Shervin Youssefian: Anti-Bullying PSA starring Joey King directed by Shervin Youssefian

I've worked on a ton of commercials with my producing partner Danny Simonzad, but we had never done a PSA. As I was doing research for a feature film that I'm writing about high school kids finding new ways of combating bullies, I picked up a book called "Dear Bully." It was a collection of short stories written by well-known authors and the one that jumped at me was a story called "The Eulogy of Ivy O'Conner" by New York Times best selling author Sophie Jordan.

It wasn't so much the story that grabbed me, but the ferociously and fearless style in which it was told. I had never seen such an innovative way to write. So I thought... What if we found a way to show this visually while keeping faithful to Sophie Jordan's work? Was it possible?

The best ideas are simple and undeniable. With that vision in mind, we set off to find the right person to play the role of Ivy, a secluded teen girl who finds it hard to deal with her bullies. Working with talented casting director Sarah-May Levy, we convinced Joey King to be a part of this anti-bullying PSA. Joey had just come off of some mega budget productions such as Oz the Great and Powerful, White House Down and Dark Knight Rises, but the issue was close to her heart, so she accepted.

Spot On Media also got support from www.StompOutBullying.org a national Anti-Bullying organization that helps increase awareness and equips teens and parents to fight off bullying.

Shervin Youssefian and Geoff Reisner

We would have to shoot Joey on green screen and recreate the environment completely with CGI. This meant having to build a Green Screen Treadmill.

Spot On Media is now in the post-production phase and I'm hoping to see the final version in only a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here is an exclusive still from "The Eulogy of Ivy O'Conner."

PHASE 1 OF ANIMATION