NEWS
Nov 2008 - Holy crap, an update!
Feels like I just blinked my eyes and poof a year passed. Man, guess it's 'cause I've been having fun! and more likely because I'm working my behind off. Updated the site with a few pieces I finished recently...DJ HELL music video, DOVE interactive film, GEORGE STANFORD music video. And I pinky promise I'll post more once they're done/released. Can't wait to share, 'cause they kick ass. meow.
Oct 2007 - Paranoid!
PARANOID U.S. SIGNS DIRECTOR NICOLE MCDONALD
HOLLYWOOD May 9, 2007
Los Angeles-based production company Paranoid U.S. has announced the addition of director Nicole McDonald to its roster, effective immediately. The announcement was made by the company's partners and executive producers, Claude Letessier and Phillip Detchmendy, who will represent Nicole worldwide.
It's such a pleasure to announce that I will join Paranoid US. A Los Angeles-based production company that will represent me worldwide. Check them out, they rock!
March 2007 - Una Favola
I've got a new short film that I have been working on since last year, it's called Una Favola, it is sort of a grown-up children's story. I've also made this new site here, to show off a couple of my films and commercial work, as I am now going to be working full time as a director/art director so this site will be my showreel. I've only put a few things here, but there is a bunch more on the way, stay tuned, and keep in touch!
SELECTED WORK
DJ HELL (excerpt)[WROTE/DIRECTED]
What would it look like if you met your conscience in the reflection of a vernal pool? This music video was created for a track on DJ Hell's new album. More to come on this one....this is just an excerpt and an interactive piece will be available soon. The water effects are all created in camera. ooh la la!
DOVE (website excerpt)[DIRECTED]
"Waking Up Hannah" is Dove's first online interactive film that supports the new Go Fresh product collection which recently launched in Canada. The film allows users to interact with the main character as she experiences a number of daily beauty and life pressures. Worked on this project from concept to color correction, it represents 5 months of work. An incredible 32 page script, shot in only 5 days. bestest crew and editor ever! site url
GEORGE STANFORD[WROTE/DIRECTED]
The My Own Worst Enemy video is a visual journey through the mental archives of musical influence. A single crane shot that slowly travels backward as George faces the camera and is pulled out past various scenes. Some of which follow behind and travel with him, adding to his performance. It was just a lovely experience, full of really talented and lovely people! smiles and high-fives all day long.
AXE VICE (website excerpt)[CO-WROTE/DIRECTED/CREATIVE DIRECTION]
This global campaign's strategy was to create an interactive film where the user had to solve crimes committed by nice girls mysteriously turned naughty. The film begins at the crime scene and the user works their way back collecting clues to the original source (Axe Vice). The challenge was to create a large and lavish noir themed online film while keeping the download time fast, the interactions engaging, and the content pan-cultural & age-appropriate. site url
MOTOROLA (excerpt)[WROTE/DIRECTED]
This is an excerpt of a short film I worked on for Motorola. Three director's were selected to interpret the script, each film was cut in to chapters and the user could slice and dice them together. The redhead is based on the Dans, gypsy like creatures from Pakistan. Pure and beautiful she slices the bad dragon lady with her razor sharp white light. hi-yah!
UNA FAVOLA[WROTE/DIRECTED]
A girl and her pony. Una Favola was filmed on the stage at Mass Art where I showed my first film more than ten years ago. This was a self-funded film and I filled many roles, including directing, writing, art directing fashion design, and even some illustrations. The voiceover was done by the most lovely Italian barber in Boston.
TATTOOED WOMAN (excerpt)[WROTE/DIRECTED]
Please put your 3D glasses on! This is an experiment using dual-camera stereoscopic techniques. Filmed in my studio one afternoon, it was initially used as the backdrop to a show. To create an even greater sense of disorientation it is shot through the reflection of an antique silver mirror. I'm excited with the results and i am continuing my experiments.
DOPPELHERZ (excerpt)[CO-WROTE/DIRECTED/ART DIRECTION]
Having seen some of my personal artwork through his then-girlfriend Dita Von Teese, Marilyn Manson contacted me and I began collaborating on the art direction for his new album and tour. Doppelherz is one of the projects we created together. A psychedelic trip through the world of Manson, it was filmed in the Hollywood hills and edited in a hotel room at the Sunset Marquis. The film was included as a bonus DVD with his album Grotesque Burlesque and is now a sought-after cult film.
MILWAUKEE'S BEST BEER CANNON[CO-DIRECTED/ART DIRECTION]
This is the Awesome Cannon Montage, which is a collection of the explosions in a 10-video series for Milwaukee's Best Light. Meant to showcase the sheer awesome manliness of the beer, an air powered cannon was made that shot beer cans at high velocity. Filmed with a 4,000fps military camera, the series was a youtube hit with over 6 million views, and also made it on CNN and CMT as news and legitimate content. More videos and things on the milbestlight.com website.
GALLERY
PORTFOLIO[VARIOUS THINGS BY NICOLE]
Here are some random other things I have done. There are some stills from a few art films, photo shoots, live performances, my studio, and a picture of me on mtv2. Hot.
UNA FAVOLA BOOK[DESIGN & IMAGE RETOUCH BY NICOLE/PHOTOS BY OLIVIA GATTI]
I made a limited run of a storybook to go along with Una Favola, which has some gorgeous stills by Olivia Gatti from the shoot, the full text of the story, and some other stills from the shoot taken by various people. If you missed out on the book, you can have the next best thing, some low resolution jpegs.
DJ HELL GALLERY[PHOTOS & STILLS OF VIDEO BY NICOLE]
Just a few behind the scene images and some stills from the picture.
DOVE PHOTO JOURNAL[PHOTOS BY NICOLE]
Photo journal of the shoot and post production. This was such a long project. Worked on it from fall to spring and in three cities. I thought I'd share..what I saw along the way.
GEORGE STANFORD PHOTO JOURNAL[PHOTOS BY NICOLE]
Photo journal of the shoot and post production. It had been raining in LA for ten days straight. It was cold and cloudy and puddles galore. The light was just amazing. All of which made the scout an adventure.
MAKING OF UNA FAVOLA[PHOTOS BY OLIVIA GATTI]
Here is a photo set of the Una Favola shoot, including some sketches for my initial costume designs, some shots of us putting about 800 pounds of dirt on a theater stage, some nice pictures of everyone that worked really hard on the shoot, and one of my brother pretending to be a dead pony so we could test the lights.
HISTORICAL
VW SNAPSHOTS (excerpt)[CO-WROTE/AGENCY ART DIRECTION]
This is one of the many intergrated campaigns I worked on for Volkswagen at Arnold Worldwide. This piece was created to promote and unveil the New Beetle Convertible. Shot by photographer Bill Cash, we created this animation from thousands of still images. It was a complete blast from beginning to end and was a very popular website for Volkswagen.
STORY OF BEN[CO-WROTE/AGENCY ART DIRECTION]
Volkswagen New Jetta. For some people it’s the perfect fit. What do you do when a carmaker slaps some chrome on an old model and calls it new? Well with The Story of Ben, Winner of the AICP award for Art Direction, we tell the tale of a boy not brought down by his differences but rather inspired by them.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS, CAPTAIN? - PART ONE[WROTE/DIRECTED]
Way back when, I produced a night at ManRay, a crazy club in Boston, where each night I presented a film and a performance. This is part one, the film...It's a super fun and silly idea. There usually was a theme associated to each night, for this particular one it was space ponies.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS, CAPTAIN? - PART TWO[WROTE/DIRECTED]
This is part two, the performance. I was working some sick advertising hours and usually worked on these in the wee hours of the night. Myself and some of my bestest friends (who are talented up the ying yang) would create everything from costumes, to props, to fire! Which soon after this performance became illegal. poo.
HOW TO MAKE A VAMPIRE FILM[WROTE/DIRECTED]
I made a series of instructional films in 2000-2002, this one teaches the fine art of making a vampire film. Before I made this, I had never seen a vampire movie. So one weekend I sat down and watched eight of them. They all go exactly like this one, ha! The underground scenes were shot in the basement of my old condo, which was the scariest place ever.
nicole
Nicole McDonald was born into the hyper-competitive world of junior women's dirt bike racing. She gave it all up to attend the Massachusetts College of Art's unique School for Interrelated Media where she focused her studies on performance art, video, and multi-media installation. After SIM, Nicole spent a few years traveling to Europe, where she presented her work at several major festivals, including Bandits-Mages in Bourges, France.
Nicole returned to the U.S. fulltime and expanded her horizons to the video game industry. She spent several years working as an art director and 3D artist on the MultiGen system for both 3DFX and Looking Glass Studios.. Fascinated by the possibilities, she specialized in terrain and environmental design. Titles include Terra Nova, Flight Unlimited I & II and MiniRacer for Nintendo.
Nicole then took a job at Arnold Worldwide and spent five years as an Art Director on the Volkswagen brand. She was involved with many of VW's flagship online and integrated campaigns, as well as many print and broadcast pieces. Her work has won awards at the One Show, London International Awards, Mobius, AICP, Andy's, Clios and Webby's among others. It has been featured in CA and been recognized by Adweek.
While working in the advertising world, Nicole also began to write and direct performances and short films which were presented at venues in Boston, New York, and London. This work caught the eye of Marilyn Manson and so began a year long working relationship. This collaboration bore the now cult classic film "Doppelherz", packaged with the Grotesque Burlesque album, which she co-wrote and directed with Manson. She also played a part in the art direction of his world tour and the music video for mOBSCENE.
After leaving Arnold, she's worked in advertising as a freelance creative director. She co-wrote, directed and creative directed the Axe Vice website for BBH. She co-directed the MilBest cannon videos that received over six million views on YouTube. And directed a number of short films including “Una Favola” and “Tattooed Woman” (in Stereoscopic 3D).
In May of 2007, she signed with Paranoid US and is now working as a full-time director. Focused on highly creative work with an emphasis on social media, she is utilizing her various skill sets from the past to push technology and innovation. Nicole is looking forward to the transformation of the outmoded world of advertising-as-usual. Armed with the skills necessary to be a leader in the new world of interactive and integrated commercial direction. She continues in her fine art and technology tests and has recently shot work for Motorola, DJ Hell, and Dove.
Contact: hello@nicolemcdonald.com