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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvHFM8c7cPM
The Coen Brothers have returned to the Super Bowl with an ad for Mercedes-AMG, soundtracked to Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”. Via Rolling Stone:
Ahead of Super Bowl 51, Mercedes unveiled their Coen Brothers-directed, Easy Rider-inspired ad that features that cult film’s star Peter Fonda.
The minute-long commercial takes place in a Route 66 roadhouse where a batch of bearded bikers congregate to worship at the alter of Easy Rider as Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” the film’s unofficial anthem, booms out of a jukebox that only plays “Born to Be Wild.”
The Coens’ knack for comical violence is on full display as the bikers cause raucous in the roadhouse until one angry motorcyclist barges in to alert his brethren that he’s “blocked in.”
When the bikers pour outside to see who committed the cardinal sin, they encounter Fonda, who’s now driving a Mercedes GT Roadster instead of his classic chopper. The actor then flashes a peace sign as he roars down Route 66 in his new vehicle of choice.
Earlier this month, the Coen Brothers announced they would spearhead a limited anthology Western series titled The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The series, which navigates six separate storylines, became a television project after the brothers had difficulty condensing the story into a feature-film script. The Coen Brothers also serve as executive producers on the acclaimed TV series Fargo, although they aren’t hands-on for that Golden Globe-winning show.
Jack Dorsey’s Square tells the success story of a Syrian refugee, the first installment in a series by the mobile payment company. Via Adweek:
“We’re going to keep the American dream going, because this country is for everybody.”
Those are the words of Yassin Terou, proprietor of Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville, Tenn. We meet him in the timely and poignant eight-minute film below, which chronicles his success on these shores after he fled war-torn Syria in search of a better life.
“A lot of my Arabic friends, they [are] scared to come here. [They are] like, ‘Oh, they hate Muslims. You will not have a good life in America,’ ” he says in the short documentary. It’s the first installment in a series from mobile payments company Square.
The campaign’s overarching title is: “For Every Kind of Dream.”
“You come to a country and you don’t have nothing,” Terou says. “Where do you start? Like you start with people—maybe they speak the same language.”
After arriving in Tennessee six years ago, Terou was reluctant to accept charity. To get by, he began selling falafel sandwiches outside Knoxville’s Annoor Mosque after services. “This [is] my food. And I want to give it with my love, with my style,” he says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUt2PC0Ks4Y
The Extraordinary Honey Bee by Häagen-Dazs is an upcoming VR experience intended to highlight the plight of honey bees with immersive advertising. Via Adweek:
The brand, which has used its marketing to champion the beleaguered bees since 2008, debuted a trailer for its new virtual reality experience during the second day of the Brand Storytelling conference in snowy Park City, Utah. As part of the “Exploring Storytelling in VR and Immersive Advertising” panel hosted by Adweek Editorial Director Jim Cooper, the Nestlé brand gave marketers a taste of what its first virtual reality project will look like.
“We’re here at the Sundance Film Festival really learning to tell stories even better,” said Alex Placzek, director of marketing for Häagen-Dazs in the U.S. “At the core brands are basically a story so if you don’t tell a compelling and engaging story you’re basically a commodity. What we’re excited about is learning how to tell stories in a much more impactful way.”
He added: “This project, Häagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees, is something we’ve been working on for the last eight years. … The capacity to use virtual reality to shrink the viewer down to the size of the honey bee so they can fly around and see what’s actually going on for bees and ultimately learn what they can do to make a difference in the plight of the honey bee is really exciting to us.”
To create the VR experience, which will ultimately be between three and five minutes, Häagen-Dazs tapped digital content strategy shop Reach Agency. Rollout plans for the effort are still in the works, but it will be released some time in the summer. Häagen-Dazs may look for media partners to help launch it.
“With Brand Storytelling here we thought this was a great platform to showcase the innovation that Nestlé is doing around this,” said Gabe Gordon, managing partner of Reach Agency. “And it fit in with the whole film thematic of being at the Sundance Film Festival.”
They’ve actually done it. Made a video game film about Neko Atsume, a mobile game about collecting cats by leaving out food and toys. Is this going to be the first good film based on a video game? We hope so. Via the Guardian:
The notoriously addictive game involves players populating a virtual backyard with food, cushions and toys to attract cats, who leave behind silver and gold fish as thanks.
The film, titled Neko Atsume No Ie, or Cat Collector’s House, tells the story of a young author, Katsu Sakumoto, who is struggling with writer’s block in the shadow of his own early success. After moving house in an unsuccessful attempt to reinvigorate his creative side, he spies a cat in his garden. He leaves food outside overnight in an effort to befriend it and a new obsession is born.
Ito, who plays Sakumoto, said his character’s connection with cats made him re-evaluate the way he dealt with other human beings. “The contact I had with cats while we were shooting scenes was a healing experience and gave me lots of energy,” he said on the film website.
The director, Masatoshi Kurakata, said: “I wanted to make a simple movie that gives off feelings of warmth. I and the staff and cast of the film really put our hearts into making the film.”
Neko Atsume has become a worldwide hit since its release in late 2014, with more than 5.5m downloads in its first year. Originally only available in Japanese, Hit-Point released an English-language version on iOS and Android in October 2015.
Solace is a beautiful animated interactive short film by Evan Boehm, exploring a dark future where marketing, addiction and DNA are interlinked. Via Short of the Week:
Join director Evan Boehm on a kaleidoscopic journey through the unsettling childhood story of a boy trapped in a frightening spiral of addiction in interactive short Solace.
Half think-piece, half click-piece, this spritely adaptation of a short story by revered sci-fi writer Jeff Noon (one of my personal favourites) is a fun and engaging experience that raises questions about the roles of technology and marketing in our everyday lives.
Described as a real-time, interactive, liquid simulation for the web the audience involvement here is more about adding fun to an already bubbly narrative, instead of actually being used to drive that story forwards, or provide the viewer with multiple branches.
With Boehm revealing the aim of Solace was to “push the limits of interactive storytelling, whilst encouraging debate about the social, cultural, and ethical consequences of future genetic technologies”, it obvious the director and his team intended this to be more than just a fun click-along adventure.
Via Cinefix: “Color is one of the most effective tools in a storyteller’s arsenal. From fiery red, to the coldest blue, a great filmmaker knows just what colors to paint on the screen. Move over light and shadow, lets take the color wheel for a spin! Here are the very best uses of color in a movie ever!” From Gizmodo:
Directors make so many filmmaking decisions that go unnoticed by casual viewers because we’re not paying close attention—but the use of color isn’t one of them. Color immediately stands out. Films can be hyper colorful and smack you with the entire color wheel, or they can be totally muted and monochromatic. You’re able to recognize the aesthetic and intention because you have eyeballs (and are presumably not colorblind) and can see what the director wants to show you, because it’s literally right in front of you.
I enjoyed CineFix’s dive into color in films because of their excellent analysis and breakdown, and endless examples of the different styles and uses of colors. Here are what CineFix considers the best 10 uses of color in film history:
In the Mood for Love (jewel tone)
The Living Trilogy (muted)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (soft colors)
Only God Forgives (neon)
Contempt (triadic)
Vertigo (complimentary colors)
Cries and Whispers (monochrome)
Sin City (selective saturation)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (limited colors)
The Fall (hyper colorful)
We probably would have added Fury Road to that list, but that’s just us being superfans.
Modelo and its homage to small town diversity wins Adweek’s first Grand Arc award for innovative storytelling. Check it out! Via Adweek:
Modelo’s celebration of small-town diversity, created in partnership with CNN’s branded content studio, Courageous, has taken home the top honor at Adweek’s first Arc Awards. The brand and studio, along with video network Great Big Story, received the Grand Arc at the Saturday evening awards ceremony at the Silver Lake Lodge in Park City, Utah, and hosted by Comedic YouTube duo Tripp and Tyler.
The Arc Awards were created to honor excellence in modern storytelling, recognizing work in a wide range of categories across fiction and nonfiction. […] Called “Fighting for Better,” the winning video series was created from a month’s worth of footage shot in Garden City, Kansas, a town of 30,000 where more than a dozen languages are spoken. Shannon Pruitt, president of Dentsu Aegis Network’s Storylab U.S. and the Arc Awards’ jury chairperson, presented the Grand Arc to the winners.
“[We appreciate] the fact that there’s a community in Kansas that celebrates diversity the way this community does and that Modelo wanted to tell that story,” said Dan Riess, evp of content partnerships and co-head of Turner Ignite.
What the world searched for in 2016: 72andSunny’s campaign for Google highlights the major events of 2016 in an entertaining (and depressing) ad. Via Google’s blog:
It’s that time of year — when we look back at the last 12 months and reflect on the trends that defined the year in Google Search. From Powerball numbers to Olympic champions, whether making dessert or becoming a mannequin, this year affected us all in different ways. Through all the highs and lows, people came to Search to learn more and understand.
So to celebrate the end of 2016, here’s a peek at some of the trending U.S. topics that caught our attention as especially unique to this year.
Powerball: It may seem like a distant memory now, but back in January a record-breaking jackpot made Powerball a hot topic. Search interest in Powerball spiked more than 166 percent, and it’s the top trending search for all of 2016.
Politicians and athletes: In a year with the Olympics and U.S. Election, it’s not surprising that nine of our 10 top trending people of the year fell into one of these two categories — from Donald Trump to Michael Phelps and Hillary Clinton to Simone Biles. The one outlier? Steven Avery, the subject of Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” documentary.
Pokémon Go: Pokémon Go took our lists — and the world — by storm this year. The addictive game appeared four times in our list of top 10 “How to…” questions, with “How to play Pokémon Go?” at the top. Clearly searchers were eager to learn how to catch ‘em all!
Quinoa and Budweiser: From Big Macs to quinoa, Budweiser to Maui Brewing, Brussels sprouts to Buttercream Frosting, it’s clear from our trending calorie, recipe and beer lists that we’re a country of many tastes. One of the new trending recipes this year? Snow cream, a dessert that’s the perfect winter treat with some fresh snow, sugar, milk and vanilla.
Slime and… mannequins: “How to make slime” isn’t a phrase we hear often — until now. Maybe it was the new “Ghostbusters” movie, but while voting and Pokémon dominated much of this year’s “How to…” list, one green, slimy question made its way up to #4. Meanwhile, on the “What is…?” list, the mannequin challenge is standing proud — and very, very still — at #7.
ICYMI – FKA Twigs has directed and starred in a high energy ad for Nike Women, featuring a ton of athletes and dancers, set to “Trust in Me”. Via Adweek:
The mesmerizing spot, for which Twigs served as creative director, director and mastermind, hypes Nike’s new Spring Zonal Strength Tights. The product gets a perfect showcase in her signature strenuous choreography and stunts featured in the two-minute mini-movie-music-video, shot around Mexico City, with co-stars like krump dancer Saskia Horton and Olympic fencer Miles Chamley-Watson.
In a statement, Twigs says: “When Nike first came to me with this project, I saw it as an opportunity to let young people know they have the power to become the best versions of themselves. I put together a cast of 12 incredible athletes to show that it’s about what you do in fitness gear. It’s about how you train. It’s about how those things help your movement.”
She had written the song, “Trust in Me,” before Nike approached her.
“I realized it would be perfect, because the lyrics say, ‘Put your trust in me.’ In a way, we’re asking people to look at me and the other amazing athletes in the video and trust the way we are,” she says. “We’ve worked hard to perfect our crafts and create our own destinies, and we’re feeling good in our bodies.”
A student’s viral adidas fan commercial plays on nostalgia, highlighting the story of an elderly German former marathoner. Via Mashable:
This incredibly moving Adidas commercial created by 26-year-old student filmmaker, Eugen Merher, may well have won the Internet for 2017.
The 1m:40s commercial revolves around an elderly former German marathon runner. He’s spending a monotonous existence in a rather unlovely retirement home, until one day he finds his old battered Adidas trainers, and decides to relive his younger years by taking them for a run. The retirement home repeatedly try to quash his quests for freedom, but the end of the advert will see you stand up and cheer. Or cry. Or both.
Yet sadly, this ad is just a spec spot, and was ignored by Adidas’ communications department.
“We tried sending it to [Adidas’] communications department but they didn’t really react,” Eugen told The Huffington Post. Anyway, we think Adidas made a mistake in doing so, and after watching the ad again, we’ve got something in our eye…
Adweek has a further interview with the young filmmaker here. The film was his second year project, and incredibly, it was shot in two and a half days in January 2015 and edited in the following weeks.