Elad Offer, ECD/head of 2D, The-Artery on Monty Python, working on the “I’m a Slave for You” music video for Britney Spears and virtual sets.
Elad Offer boasts over 20 years experience as a visual effects supervisor, producer, and flame artist that he brings to his role as ECD/head of 2D at The-Artery. Leveraging his passion for technology and extensive background in the world of visual storytelling, the creative VFX vet has played an integral role in creating content for some of the world’s leading brands including Apple and Microsoft while working at renowned advertising agencies and VFX houses like The Mill, Method / Company 3, and Framestore.
During his career, Elad has also worked with some of Hollywood’s top directors and producers on feature films including Pearl Harbor, Moulin Rouge and Get Smart, as well as on countless memorable music videos for Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliot, Brittney Spears and more. Notably, he was also part of the MTV Video Music Award-winning team for Outkast’s classic, ‘Hey Ya.’
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Elad> I grew up on Monty Python and that sort of British comedy was what got me excited about the prospect of a career in filmmaking. For someone with a visual effects background, surprisingly, effects-heavy films like Star Wars weren’t as influential to me. Anything a bit “over-the-top,” was always a bit more my style – I’ll take “Spaceballs” over “Interstellar” any day of the week!
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Elad> I gravitate towards humour when I look at my favourite commercials of all time as well. The Budweiser lizards or frogs are classics to me. I also really love any spot that uses VFX to tell a story, especially a funny one.
Directors who come from a music video background also tend to have a style that I gravitate towards. The Apple “Welcome Home” spot that Spike Jonze directed had that heightened visual aesthetic that rocks my world.
The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…
Elad> I go back and check out Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” music video or pretty much anything from Mark Romanek for references. I love how you see the lights coming down in the circular room. I even tried to have a little homage to that in a video I directed. Bjork’s “Always Full of Love” music video directed by Chris Cunningham–honestly, anything he’s directed, I’m a huge fan of. A lot of that type of work from the early ‘90s I saw and thought: I want to do that.
My first professional project…
Elad> I started at a company called Gravity in Israel, where I first connected with the founder of The-Artery, Vico Sharbani. One of the first projects I worked on as a Flame artist was a commercial for crackers. I collaborated with a stop-motion specialist, and we worked together to create a stop-motion cracker movie in Flame. He was so amazed at how much patience my role took–which was surprising to me at first. I had assumed that stop motion took the utmost patience. He pointed out that in stop motion, you’re always on the move. Set up one frame, capture, and move on to set up the next. Rinse and repeat. I guess it’s a matter of perspective.
The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Elad> I don’t have any work that I hate that badly but if I have to name something, I never really enjoyed the film Titanic. The effects are amazing, but the movie itself was about an hour too long to my taste. Not my thing.
The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…
Elad> The Spike Jonze Apple spot that I mentioned is one that I’m jealous of. Anything that he has done, honestly. The whole crew that he put together really pulled off something visually amazing and fun at the same time.
The creative project that changed my career…
Elad> I worked on a music video with Outkast for the Scooby Doo Movie, called “The Land of a Million Drums.” That project introduced me to a lot of people who would be future collaborators in the film space for me. It cemented my connection with Bryan Barber, who directed a lot of Outkast’s music videos and with whom I collaborated for a long time, including work on “Hey Ya,” which I ended up winning an MTV VMA for.
Some of those connections ended up introducing me to The Richards Group in Dallas and to one of the best copywriter/creative directors I’ve ever worked with: Chuck Schiller. We’ve worked together only a few more times, but he’s one of those people that I’ve just found a great creative synergy with and we’ve become friends over the years.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Elad> I worked on the “I’m a Slave for You” music video for Britney Spears with Francis Lawrence. It was the very first video that I did for him as VFX supervisor. It was my first time supervising a project in the U.S. and I was probably 28 at the time, so it was a really exciting project to be on and I really think it came out great and still holds up.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Elad> I worked on this music video for a song that I just couldn’t get out of my head–and not in a good way. It was for Ashanti’s single “Baby.” I worked on it for two weeks and I know that the song itself was a huge hit, but for me, the song was too repetitive and I was more than ready to move on from it when we were one.
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Elad> There was a Mercedes campaign that we worked on recently that I had the opportunity to direct a couple of the spots on. We worked with a virtual set and tested the edges of new technology, which was a really fun opportunity to play with some fun tools.
I also recently supervised The Artery’s work on some episodes of the new AppleTV+ series “Palm Royale.” There were a lot of “old school” visual effects techniques in that series – huge blue screens, that sort of thing, which was a fun throwback!
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