Design and VFX team Elastic/A52 rock out for Honda Accord in this highly colorful CG jazz spot, as they show off how much hidden space the new Accord Crosstour really offers.
Appealing to a younger, musically-minded target market, its aesthetic and general concept hits a home run. Design-wise, the palette is alive with energy and pop and the beautifully animated characters have a unique look that works an interesting transitional device.
Michele’s approach is anything but literal, using for the enchanted dreamland of young Soichiro’s mind as the film’s stage.
The slow and steady pace of the narrative is punctuated by clever transitions and unexpected camera work. Simone Prisco’s lush, painterly backgrounds are wonderfully offset by the hybrid 2D and 3D animation.
Two LED spots have been dropped off the back of another. The first one, for Samsung, from The Viral Factory (director James Rouse) in London can be seen below:
We grabbed this one a few weeks ago. Since then, it has racked up a decent 4.7 million hits on Youtube. For those who may have missed it, it follows approximately 300 sheep covered in LED lights, a cast of local shepherds and their sheepdogs. The film features sheep being herded into a series of ever more improbable shapes. “The Viral Factory will not be drawn on what was real and what has been achieved in post, but a YouTube debate is predicted.”
Aside from the creative merits of the Honda ‘Lights’ spot, I’d like to shift the focus to the accompanying making-of video. Unlike the purely viral-format of the Samsung spot, W+K extracted their viral from the TVC shoot. Not only do they get a ‘free’ spot from it all, but they humanize the brand and introduce people to the innovation that goes on under the hood of it’s spots. By keeping it all in-camera, a BTS becomes something interesting enough to watch. Ramp up the scale of the actual shoot and you can do the same to the ‘wow’ factor.
The increase in creating supplemental BTS films seems to have hit a spike during the massive success of the Bravia Color Campaign. The BTS for the ‘Balls’ spot from Fallon/Juan Cabral and Fugslig is one of the more memorable. In preparation for the roll out of ‘Paint,’ Sony’s micro-site hosted a BTS with a countdown to the commercial’s premiere. And who could forget ‘Bunnies‘ and the making-of?
The price of a potential viral hype machine and a chance to show off your in-camera craftiness may not be more than a hand-held second unit. As ad dollars drop, web-content distribution grows and consumers become more savvy (and critical) of advertising, this practice seems like a multi-pronged solution to a few of the ad worlds evolving needs.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
