Yes, you heard right.
A lock-down produced commercial that doesn’t look like a Zoom chat.
I still can’t believe it myself, but thanks to the lovely people at Fold 7 I’m the one that got to design and shoot the new Audible spot.
It was a smashingly simple and dare I say it ‘entertaining’ script from the start.
The basic idea springs from the sad reality of everyone’s holiday plans being shelved this year.
That means that quite possibly the best way to escape to an exotic destination in the near future is by going to a magical fictional one instead, via Audible’s audio books.
For the finished spot the intention was always to use a big percentage of existing library footage and style it like a charmingly cheesy 1970s airline commercial.
This was not only a fun, relevant idea but it made the production more practical and reduced the amount we had to shoot to a, COVID-safe, minimum.
The only trouble was that at the start of the process there wasn’t a definitive list of books to be featured, and how could anyone second guess precisely what kind of footage would be available?
I likened the whole process to doing a puzzle but without the picture on the lid.
It was fun though and despite the fact that I never met the creatives or the client face to face at any part of the production, it was an incredibly collaborative process throughout.
The only tedious part was wading through hours and hours of stock footage, but to be honest I quite enjoyed that too.
I built my storyboard around our favourite selected film sequences, scribbled a few ideas on top of that and then shot them in a predominately green screen studio.
And it was a super safe shoot too, expertly organised (as usual) by Thomas Thomas.
It was in the post-production process where the puzzle pieces really started to click into place thanks to our editor Matthew Prickett at Cut + Run and everyone at JAM VFX.
Now it’s finished we’ve had lots of lovely feedback and it’s been featured in Campaign, LBB, Shots, Creative Review, The Drum and the rest.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it…I’m going for a little lie down now with Wackford and Mrs Squeers.
MDEsq x.
CREDITS
Client: Audible.
Agency: Fold7.
Founder and CCO: Ryan Newey.
Creative Team: David O'Brien & Chris Bennett.
Agency Producer: Max Di Nunno.
Strategy Director: Sarah Benson.
Head of Account Management: Sarah Kay.
Account Director: Miles Woodford.
Production Company: Thomas Thomas Films.
Director: Mark Denton Esq.
Producer: Trent Simpson.
Director of Photography: Denis Crossan.
Production Designer: Steve Smithwick.
Costume Designer: Spencer Horne.
Editor: Matthew Prickett @ Cut+Run.
Off-line Producer: Ruth Minkley @ Cut+Run.
Sound Design: Mark Robson @750mph.
Postproduction: JAM VFX
VFX Producer: Evren Olgun-Knight
Colourist: Dave Ludlam.
Flame Artist: Mark Robinson.
CG Artist: Alessandro Mariotti.
Graphics: Kate Henderson.
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