belly rub action. However, as much fun as Laika has on this ultimate dog planet, she misses home, so she fills her spaceship with treats and heads back. On the way, however, her mission is thwarted, and Laika makes the selfless decision to make sure her friends back on Earth can share the experience she had in space, and she drops her treats to her friends below. The short was created with a combination of stop-motion and After Effects work. “We spent a day shooting stills of tons of dogs—every pooch you see in the piece was shot just for this short. We covered them in various poses, doing a wide range of doggie activities—walking, jumping, running, romping and sitting,” says Rao. “We also used stop motion for the dog biscuit rings around the planet by attaching a dog bone to a drill bit, then shooting it in stop motion to create an organic look.” The film is set against a rock and roll soundtrack by the band The Aliens. “It’s perfect,” says Rao. “Not only is the track we used melodic and evocative of the mood of the film, the album it’s from is called ‘Astronomy for Dogs.’” “Ro did a great job of turning a melancholy topic into an inspiring story about sharing and friendship,” says Stephenson. “Plus he’s the first Zune Arts artist to create a tree made entirely out of meat.” “Laika” Credits: # # #
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