New York's Newest Visual Effects Company is Suspect

Executive producer Rob Appelblatt and visual effects designer TimCrean, two members of the team that launched Guava last summer, haveformed Suspect as a vehicle for their unique creative partnership. Thehands-on pair has structured their firm in a way that supports theircollaborative approach to providing clients with innovative and timelysolutions to their design and visual effects challenges.

Crean, an inspired designer with a long list of high-end work to hiscredit, has been creating and supervising visual effects for over adecade. Appelblatt is a veteran producer with the kind of technical andcreative expertise that makes him a valuable asset to every phase ofthe design process.

No strangers to getting a new company successfully off the ground,Appelblatt and Crean first met at Nice Shoes, the Manhattan based postfacility, where they were instrumental in formulating the identity andstart up for the offshoot, Guava.

"Having worked at several of New York’s top houses, Rob and Ihave the advantage of going into this venture with a lot of invaluableexperience under our belts, " says Crean. "At Suspect, we will continueto provide the knowledge and skills that clients have come to expectfrom us."

Appelblatt and Crean also plan to create a work environment thatreflects their own personal style and creative sensibilities. A keyelement of the new venture is their commitment to never limitingthemselves to traditional solutions or boundaries when they’relooking for a creative solution.

"We know the best solution to any given problem is out theresomewhere, and it is a process to find that solution. It is notuncommon for us to explore a multitude of different directions usingconventional & unconventional means before we arrive at the rightone." says Appelblatt.

Crean, who has been using Discreet’s Flame for close to adecade, began his career in the Washington, DC area at Henninger Video.He relocated to New York City in 1995 where he worked at Black Logicand later served as visual effects supervisor and chief inferno artistat Nice Shoes. There, he was instrumental in building the visualeffects department, which spawned Guava.

Tim Crean has amassed numerous commercial, music video, cinema andbroadcast credits, including spots for Smirnoff, Coca-Cola, Cingular,Motorola and Samsung. During that time he has worked with suchdirectors as Richard Avedon, David Kellog, Irv Blitz, Jeff Darling,Jeff Preiss, Carolyn Chen, and Chuck & Clay as well as havingseveral personal film projects honored at the Sundance FilmFestival.

Crean’s approach to his craft is design-driven. He comfortablyembraces any technology or talent that can serve that end. His primarytool is Discreet’s Flame. He also has a full suite of designsoftware running on Macintosh workstations.

Appelblatt started in the industry in 1991 at a small New Yorkcompany called Panavideo. Two years later he moved to Charlex where herose through the ranks to become one of the company’s leadingproducers. Appelblatt spent eight years at the renowned visual effectshouse before joining Nice Shoes as visual effects producer. There, hehelped manage the workflow, marketing and development of Guava.

Suspect opened its doors with spot work for Miller Lite, Titleist,MasterCard, Smirnoff, and Jolly Rancher. But its most challengingassignment was providing the conceptual design, animation, and visualeffects for a Revlon commercial, which tied into the Paramount Picturesrelease, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

"Editor Nathan Byrne brought us a 30-second cut with clips from themovie trailer timed out to the voiceover" Appelblatt recalls. Thevoiceover asked, "What happens when Revlon gets mixed up with How ToLose A Guy in 10 Days? Instant Attraction, of course!" "We had nolive action footage to work with, only a few product stills and dollopsof nail enamel " he adds.

"They needed a cohesive concept to pull the idea together, so wedove in, brainstormed, researched the Revlon product line, itsbranding, and the movie," Crean reports. "We pitched the concept, wereawarded the job on a Thursday and delivered it on Sunday."

The partners devised a 3D graphic heart concept for the spot, andcombined it with a "guy chases girl" theme for the animation. All ofwhich further reinforced the Instant Attraction brand while tying inwith the storyline of the movie. Crean shaped the dollops of color intohearts with flame* and Photoshop, crafting a screen full of temptingInstant Attraction lipstick and nail enamel shades guaranteed to stopany guy in his tracks. He also manipulated the product stills to createa dynamic perspective shot interspersed with colored hearts.

"What was most remarkable was Suspect’s ability to work with avery tight timeframe," says producer Eileen Doherty whose MTV On AirPromos department was asked to give an MTV feel to the spot, which wastargeted to the network’s young and exuberant demographic. "Theturnaround time was five days from graphics creation, editing and audioto approvals from Revlon, their agency Deutsch and Paramount. It wasnerve-racking for me as the writer/producer, but Suspect created agreat concept and met a tough deadline."

"Tim and Rob took the spot, added some great ideas and made ithappen," Doherty continues. "Revlon was definitely impressed. The spotSuspect created looked like it took a much longer time to execute.

"The Revlon job gave us an opportunity to take a project fromconcept through completion," says Crean. "It utilized our full serviceapproach and showcased the range of contributions we can make to aspot. We certainly welcome the opportunity to create visual fx thatbring an agency’s concept to fruition, however, we really thinkthe final product benefits when we have the opportunity to contributein the conceptualization process."

It’s human nature to be a little suspicious of the new kid onthe block. But this new visual effects house is headed up by hands-onseasoned talent with the kind of experience, business savvy andcommitment that is making their company a prime suspect: Appelblatt andCrean both agree that that’s a good thing.