Winner of Chevy and Mofilm's international Oscars competition
Imagination and ingenuity can drive you almost anywhere—even to the Academy Awards telecast.
So learned Jude Chun, a South Korean independent filmmaker whose delightful minute-long winning entry in Chevrolet and Mofilm's international Oscars competition aired during Sunday night's gala on ABC.
The film-within-a-film, created with co-directors Eunhae Cho and Sunyoung Hwang, shows some imaginative kids making a movie of their own, called "Speed Chaser." Chevy's 2014 Cruze is prominently featured, in both life-size and toy-model versions.
"We started from the fact that our target audience was watching the Oscars telecast, and we wanted to make something that celebrated the magic of movies," Chun tells Adweek.
The clip, chosen from among 72 entries, is part of the automaker's "Find New Roads" campaign, a mantra Chun says also captures the essence of filmmaking. "A budget of 100 millions of dollars might help, but it's really imagination, creativity and passion that get movies made," he says.
The film's authenticity and heart stem from Chun's youthful DIY experiments in moviemaking. "When I was in high school, I used to make videos with my friends," he says. "Just silly stuff like Matrix parodies. We used office chairs as dollies, lamp stands as lighting. I used to hook up two VHS players to a TV, and press play/record/rewind to edit my movies."
Chun's winning Chevy effort was also a low-budget affair. "'Speed Chaser' was shot in a field near Hwaseong City, Korea," he says. "We had one day of principal photography, and a half day for pickups. Our total budget was about $4,000." Still, the performers got as intense as the cast of a Hollywood blockbuster. "Our little actress [Jungwon Lee] was so method that once she started crying, she couldn't stop. Luckily, she nailed it in one take!" says Chun.
As branded content, the film succeeds thanks to its whimsical, soft-sell approach. The Cruze gets a lot of screen time, but that works in the context of the story and never feels intrusive. Best of all, the concept isn't forced, because imagination and creative thinking really can accelerate meaningful endeavors in art and commerce, from designing automobiles to making movies and commercials.
Plus, the kids' low-tech soundtrack choice is awesome. More car commercials should give kazoos a try.
Monday, 13 January 2014
Jaguar's Super Bowl Teaser Reveals Its First British Bad Guy, Ben Kingsley Spot will celebrate U.K. villains ByDavid Griner
January 12, 2014, 3:16 PM EST
Lunging out of the gate a bit earlier than its rival automakers, first-time Super Bowl advertiser Jaguar has launched a teaser clip for its game-day ad and a related microsite called BritishVillains.com.
While the teaser doesn't shed much light on the plot of Jaguar's upcoming spot, themed "Good to Be Bad," it does reveal that the brand has tapped the talents of legendary U.K. actor Ben Kingsley.
Fresh off his red-herring role as Marvel's Mandarin in Iron Man 3, Kingsley has also been the bad guy in films ranging from 2000's Sexy Beast to 2005's BloodRayne (though I'm sure he'd rather we not mention that one).
For now, the BritishVillains.com landing page features little more than the teaser clip and info on the new Jaguar F-Type coupe, which will be the star of the brand's Super Bowl ad. Meanwhile, digital content partner Studio@Gawker continues to post villainy-themed content on the campaign's blog, Good to Be Bad.
Jaguar's Super Bowl buy is being coordinated by creative agency Spark 44 and media shop Mindshare.
For many more details on the advertisers confirmed for this year's big game, be sure to check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
THE BEST BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT OF 2013 EXAMPLES HONDA HELPS SAVE THE DRIVE-IN THEATER Honda Motor Co. went old school with an effort to save aging drive-in movie theaters unable to upgrade their venues with new digital projectors. The Japanese automaker wound up helping nine theaters across the country and put a spotlight on an area of the exhibition biz that’s become an aging relic but a nostalgic part of car culture.
AUDI REVS UP YEAR-ROUND DEALS When it comes to entertainment, carmakers typically put their marketing dollars around a single summer tentpole, but Audi made sure the German auto brand was associated with top properties year-round, with showy promos in and around “Iron Man 3,” “The Wolverine” and “Ender’s Game,” while also sponsoring the Emmys, AFI Fest and the Toronto Film Festival and hosting events around the Golden Globes and Oscars. It also one-upped Mazda this summer with a humorous short starring the two Spocksaround the release of “Star Trek Into Darkness.” Mazda was the film’s official car partner.
Also noteworthy:Infiniti produced “Deja View,” a choose-your-adventure film. Jaguar cast “Homeland’s” Damian Lewis in its own film, “Desire.”Canon gave new filmmakers a push with “Project Imaginat10n.”Doritos put a WWE fan in the ring at “SummerSlam.” And a brand could have generatedsome buzzworthy goodwill with fans of “Veronica Mars” by picking up the tab when its creator was raising money for a bigscreen version on Kickstarter. The film bows at Sundance.
Forecast: A brand will step up to produce an original series for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or the new videogame consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Carmakers will also generate considerable mileage from high-profile placements in films like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and “Need for Speed.”
Car brand Dodge’s new Durango campaign, starring Will Ferrell in his Anchorman role as Ron Burgundy, has been doing more than just making people laugh. According to recently released numbers, the campaign has also been encouraging people to buy Dodge Durango trucks. The Chrysler imprint has announced that sales of the crossover SUV were up 59% in October, part of a year-long upswing that has seen the auto brand sell 50% more units in 2013 than it did in 2012. According to the brand, visits to its website increased 80%following the launch of the Anchorman ads, and ‘shopping activity’ (looking for a dealership or building and pricing vehicles) is up 100%.
Now, another section of the campaign is putting up big numbers. The Hands OnRon Burgundy contest invited people to reach out and touch the Anchorman himself, in a digital version of the popular American ‘Hands on a Hard Body’ contest wherein participants must keep their hands on a car and outlast other competitors to win the vehicle. Players could place their finger or mouse on Ron Burgundy’s face, with the longest to hold on winning prizes including trips to New York for the Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues premiere and, of course, a Dodge Durango. One second of ‘touching’ Burgundy equaled one point in the contest. Players could also earn points by playing mini-games throughout the week of the contest.
The engagement numbers, shared by Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, are pretty staggering. During the campaign, people played more than 866,900 game sessions, with an average of 2 hours per contestant, meaning participants touched Ron Burgundy for a total of around 2.4 years. The winning player touched Burgundy for a whopping 41hours, and the top four competitors somehow all spent more than 35 hours touching the anchorman.
The game was developed by Wieden + Kennedy, design studio Legwork and the creative team at Funny or Die. It was hosted on Funny or Die’s site.
‘The widespread conversation the Ron Burgundy Dodge Durango campaign is generating has significantly increased awareness of the new Durango and is transforming that conversation into consideration,’ Olivier Francois, Chrysler’s CMO, said in a release. ‘The Hands on Ron Burgundy endurance challenge is Dodge’s latest example of creating innovative and humorous ways for fans to engage with our brand, learn more about our vehicles and turn that interest into shopping for a new Durango.’
Lee Anne Stables, executive vice president of worldwide marketing partnerships at Paramount Pictures, highlighted the importance of collaborating with the Funny or Die team, among others. ‘The total creative collaboration with our friends at Funny Or Die, the Dodge agencies and the studio creative teams, and the filmmakers themselves, is what makes this unique.’
For the initial Anchorman campaign, Ferrell and his team at Funny or Die filmed a whopping 70 different spots, ranging from short, nonsensical clips to longer, more fleshed-out pieces. Initially, the campaign was intended to consist of three to six traditional commercials, aired on television. Though nominally in charge, agency Wieden + Kennedy turned over the writing reigns to Ferrell’s creative team, which authored a dozen times more spots than expected.
The move is a new tactic for Dodge and Chrysler, which hasn’t typically created content explicitly for the web. Francois, speaking at the ANA Masters conference in October, just before the Burgundy campaign launched, noted that the brand had been emboldened by internet success on the part of its Fiat line of cars.
‘So far, our strategy has been very traditional. Commercials were bought as commercials for TV, then migrated to the web,’ said Francoise. ‘Fiat keeps creating content for the web that is so successful there that it migrates upstream to become TV.’ The Durango ads may not have been intended solely for the web, but it’s clear that the brand was happy to create content that would never air on TV – and happy to have Ferrell and the folks at Funny or Die writing that content.
Contagious Insight
This is an expertly blended campaign on the part of Dodge and Paramount, bringing together two properties at a key time in both of their sales cycles without seeming too forced or disjointed. And Dodge must be pleased with the results: this is as much a campaign for Anchorman as it is for the Durango, so it’s nice for the brand that the campaign is moving units on the sales floor, rather than just hyping up an upcoming film release.
The key to the campaign’s success, both for Dodge and for the film, lies in authenticity. By handing the keys to Ferrell to write Durango commercials and contests in Ron Burgundy’s voice, Dodge maintains the tone of voice of the character people have come to love. We’d bet that if Dodge were writing the copy, Ferrell wouldn’t be chasing dancers out of showrooms or touting the capacity of the Durango’s glove box in ads. And the somewhat low-brow Hands on a Hard Body concept is much more Ferrell than SUV brand.
It’s important to put the sales numbers in context, of course. While the increase in website visits is impressive – people looking for the ads, perhaps? – the sales increase is only somewhat attributable to the Anchorman campaign. The day before the campaign’s launch, Francois told ANA attendees that Dodge sales were up 43% on the year, making it the ‘fastest growing brand in the country’ according to him. While he didn’t break it down by model, it’s safe to say that Durango was already selling well before Burgundy started shilling.
Regardless, it’s impossible to look at this campaign as anything but a success. This is the rare tie-up of movie and product that doesn’t feel overly forced or usurious to either party. Instead, it’s a funny campaign that plays to the strengths of both the character and the brand – a slightly out of the usual take on the traditional ad, developed in an unusual take on the creative process. We’ve seen Funny or Die write commercials before for brands like Kia, New Era and Under Armour, but this set sees the writing team really hitting their mark and finding interesting ways to get consumers to engage with both content, characters and core products.
This story originally appeared on Contagious I/O. Contagious I/O is our bespoke trends, inspiration, insight and analysis service, providing daily innovative marketing intelligence across a comprehensive range of sectors to brands and agencies across the world. For more information about Contagious I/O contact sales@contagious.com
Just a few days after I posted what was one of the first 360-Degree Interactive Film Examples, this launches… ‘Become Electric’ an Interactive 360-Degree Film created to launch the brand new,BMW i3 Electric Car, and it’s a hell of a launch, I suspect, a car has never been before been released quite like this, across both iTunes and Google Play interactive apps.
The story follows a typical Hollywood-style movie, emulating quality too, but once loaded onto your iPhone or iPad, every movement and every interaction lets you dig deeper into the journey and ultimately the car. The ultimate test-drive. Created by WCRS, Mustard Films and Tool.
Friday, 8 November 2013
Choose Your Own Film Ending: Deja View Offical Trailer Featureing Infiniti Q50 (Oct. 22, 2013, New York) Infiniti today released "DEJA VIEW," a ground-breaking responsive film that dynamically adapts to each viewer, depending on their spoken interactions with the onscreen characters. The film, which was produced in partnership with award-winning branded content company Campfire, features the all-new 2014 Infiniti Q50 luxury sports sedan and can be viewed at www.infinitiusa.com/deja-view.
As an auto-industry first, "DEJA VIEW" combines cinematic narrative with new technologies - including the latest natural language processing systems - to create an immersive entertainment experience that is unique to practically each and every viewer.
"DEJA VIEW" re-counts the story of a couple driving in their Infiniti Q50, unsure of who and where they are and whom to trust. Perhaps most importantly, they are unsure of who they are running from or to. Throughout this cinematic experience, viewers will be able to affect the characters' choices and, via mobile phone conversations, to help them navigate through these disconcerting circumstances.
Produced by Campfire, which was co-founded by "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" creators Mike Monello and Gregg Hale, "DEJA VIEW" stars Charlotte Sullivan ("Rookie Blue," "The Kennedys") and Andrew Pastides ("HANK & ASHA"). Its Director Phillip Van has been featured in Shoot Magazine's New Directors Showcase, and named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Dinah Moe, the award-winning Stockholm-based interactive media development shop, acted as the technical production partner on the film.
About Infiniti: Infiniti Motor Company Ltd. is headquartered in Hong Kong with sales operations in approximately 50 countries. The Infiniti brand was launched in 1989. Its range of premium automobiles is currently built in manufacturing facilities in Japan and the United States. Production in China and Europe will start soon along with the expansion of the brand's portfolio.
As the Title Partner and Vehicle Performance Partner of Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Infiniti has a far-reaching technical collaboration with the Formula One team, and Sebastian Vettel, its triple World Champion driver, serves as Infiniti's Director of Performance.
For the latest news on Infiniti, visit InfinitiNews.com, "like" Infiniti on Facebook or follow the brand on Twitter.
About the All-New 2014 Infiniti Q50 Building on Infiniti's legendary sports sedan styling, performance and technology leadership, the all-new 2014 Infiniti Q50 is designed to create a new, distinct level of customer engagement - propelling Infiniti in a bold new direction as a brand and as a provider of a unique luxury performance experience. While Infiniti sports sedans have always been noted for their outstanding proportions and presence, the all-new Infiniti Q50 adds a new dimension of premium style. It reflects the direct influence of the Infiniti Essence concept, while honoring the iconic design dynamics of earlier Infiniti sports sedans.
The all-new 2014 Infiniti Q50 is available in a range of premium, sport, rear-wheel and all-wheel drive models: Q50 3.7, Q50 3.7 AWD, Q50 3.7 Premium, Q50 3.7 AWD Premium, Q50S 3.7, Q50S 3.7 AWD, Q50 Hybrid Premium, Q50 Hybrid AWD Premium, Q50S Hybrid and Q50S Hybrid AWD. It also offers the world's first technologies designed to enhance the driving experience, including Direct Adaptive Steering™, Active Lane Control™ and Predictive Forward Collision Warning. In addition, Infiniti InTuition™ offers a fully customizable digital environment for linking various driver settings and driving characteristics to the Intelligent Key. Building on Infiniti's unique approach to making owners' lives easier, the new Infiniti InTouch™ brings the future of in-car connectivity to the Q50 interior today. Unlike conventional interfaces, the Q50 has not one but two touch capacitive screens with intuitive hand gesture screen operation to easily connect drivers to their lives outside the car.
To learn more about the all-new Q50 and Infiniti visit www.InfinitiNews.com/Q50.
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
How "Minority Report" Designer Helped Create The Toy Car Of The Future
Boris Sofman, Hanns Tappeiner, and Mark Palatucci couldn't figure it out. The three were experts in robotics and artificial intelligence, with a handful of advanced graduate degrees among them. But when it came to the task of designing a simple toy car for their first product, Anki Drive, the team was at a loss. "I designed the very first cars myself, and trust me, I'm not a designer," Tappeiner admits. "They sort of looked like Mini Coopers--I'm very glad nobody has seen them."
The engineers scrapped their initial plans, bought a slew of concept car books, and began ripping through the pages prowling for inspiration. They labeled every single image on a scale of one to three, and quickly realized their top-rated concepts were all created by one person, Harald Belker, an automotive designer best known for his work in Hollywood. Just days later, the team hopped in their real-life car (surprise, surprise: a Mini Cooper) and headed south toward Los Angeles, set on convincing Belker to join their startup.
After years of effort, Anki Drive will finally go on sale this week. For $199, customers can buy a set of algorithmically controlled toy cars, which they can race against using the iPhone as a steering wheel. The team calls it the "first video game in the real world." While it may sound like nothing more than a holiday gift for kids, Anki hopes the technology it has developed to enable its miniature vehicles to operate autonomously will have larger significance for a range of industries, from driverless cars to health care. But in the near term, the success of the company will ride on its first product, Anki Drive, and more specifically on the design of its toy cars and how they resonate with customers. For that, the team turned to Belker, who made his name by designing iconic, futuristic vehicles for blockbusters like Minority Report and Tron: Legacy.
It's an extreme example of the unlikely marriage required between engineering and design. In Silicon Valley, where hacker-founded startups are the norm, too often is design DNA discounted from the equation. But Anki's cofounders were humble enough to realize that PhDs from Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute didn't make them wizards of automotive design--a smart decision in an era when engineering-centric founders feel inclined to dictate everything about their services, from the app icon to the user interface design.
To Belker, the Anki team's willingness to outsource its design was a welcome relief in a field that all too often attracts unqualified backseat drivers. "I always say that everyone with a driver's license is secretly a car designer--I get a lot of opinions very, very quickly," Belker chuckles. "In entertainment [especially], I deal with a lot of characters who know better."
After all, with $50 million in venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz and other top-tier firms, the Anki team had 50 million reasons to believe they could pull it off on their own. But Belker didn't encounter any Hollywood-size egos. "The beautiful thing was that Hanns and his guys, they have the technology [know-how], but they really trusted me in bringing my expertise to the table," he says, "and not micromanaging the design."
To begin, Belker and the Anki team got together to brainstorm ideas: automotive themes, personality traits, the benefits of spoilers and tire size, and so forth. But once they were on the same page, Belker was essentially given carte blanche because, as Tappeiner explains, there are dangers to having too many chefs in the kitchen. "We chose not to micromanage the design on purpose because I feel like design can go really wrong when you get five people [concentrating] on little features," he says. "First, we brainstormed about it--what should we be doing overall. But [when we later looked at Belker's designs] it was either yes or no. I really don't like to comment on [specific] features--it's either we take it or leave it, because at the end of the day, that probably gets us better results."
While the Gladiator-style approval process might irk some, Belker preferred it to having non-designers nitpicking over his designs. "That personally drives me nuts," he says.
The final design is one that Belker felt conveyed "forward-leaping motion" even "when the car is standing still." The tiny cars look fast, in other words. Each style was designed to give users a sense of each car's unique character, with lines and shape reflecting their strength or aggressiveness. As the design went from initial sketching to 3-D mock-ups to prototype models, the design and engineering teams became more intimately intertwined. "In robotics, hardware-software design is more significantly tied together than other products," Tappeiner says. "If the weight distribution in any of our cars changes by more than one gram, then the cars won't drive anymore, at all."
It was a novel challenge for Belker, who is not used to deferring to physics when designing in Hollywood. But Belker has always had to depend on his imagination more than anything. When I asked whether it was difficult designing tiny cars that one would never be able to fit in, Boris Sofman, Anki's CEO, laughs. "Harald is insanely creative, and he's also massive," Sofman says, adding that at six foot six, Belker has faced this issue all his life.
"I don't fit into anything I design," Belker says. "Even in the 28-foot-long Batmobile I designed, I couldn't fit."
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Chinese auto marketing shifts from TVCs
BEIJING: Auto brands advertising in the Chinese market are reporting strong results from both product placement in movies and standalone branded micromovies, to the extent that the latter channel in particular could supplant TVCs.
More than 100 companies released brand micromovies on film and at online portals during the final quarter of 2012, according to a report from Bale Hudong (Beijing) Media Co. In addition, these companies had also arranged product placements in close to 500 micromovies.
Volkswagen has successfully utilised this route, bringing Hollywood star Keanu Reeves on board for a micromovie, Extreme Pursuit, as part of its China Sports Car Project. This featured Reeves alongside brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini.
"We are integrating marketing, film and social media in an engaging and fascinating way," Markus Nels, director of the Sports Car Project, told China Daily.
"The micromovie brings together intelligent product placement with Chinese and Hollywood stars to deepen Chinese consumers' understanding and appreciation of world-leading sports cars," he added.
Others saw the micromovie as offering better targeting than more traditional media. Gao Fang, vice-general manager of automaker FAW Toyota, indicated that it was a perfect vehicle to reach its intended audience of young and fashionable consumers.
"The combination of advertising and a film story can be easily accepted by young consumers," he noted.
Gao also saw this channel developing further, adding that "due to the unexpected market response, micromovies may replace TV commercials as the major marketing tactic for automakers in the near future".
His view was echoed by Huang Weichong, public relations manager with FAW Volkswagen, who said that a new micromovie for the marque's CC model had received 40m visits in two months. "We see a better result than with TV commercials," he added.
Chinese automakers are also looking to the big screen to make an impact globally, with Guangzhou Automobile Group's Trumpchi E-jet, a hybrid vehicle, featuring prominently in the latest film in the Transformers series in order to improve brand awareness internationally.
A recent online survey at Sina.com showed that almost 60% of respondents believe that seeing a vehicle in a film helped promote the brand's image, while 33% thought it made people more likely to purchase such a car.
Data sourced from China Daily; additional content by Warc staff, 7 October 2013
http://po.st/kE8SY7
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Claire Danes' Choice -- Audi Smart Performer video
Friday, 13 September 2013
BMW i3 launches with world's first interactive 360° film via WCRS + Mustard Films + Tool
WCRS, as part of EngineDare, has teamed with Mustard Films and Tool to create the world's first interactive 360° film for the launch of BMW's first electric car, the BMW i3.
The BMW i3 is the first model within the BMW i range and combines intelligent lightweight engineering and premium sustainable materials, with the pure pleasure and thrill of fully-electric driving.
And to advertise the arrival of the world's most innovative electric car, BMW commissioned an equally innovative mobile experience. This takes the form of the 'virtual test-drive', an interactive film for smartphone and tablets shot by Emmy Award-winning director, Jason Zada.
The unique short film invites users to assume the position of driver and supporting actor in a dramatic, fast-paced race to save the world. Shot in 360 degrees and using 360 degree sound, the film allows the user to explore a fully immersive environment and interact with the action.
To achieve 360° interactivity, Tool's developers used OpenGL to project the film on a sphere. OpenAL was leveraged to integrate multiple layers of audio - including background music, ambient sounds and dialogue - into an immersive sound experience that changes dynamically based on the user's directional interaction.
Standing at the intersection of film, advertising, gaming and digital marketing, the app delivers an experience unlike any other, placing consumers at the very heart of the BMW i3 product and BMW i brand.
Throughout the film hotspots allow people to find out more about the BMW i3. At the end viewers are prompted to Become Electric and sign up to experience a real test drive.
The new smartphone and tablet app was developed as a native app and will be available on the Apple platform from 9th September with an Android version to follow.
The new BMW i3 is the first model within the BMW i range. Built from the ground up, the BMW i3 combines intelligent lightweight engineering and premium sustainable materials with the pure pleasure and thrill of fully-electric driving.
Says Nicola Green, BMW i communications manager: "It was very important for us that our marketing activities reflected the innovative nature of the BMW i3. This is just one of a number of bold steps we have taken in our communications approach to support the launch of this car and we really wanted to push the boundaries with this interactive film, to provide users with a truly unique, exciting and innovative experience which ultimately would encourage them to test drive the car."
Says Ross Neil, creative director at WCRS: "The BMW i3 is a truly amazing car that is right at the cutting edge of innovation and so we wanted to create communications that reflected this. Our idea was to create the first ever 360° virtual test drive film. By producing it as an App for mobile and tablets we were able to put the viewer in control and give them a unique, personalised experience that would entertain as well as allow them to experience the car, ultimately helping them on their own journey to Become Electric."
Says Matt Hichens, executive producer at Mustard: "The BMW i3 film and app has been an amazing, forward thinking, creative project. Director Jason Zada worked closely with the creative team Dan, Rachel and Ross during pre-production to bring the first, 360° all-action car narrative to life. It was innovative and technically demanding in respect to managing the live action logistics, the car chase and storyline within the 360 degree filming techniques but an enjoyable ride. Overall it's been great to see this ground breaking, digital production come together so smoothly and to finish with a brilliant piece of communication."
Says Jason Zada, director at Mustard/Tool: "Become Electric is a step in the evolution of storytelling and brand engagement. It's an interactive film that puts you in complete control of saving the world. You are at the wheel of the new BMW i3 electric car for almost the entire film, all while being immersed in a big Hollywood-style movie. "
Client: BMW UK for BMWi Title: Become Electric Agency: WCRS Creative Director: Ross Neil Senior Creatives: Dan Gorlov & Rachel Le Feuvre Agency Producer: Joseph Pawsey Account Handling: Henry Debenham Media Agency: Vizeum Production Company: Mustard Films/Tool Director: Jason Zada (Mustard Films/Tool) Executive Producers: Matt Hichens /Brian Latt & Dustin Callif (Mustard Films/Tool) Producer: Nick Papworth (Mustard Films) Editor: Guy Savin (Marshall Street) Post-Production: Glassworks Audio: Mophonics, Los Angeles and 750mph, London Exposure: App, Digital, Social, Press
Thursday, 13 June 2013
ADK Japan and Great Guns INteractive create the most ambitious branching-narrative film ever for Subaru: 'The Big Night' has 172 Individual films
Japanese agency ADK and Great Guns Interactive, the interactive arm of global production house Great Guns, have collaborated to create a truly seamless interactive branching-narrative experience for Subaru. 'The Big Night', a bold departure in advertising style for the car giant, follows a young family man's eventful journey in his new Subaru Forester towards the hotel where the 'big night' of the title is to take place.
The story begins with the accidental destruction of an all-important DVD required for the evening's proceedings. The rest of the story is determined by the viewer, guiding the protagonist through a number of decisions on his way to the hotel, with potentially hilarious results.
Written by the GGi team under the supervision of ADK's Creative Director Miura Yoshihiro and directed by Great Guns' Jeremy Haccoun, whose acclaimed Oppo spots featured Leonardo DiCaprio last year, the film is the most complex narrative-branching interactive experience ever attempted.
"I'd never done anything like this before and, initially, it was quite daunting," states Haccoun. "We had to shoot a 45 page script in a very short space of time. On the one hand, we had to shoot furiously quickly. On the other hand we had to be incredibly precise and careful so as not to break the interactive rules we had set ourselves. Sheridan (Thomas), Great Guns Interactive's co-founder and writer/producer of the film, was insistent from the get go that we didn't have any pauses in the film or any kind of overlaid buttons or prompts on screen to ruin the user experience. Instead all the interactive elements had to be shot in-camera as part of the film's physical world. This meant that we had to get all blocking and timing absolutely perfect, often within only one or two takes, with no rehearsal time. In many ways the process was actually very liberating. We chose, for example, to light the whole room for each set so that we wouldn't waste a second re-lighting between shots. For a director it was really fantastic because I was able to focus on working with the actors for the entirety of each shoot day."
"We wanted to do something more subtle than flash huge graphical prompts on screen at each interactive moment" adds Thomas. "When I produced a videogame for Sega a few years ago, I'd been struck by how efficient game designers were at making the user interface so transparent and instinctive. The games industry has been working very hard to do that for more than the last two decades. What stands between you and the experience has been gradually chipped away as the technology and thinking have advanced. I wanted to bring a little of what I'd learned from that into the film world."
"As filmmakers I just don't think we are doing enough to advance the language of interactive film. Not everything needs to be dumbed down. We're dealing with a very savvy, videogame-literate consumer these days, and we shouldn't be afraid to give them a little credit in that respect when it comes to making creative decisions about the content we produce. In that respect this project was certainly a very ambitious and epic undertaking. Thankfully both Subaru and ADK were fantastically supportive of everything we wanted to do at every stage of the process".
So epic was the undertaking that it actually required two Producers to help realise it. "We had three units running at all times", states Jeremy McWilliams, the film's other producer. "One of the earliest choices in the film is whether to get in the Diesel or Petrol models so we had to film every piece of the story from that point onwards twice with both cars! And this is a film with a massive number of permutations - some bold some subtle. In fact, there are 98,304 potential variations of the film. You could technically play the film for 1.68 years continuously and never see the same film twice".
"We're doing a lot of very subtle things behind the scenes that the viewer may not even realise is customising his or her own experience," adds Thomas. "For example, all choices that you make have an immediate consequence. Do you choose to take the shortcut or sit behind the tractor? But your choices also stack up so that combinations of choices have their own consequences too. They also dynamically affect details like what time the clocks display throughout the film. That in turn changes the mood of the hero or the way that he is greeted when he reaches his final destination.
"There are some pretty wild differences to the way the film plays out. There are over 40 potential endings alone. But there are also plenty of things that just add a subtler flavour to the experience for each player. We wanted to keep the general story and tone the same for all players but give each individual player a chance to make that experience their own. Hopefully that will encourage them to play again to find what else we've hidden in there. For example one of the film's crazier moments isn't even available to you unless you've made the right combination of choices to hit that stretch of road at the right time."
"We've even built Facebook connect into the experience", he continues, "so that not only will a user's profile photo appear in the film but there is also a chance that, given the wrong combination of choices, the user's entire Facebook photo stream might be played to a room full of characters at the film's finale."
"From a technical point of view, I think there's a level of seamlessness with both picture and sound that is quite unparalleled for such a complex film," adds McWilliams. "What people won't realise is that the film is actually made up of 172 individually completed film segments that are streamed depending on their choices. When Sheridan presented the story and mapped out the interactive decision tree, I must admit everybody was a little taken back by the scale of its ambition - even the interactive team. But then we all knuckled down and figured out how to make it happen."
Haccoun, for one, is very proud of the final film and the scope of alternative options it presents. "Although each playthrough will only be somewhere between 8 to 10 minutes depending on the player's decisions, we actually ended up with 46 minutes of finished edited film. To put that in perspective, we shot half a movie."
"I, for one, can't wait to do it again," responds Thomas. "If you think this one was crazily ambitious wait until you see what we've got planned for the next one".
