Ted Mccagg describes himself as “a recovering ad man.” You may recognize him from the 2011 book Paper Doll Orgy, where Mccagg compiled doodles and drawings from his freelance time at places like Y&R and McCann (not to mention some juicy agency potshots in the book’s acknowledgements). Mccagg is back, now with a new film, Bloom, a John Hughes homage about two girls planning to lose their virginity the night before high school graduation.

While the film’s narrative covers standard ground in the teen-sex narrative, Mccagg has gone all out on the social media publicity front, briefly slipping back on his advertising hat. And all out might be an understatement. The movie’s promotional website includes detailed Proust questionnaires (28 questions) for the 10 main characters in their respective voices. There’s also a link to a blog where anyone can vote on who is more “V-Worthy” in head-to-head matchups. In addition to the site’s material, Mccagg has worked up an expansive world supplemental to the film: a character’s Tumblr dedicated to Neil Degrasse Tyson, another character’s book actually available for purchase on Amazon, etc. Once the movie premieres, Mccagg may want to look into a James Franco impersonation job.

Bloom will be released on August 5th.

From time to time, we cover side projects on the site from ad folks who like to do things with their creative skills outside of the office. I’ve written about a number of short films myself, but “The Pixel Painter,” an 8:28 documentary about Hal Lasko, a 97 year-old man who has vision problems and uses Microsoft Paint to create impressive pixelated works of art, is definitively the best short movie I’ve covered for AgencySpy. You should watch it.

Most side-job short films that make it on the site are clever but lacking any sort of gravity. “The Pixel Painter” fills plenty of gravitational force into eight and a half minutes and sets up an interesting comparison between the new and the old, specifically when it comes to the intersection of art and technology. Most of us look at MS Paint as an outdated program built during the dinosaur age of computers, but Hal Lasko has used it to create legitimate works of art. One could even say Lasko is obsessed with MS Paint, and the documentary focuses in on his passion, something viewers may not typically associate with nonagenarians.

The movie was directed by Josh Bogdan (senior copywriter at Bay Area shop Muhtayzik Hoffer) and Ryan Lasko (Hal’s grandson).

Credits after the jump.

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Would you want to work for a company that asks you to do a blindfolded trustfall off of a building? Probably not, although if Goldman Sachs asked some young jobseekers to do the trustfall while calculating a probability brainteaser, I’m sure there are people who’d sign up. That’s the point of the new faux recruiting video from SpareFoot, an Austin-based storage finder start-up. You’ll find all the trappings of an exaggerated office culture: crazy bosses, scared underlings, and an HR rep who likes Vin Diesel. We’re guessing working at SpareFoot isn’t actually like this, but CEO Chuck “Commodore” Gordon does resemble a Gary Busey stunt double (well played on the self-deprecation).

These types of office-culture riffs have been done before, but SpareFoot has chosen an interesting path by linking the video on the company website Jobs page. I’m not sure if such a jokey pitch would make me want to apply to work there, because although we get to see what SpareFoot culture isn’t like, we never really get to see what it’s actually like in the office. The risk may turn people off, but during a time when using the wrong resume font can lead employers to ignore you, having a sense of humor in the workplace feels refreshing.

We’re sure many of you on the East Coast have already checked out by this point, but here’s a short film anyways produced by Jack Morton Worldwide that somewhat documents the Cannes Lions experience. Beginning with shots of creative notables including AKQA CCO Rei Inamoto in some sort of meditative pose as they ponder the questions being asked, the video eventually gives us a sense (especially those of us who’ve never made it out there) of what it’s like to win, or just be at the week-long event in general. That’s good enough for us at this point, thanks.

Regarding the doc, which also features the likes of David Droga, Jack Morton director of moving image, EMEA Adam Norris tells Campaign Brief, “Cannes Lions is far more than an industry event; it’s the key gathering of creative minds from across the globe.   Creating the documentary is a singular opportunity to shine a light on this world and reveal what makes Cannes unique.” And we suppose it basically does.

Many top brands have preferred Instagram to Vine when deciding how to complement branding with viral videos, but that hasn’t stopped Snapple, with creative direction from NYC-based Code and Theory, from choosing six over 15. As part of Snapple’s Re-enFACTments digital campaign, here’s a little stop-motion animation to kick off the weekend. The above clip was designed by Khoa Phan, who Mashable declared “Vine’s Most Creative Stop-Motion Animator.”

Snapple and Code and Theory have reached out to a number of unique people on the platform to visualize the signature series of under-the-cap facts that lost their novelty appeal about ten years ago. Phan worked with fact #754 – an alligator can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime, a ridiculous number that probably excites dentists and orthodontists around the world. And, as you can see in a few additional Vines below, makes eating an apple more troubling than you’d expect.

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You rumdrinkers out there might not have known this while pounding down eight dollar shots at trendy bars, but Bacardi Rum has quite the historical significance. Think Cuban Revolution, Spanish-American War, and the Rough Riders. I don’t remember learning about any of these connections in social studies class – hmm, I wonder why, board of education? – but thanks to OppermanWeiss, “¡Vivimos!” the history of Emilio Bacardi Moreau and his company’s revolutionary roots will be on display in the coming weeks with a cinematic spin.

The above clip is the second ¡Vivimos! spot from OW and director Jake Scott, featuring a handsome and thinly mustachioed version of Emilio Bacardi Moreau set to a grainy image filter. The video does embellish a bit, making it appear as if our Bacardi hero was going to be gunned down spaghetti western style. Truthfully, or at least according to the Bacardi website, Bacardi Moreau was exiled from Cuba to North Africa twice, but who are we to nitpick with an actiony marketing campaign 115 years after the fact? Also be on the lookout for the ad in movie theaters, because Bacardi and Screen Vision partnered to put the clip on 100,000 screens across the country. And if you are really into Cuban revolutions, the brand is unrolling added content through Shazam, so everyone can also vivimos with their smartphones out.

Credits after the jump.

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A few months ago, we covered the announcement for the 3rd annual Saatchi & Saatchi Music Video Challenge. Well, the time has jumped by – maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t – but we’re back to report the 12 finalists and one People’s Choice winner. The contest asked interested directors to create an original music video for OK Go’s new single, “I’m Not Through.” You can check out the finalist entries here. On June 20, the winner will be announced as part of the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase.

As you’d expect with an OK Go contest, there is an abundance of quirk and artistic shenanigans. The parties involved say the finalists come from all corners of the globe, but really, they just come from western countries, mostly the US and UK. One finalist is from the Bahamas. It’s now that we’re reminded that globes don’t have corners. Not to show favoritism to my personal preferences when it comes to abundances of quirk and artistic shenanigans, I’ve randomly selected two finalist videos (one below the jump) for your viewing pleasure on this dreary Friday afternoon. Enjoy.

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I bet your office lobby – if you have an office lobby – doesn’t look as artistic as the new and improved office lobby for Draftfcb SF. One of the agency’s art directors brought in local graffiti artist Ghost Owl to freshen up the lobby with a staggering wallscape. As ad folks often do, Draftfcb SF turned non-client work, and in this case, office redecoration, into a creative endeavor. There’s a short video showing how Ghost Owl worked his ghost magic with the spray cans, a cool watch if you want to see how he layers and shades colors up close. A bumpy hip-hop beat plays over the clip, completing the woozy old-school West Coast feel. I’d be willing to bet that E-40 approves of this Bay Area collaboration.

Credits after the jump.

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While your office chair may be a standard rollie, only capable of swiveling around as you head to the bathroom to put off work, some extraordinary chairs, like the star of A Chair Named Clarity go beyond the call of duty. In a commissioned short film for office supply company Allsteel, writer/director Nickolaus Duarte tells the story of a young chair that travels to the big city for “a hero’s journey” to save his ailing mother (who happens to be human).

Why, you ask? (Humor me and ask). Because Clarity’s human mother gets sick after sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair. At this point, it would’ve been wise for Clarity’s mother to change chairs, since her child is somehow an office chair. But then, you realize that this three-and-a-half-minute short film is a small piece of branded content that is just trying to eek out a few laughs from viewers and maybe sell some office furniture, so making sense of it might not make too much sense.

The Los Angeles outpost of agency/content studio KesselsKramer, which opened up shop in Chinatown last year, is part of the creative team behind “Mythical Creatures,” a new documentary about artist Gary Baseman uncovering the story of how his parents survived the Holocaust in Ukraine. The film’s mixture of art and history also benefits from a score by South African duo, Die Antwoord.

The press release characterizes the project as “a whimsical story of survival and hope.” Using whimsical to describe a Holocaust story can be cringe-inducing, but after watching Baseman discuss his familial roots in his art studio, the description seems to make sense. Baseman’s artistic style has been described as “adorably perverse” by the Los Angeles Times, and that sort of imaginative approach to a story about Holocaust survivors could help the movie stand out creatively.

David Charles, ECD/partner at KK Los Angeles who wrote and directed the film tells us that his shop hopes to release the film in October, and to secure more funding. And not to worry, KK LA plan to start a second wave of Kickstarter donations later in a couple of days (we’ll update with link).

Credits after the jump.

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