Spacevirus Designs Media for Quiksilver Times Square!

Media Creative Philip Owens of Spacevirus Creates Celebration of Board Sports and Culture for a Strong Visual Experience by Times Square Visitors

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 20, 2003 -- Philip Owens and his creative solutions studio Spacevirus announce the design of two exciting multiscreen video presentations for the newest location of the Quiksilver Boardriders Club store in Times Square, New York. The work by Spacevirus not only appears nonstop on three huge (6' by 13') plasma screens above the storefront, but also on a ceiling-high videowall of 63 video screens within the store.

The project provided an interesting challenge for Owens, who is known for his unique work in London and Los Angeles -- both as an edgy, dynamic editor of commercials, as well as for his directing talents - and which include over a decade of award-winning national commercials, 35mm music videos, giant vidiwall rock shows (including U2's Zoo TV tour), documentary and dramatic work.

Quiksilver approached Owens with the goal of achieving something new and stimulating from their footage, graphics, and photography. "The location really drove the piece," comments Owens, "It's an enormously complex, frenetic visual environment - certainly one of the most image-laden places on the planet - yet at the same time, it's not common to see beautiful photography and interesting editing amidst the hype, rampant commerciality, and mouthing news anchors. I was hooked by the idea of changing that - of bringing something beautiful and fun into that environment - something that would make people want to enter that world."

Surfwear giant Quiksilver is world-famous for its design and manufacture of clothing, swimwear, accessory and other products that cater to the surf, skate and snowboard lifestyles. The $600m company has many brands under its umbrella, including Roxy, Raisins and Hawk.    The flagship Quiksilver Boardriders Club store, located on the corner of 42nd and Seventh in New York's Times Square, opened on March 22, 2003. The location is a spectacular 3300 square-foot retail space featuring the three storefront Barco plasma screens, a ceiling made of some 60 suspended surfboards, a "wave wall" of 63 video screens for the Spacevirus presentations, and gaming kiosks.

"It's amazing to see the images in the context of Times Square - it's a breath of fresh air," comments Steven Jones, Vice President of Quiksilver's Visual Division. "Kids walk down the street, and stop dead in their tracks when they see the screens ... it's extremely satisfying. It is something everyone can be proud of, and another first for Quiksilver."

To create the sequences, Owens took Quiksilver's beautiful surf, skate and snowboard footage and crafted the material into three fast-paced and unusually framed presentations for the storefront screens, while creating a piece with an ambient, calmer mood for the interior videowall. "I ended up weighting the outdoor pieces very much towards the portraits of the boardriders themselves," adds Owens. "Their faces show the lifestyle and culture as well as any action shot, and they're really powerful, strong images - especially in the graphics and logo-heavy frenzy of Times Square."

The pieces were developed over the Internet, the outdoor screens run DivX movies for the primary system and PAL DVD for backup, and the interior videowall runs off two NTSC DVD's. The sequences are uploaded to Quiksilver's headquarters in Huntington Beach, California for programming before being finally uploaded to the Times Square video servers. Every aspect of the process was completed on Apple Macintoshes running OSX, primarily using Apple's Final Cut Pro. ("Phenomenal," is how Owens describes the performance of these systems.)

Quiksilver's new Times Square Boardriders Club store location is already a conversation piece - and a bona fide success. In fact, Owens has already been commissioned to provide additional pieces to appear at the store throughout 2003.

About Spacevirus
Founded by Philip Owens, Spacevirus is a unique company offering directorial, editorial, design and visual effects solutions to companies worldwide. Not only has Owens completed A-list editorial work on a rich variety of award-winning commercials worldwide, but he also has a wealth of high-profile directing credits under his belt, including award-winning national commercials, music videos, giant videowall rock shows, dramatic work, and high-end digital visual effects.

Directing clients for Owens include the band U2, The Partnership For A Drug-Free America, G-Shock, Virgin Cola, Atlantic Records and more, while notable commercial editorial clients include ESPN, Toyota, Lexus, GM, Edwin Jeans, Atlantis Hotel and many others.

Philip Owens is represented for commercials editorial through Crew Cuts (www.crewcuts.com) of New York, San Francisco and Santa Monica; for visual effects work by Digital Artists Agency (www.d-a-a.com); and as a director by production company Nucleus (www.nucleuspictures.com).

For more information on Spacevirus (reels are available at www.spacevirus.com), please contact Philip Owens at philip@spacevirus.com or +1 310 578 2400. For further PR materials, or for images from the Quiksilver project or of founder Philip Owens, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at +1 954 983-5877 or Paramitch@aol.com.

     For some truly stunning stills and images from Spacevirus's work for Quiksilver (interior, exterior, and detailed screenshots), please refer to the attached PDF, or for larger files in higher resolution, please e-mail your request to Angela Mitchell at Paramitch@aol.com.

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