While it is not exactly raining cats and dogs, in this theatrical spot by bicoastal Propaganda Films and TBWA/Chiat/ Day, Los Angeles, it is, in fact, raining musical instruments, record albums, race cars and even a few popular musicians in the launch campaign for XM Satellite Radio.
XM, a new satellite radio system seeking to revolutionize the traditional world of AM/FM radio, boasts the tagline: "Beyond AM, Beyond FM, XM. Radio to the Power of X." XM is both a new product—a new electronic device that receives the satellite signal—and a service. The XM system will provide consumers with 100 national radio stations, most of which will be brand-new, comprising 71 music and 29 news, sports and comedy stations. Company president and CEO Hugh Panero announced at a July 24 press conference, at the Museum of Radio & Television, New York, that "The launch of XM Radio will change radio forever, the same way cable changed television." While the truth of that declaration remains to be seen, the campaign for XM certainly foresees big changes on radio’s horizon, or—more accurately—up in the sky.
The 60-second spot, slated for an Aug. 10 cinema debut on approximately 19,000 screens across the U.S., is a montage culled from seven :30 television spots. Each :30, directed by Dante Ariola of Propaganda, targets a specific segment of the radio audience, including listeners of classical, jazz, blues, hip-hop, electronica and rock music, as well as of sports.
The theatrical commercial opens with several everyday views across the country: a tractor-trailer truck driving along a highway in the Rocky Mountains, tall Los Angeles skyscrapers, the desolate parking lot of a suburban laundromat at night, and sunset at a Midwestern motel. At the motel, normalcy gives way to the supernatural as a man drops from the sky, plunging through the roof. Inside a room in the motel, an elderly couple watching television is violently interrupted by the man’s fall. The visitor, rock icon David Bowie, stands up calmly, not at all hurt, as the old couple stares in disbelief.
Back at the laundromat, bored teenagers sit in their car while another stands at the outside pay phone, presumably calling to find something to do in their desolate suburban environment. Their utter boredom suddenly dissolves as an object smashes on the roof of the car. At closer view another object, a record album, breaks into pieces on the hood of the car. In a wide shot of Los Angeles, an automobile floats down among the skyscrapers. Next, a man gets out of his car and walks towards his prefabricated home, stopping when a baseball clangs off the car’s hood and comes to rest by his feet. Bewildered, he looks upwards.
Violins, cellos and trumpets plummet from the sky onto the road in the Rocky Mountains, as the puzzled truck driver drives on, obviously fearing for his safety.
Among the San Francisco skyscrapers, a man descends from the clouds, plunging through the top of a skyscraper and landing in the middle of a cubicle-filled office complex. The man, rap artist Snoop Dog, stands and looks up through the hole in the ceiling. On a Los Angeles city street, pedestrians run for their lives just before a racecar slams down on the sidewalk.
Hundreds of thousands of record albums rain on the laundromat parking lot, and on the frightened teenagers huddled in their car. Out on a farm, another man falls through the sky, crashing through a barn roof. The truck on the highway gets pelted with every string and wind instrument conceivable. The driver slams on his air brakes, coming to a stop just before a grand piano crashes in front of him. Back at the farm, an utterly confused farmer opens the barn doors to see blues legend B.B. King standing up from the rubble with his electric guitar. King smiles and looks up through the hole in the roof.
A satellite then passes before the screen, floating into outer space as an announcer in voiceover proclaims, "It’s here. XM Satellite Radio. Beyond AM, Beyond FM, XM." Cut to a shot of the product: an XM radio with a digital display flipping through the various channel types, including comedy, electronica, jazz, classical, blues and hip-hop. The display finally stops and the voiceover declares, "Radio to the Power of X."
At the July 24 press conference, Lee Clow, worldwide creative director for TBWA/Chiat/ Day, explained that what really excites him about working in advertising is launching new products—especially products that have the potential to change the world. "We’ve had the pleasure of being around to introduce life-changing technology," Clow explained. "When we launched Apple Computers, we changed the way people think. Then with Sony PlayStation, we changed the way people play. Now we’re launching XM Satellite Radio, and we are going to change the way people listen to radio forever. It’s going to be that amazing."
Concept to Screen
Agency executives at TBWA/ Chiat/Day told SHOOT that they had come up with a variety of concepts, but in the end had settled on what they thought was the most simple and effective. "We were looking for a readily attachable metaphor that people could relate to," recalled agency copywriter Brett Craig. "Finally we thought, ‘Well, this stuff is coming from a satellite out of the sky,’ and said, ‘That’s it.’ At first we thought it was too simple, but we figured that’s exactly what was needed to launch a big campaign and carry it for an entire year."
XM liked the concept and awarded the advertising project to TBWA/Chiat/Day in 1999. However, a simple concept can be quite complex to actually pull off, as Craig and art director Bill Kauker soon realized. They wanted the spots to come off like a science fiction film, appearing authentic and violent and avoiding a farcical, fabricated look. They had seen Ariola’s directorial work before and knew that he was the right person for the job. "His work really pushes reality, but it doesn’t go too far beyond," explained Craig. "It could have been really cheesy or comical if it had been taken the wrong way. We weren’t really going for a laugh. We wanted it to seem real and violent. There’s an element of dark humor we wanted. Dante has that sort of twisted, dark sensibility which was perfect for this concept."
Ariola said he was instantly attracted to the concept of the campaign and the technical challenges inherent in making instruments, balls, people and a car fall from the sky. "I liked the whole bizarre nature to the spots. I thought they were interesting ideas that gave me the chance to work with a lot of effects in-camera," noted Ariola.
One of the most complex sequences for production was that in which the tractor-trailer is bombarded with wind and string instruments. It was virtually all done in-camera, Ariola reported. For these shots the camera truck was rigged with 400 instruments hanging at different levels by filament wire. With the camera truck leading the tractor-trailer, the instruments swung and smashed into the latter; a few were tossed off the camera-truck to hit the ground and the tractor-trailer. Combined with the camera movement, this created the illusion of raining instruments. The end of the sequence, in which the piano smashes to the ground just before the tractor-trailer squeals to a halt, was also done on location. "That [sequence] was definitely the most challenging piece to pull off, and we did it with no CG," stated Ariola.
In order to make this meteor shower of instruments, balls and musicians work, TBWA/Chiat/ Day enlisted visual effects house Industrial Light+Magic (ILM), San Rafael, Calif. ILM’s knowledge combined with XM’s desire to make the commercials on a scale usually reserved for high-end feature films created an amazing assortment of effects which make this musical meteor shower seem real.
"What was most noteworthy about these spots is, it was a high volume of effects in a short amount of time," explained Shari Hanson, visual effects supervisor for ILM. "It was like doing a medium-sized visual effects feature. The spots encompass effects from all disciplines of visual effects: traditional on-set effects, controlled model effects where we shoot it on a stage, and digital effects including 2-D and 3-D computer graphics. And it all came together rather seamlessly."
XM’s press release estimates that 12,000 records were used on set for the sequence outside the laundromat, and hundreds of balls were used for the sports sequence. But the falling vinyl and balls dropped on set were still not enough, so many had to be added in post—the toughest challenge for ILM. "The viewer’s eye has an easier time picking up on inconsistencies when [in post] you’re trying to match something that is real right next to something that is not," said Hanson. "But to achieve the best results, you have to build on top of the reality of what’s being filmed initially."
With thousands of objects and people crashing to earth, the talents of Skywalker Sound, San Rafael—which along with ILM is another company in the George Lucas family—were enlisted to design and mix the sound. Specifically, the sound for this musical hailstorm was created by Oscar Award-winning sound guru Randy Thom and sound designer/mixer Bob Edwards, both with Skywalker. Sound became especially important for the spot because it was premiering in movie theaters where people expect a more dynamic, complex sound.
"XM and the agency wanted a type of realism similar to what is created in the top movies, and that’s what we tried to do," recalled Thom. "We did a lot of original recordings. We spent a lot of time at the junkyard smashing things. We got a lot of damaged musical instruments and spent a lot of time smashing them, dropping them, dragging them across metal and plucking the strings. We added all that together with the sound of larger objects hitting the ground, just to give it that extra punch. We dropped the piano, pounded on it with chairs and other objects, and dropped steel balls onto the string."
Adding to the complexity of visuals and sound was that all the postproduction was done in high definition (HD). When TBWA/ Chiat/Day proposed this project, ILM convinced the agency that HD would produce the most bang for the bucks. "We shot some test footage comparing the HD work to what was normally done in commercials," recalled Richard O’Neill, producer/director of broadcast communications for TBWA/Chiat/Day. "The difference was really amazing, and since it was going to run in theaters, we decided to go for it."
Working in HD meant extensive pre-production with ILM, Propaganda and Nomad Editing Company, Santa Monica. "We had never done something on this scale in HD for a commercial, and had to get everyone on board early in pre-production to make sure everyone could handle this format," said Hanson of ILM. "The unique thing about this project is that we were eventually outputting to three different formats [film for the theatrical spot, HDTV and regular television], and they all have different aspect ratios that you have to take into account."
The individual spots—"Bowie Motel," "Snoop’s Office," "BB’s Barn," "Flying NASCAR," "Classical Rain," "Dropping Vinyl" and "Balls"—will begin airing on television in September.
