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Hurricanes Go Top Shelf with New Ad Campaign

This marks the second year the Canes have teamed up with ad agency Craig Jackson & Partners and Trailblazer Studios to produce the franchise's extensive advertising and video scoreboard spots. The campaign, themed "It's a Caniac Thing," slows down the high-speed moves of Eric Staal, Cam Ward and other Canes' favorites. View Cam Ward spot: http://www.redtruckfilmsnewwork.com/2009/09/carolina-hurricanes.html.

"It's a Caniac Thing" features eight main spots, each one catching a key player in a signature move - a slapshot, a wrister, a glove save. The voiceover describes the move and settles on the one word that comes to mind for Caniacs when they think of their beloved team.

"Shooting at 500 frames per second makes the footage unique, because you can break down human motion to its barest elements," said Garye Costner who directed the spots. "The hockey scenes we shot were happening so fast that you really don't see the whole thing in real time. Then when you slow it down, what took a half second is stretched out to 6 or 7 seconds. For the first time you get to see just how powerful and skilled the skaters really are."

Red Truck Films, represented by Trailblazer Studios, shot and produced the spots, with Cathy Wilson as executive producer and Costner as the director/DP. Costner brought in the Phantom camera and a technician from New York, giving the Canes an affordable way to utilize this typically expensive technology.

Serious Robots, the post production division of Trailblazer Studios, provided on-set supervision, post workflows, editorial, compositing, graphics and color correction - delivering eight main :30 second spots. Editors Scott Roy and Ian Krabacher will continue to cut the spots and create individual game tags for all upcoming home games.

Original music and sound design were provided by Aaron Keane and Willie Elias of Blazing Music + Sound, another division of Trailblazer Studios. Blazing will also deliver a radio advertising campaign to compliment the TV spots.

"Working with Trailblazer for the second year in a row has been a great experience," said Ben Aycock, director of Marketing for the Carolina Hurricanes. "Their attention to detail and seamless teamwork between the divisions - you can't ask for anything better."

Craig Jackson, executive creative director and owner, and Mike Allen, creative director of Craig Jackson & Partners led their agency on the project, writing the scripts and providing voiceover.

"The Canes have come to mean something special to our region, and they have an amazingly loyal fan base," said Jackson. "When we started working with the Hurricanes and Trailblazer Studios on this project, we understood they wanted an anthem that speaks to how Canes fans feel about their team. Being fans ourselves, we were able to inject our passion into the work, capture the personality of the team and its fans, and create and produce a series of elegant, powerful spots."

Costner agrees: "People who love hockey will really love this footage and will scream 'now that's what I'm talking about!' People who don't know hockey will be amazed at how cool it looks, and just maybe it will get them to a game."

For Trailblazer Studios
Lori McDaniel, 919-828-4848
lori@group3online.com