Hornet, Eddy and Uri Lotan were tapped by RPA to participate in their film series for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. Cancer is scary and overwhelming in itself, but to be diagnosed as a child can be even more terrifying, as well as incredibly confusing. By creating a group of characters called the Imaginary Friend Society, RPA embraced the task and conceived these films to help teach kids about the process of cancer treatment in a compassionate and yet realistic manner.
There is an emotional clarity to Uri’s work and a true intentional craft to his characters' actions. The piece chosen for Uri was Feeling Sad. And what is sadness? It is such a broad topic, yet RPA and Uri did a fantastic job writing the script and developing the direction. We were drawn to this film as it had a depth and an intelligence to its approach to sadness. These are kids that we are speaking to, and yet we do not want to speak down to them, thus the tone of the film had to feel real and honest.
For Hornet, this work was deeply personal. As with most people nowadays, many of our team have been touched by cancer, so there was not a hesitation to dive right in and be a part of it. And being a pro bono film, it was a true investment of our time, Uri's time and the entire studio's time. It was an honorable task to create a film that can help these children navigate the immensity of emotions, and still present it in a tone that is approachable and graspable.
Production Co: Hornet
Director: Uri Lotan
Writers: Uri Lotan & Kristin Labriola
Executive Producer: Hana Shimizu
Head of Production: Sang-Jin Bae
Development Producer: Kristin Labriola
Producer: Cathy Kwan
Editor: Stephanie Andreou
Designers: Oren Haskins, Michelle Kwon
Storyboard Artist: Uri Lotan, Yoav Shtibelman
Eddy (Environment Visual Development)
Executive Producer: Lars Wagner
Line Producer: Julie Bellemare
CG Lead: Jean-Charles Kerninon
Designer: Lucas Durkheim
Pre-Viz/Modeling/Rendering/Compositing: Mathieu Maurel
CG Lead / Look Dev / Lighting & Rendering / Compositor: Richard Kim
Character TD: Michael Altman
CG Character Supervision: Javier Leon
Character Modeling/Texturing/Shading: Marta Pombo, Esau Perez, Javier Clavain
Pre-Viz: Andrew Boccio, Anthony Travieso, Gabe Askew
Animators: Andrew Boccio, Anthony Travieso, Dylan Reid, Jonathan Muller, Keith Osborn
Look Dev, Lighting & Rendering/Compositor: Christine Kim
VFX: Gabe Askew
Look Dev Apprentice: Thao Dan Nguyen Phan
AUDIO
Music & Sound Design: Ambrose Yu
VO Record: Lime Studios
VO Talent: Grahame Wood, Beau Stephenson, Diego Alexander
AGENCY: RPA
Jason Sperling – SVP / Chief, Creative Development
Fabiano De Queiroz – Creative Director / Art
Mike Van Linda – Creative Director / Copy
Kirk Williams – Associate Creative Director / Art
David Fredette – Associate Creative Director / Copy
Ricardo Gurgel – Senior Art Director
Juarez Rodrigues – Senior Art Director
Darien Campbell – Copywriter
Brent Singer – Creative Director / Art
Chris Bradford – Associate Creative Director / Copy
Joshua Hepburn - Copywriter
Gary Paticoff – SVP / Chief Production Officer
Ryan Radley - Producer
Maria Del’Homme – VP / Director of Business Affairs
KK Davis – Associate Director, Business Affairs
Jane LoSasso – Account Director
Jane Han – Account Executive
