The Hire—a groundbreaking series of Web-based short films, underwritten by BMW of North America and directed by A-list feature filmmakers—has started to surface on bmwfilms. com. The integrated campaign also includes teaser TV spots, a theatrical trailer and print ads designed to lead viewers to the shorts on BMW’s Web site.
Bicoastal Anonymous Content produced the digital film series, executive-produced by Anonymous director David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en). The series consists of original short films directed by John Frankenheimer (Ronin, The Manchurian Candidate), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Sense and Sensibility), Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together, Chung King Express), Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perres).
Frankenheimer’s short, Ambush, made its Web site debut on April 26. At press time, Lee’s film, entitled Chosen, was slated to break online this week (5/10). The premiere of Kar-wai’s Follow is set for a different venue: On May 13 it will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, along with Chosen and Ambush. Follow is scheduled to debut on the Web in late May. At press time, Ritchie’s Star and Iñárritu’s Powder Keg were not yet completed.
The overall project was a joint collaboration among Anonymous, BMW and BMW’s agency, Fallon, Minneapolis. The films are entertainment driven; there is no advertising pitch to speak of, and BMW is not mentioned by name. But the car figures prominently in these films starring British actor Clive Owen (Croupier), whose driver-for-hire is a recurring character in the unrelated stories. In the series title role as The Hire, Owen uses his exceptional driving skills to get people out of various tricky situations.
According to Anonymous chairman Steve Golin, Fallon approached Anonymous nearly a year ago with the idea of producing a longer-format film for BMW. Fincher then suggested making a series of shorter films. "We [Anonymous and Fallon] developed a number of scripts and proposed directors to film them. The creative freedom was unbelievable," recounted Golin. "The good news is that these weren’t commercials. We had very few restrictions. The budgets were equivalent to [those of] high-end commercials." The budget for each film was rumored to be between $1 million and $2 million.
The film series is the next logical extension of BMW’s Web-based initiative that began six years ago, related Jim McDowell, VP of marketing at BMW of North America. "We’ve had a very ambitious Web effort," he noted, "where we tried to utilize the latest technology and make all the information about BMW available in an easy, entertaining way."
Research revealed that 85 percent of BMW customers had first gone online to scope out the company’s offerings before purchasing vehicles, reported McDowell. Results also showed that BMW purchasers are both high achievers and time-pressured, using the Internet to collect information when they have time. These findings prompted the client to consider whether its Web-using target market sees much BMW advertising.
In considering how best to communicate with this audience, McDowell stated, the BMW executives thought that the optimal approach would be something completely different, something entertaining. He added, "Most people know about BMW already, but we’d certainly be much more top-of-mind .… if we could do this right."
BMW had targeted 2001 for a major branding statement. The company and Fallon tossed a number of ideas back and forth until the idea of Web-based films evolved, according to McDowell. He said they had begun thinking about this 18 months ago and had started to seriously develop the strategy last fall.
Fallon art director David Carter wrote Chosen and Powder Keg; Fallon group creative director Joe Sweet wrote Star; and feature screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow, 8MM) scripted Ambush and Follow. The Fallon team also included associate creative director Bruce Bildsten and producer Robyn Boardman. Credited as a creative consultant on the overall project was David van Eyssen of Hollywood-headquartered iBelieve Media, which previously had a nonexclusive interactive entertainment development relationship with Fallon (SHOOT, 8/4/00, p. 1). The Anonymous producer was Aristides McGarry.
AMBUSH
Ambush begins on a dark freeway, where a van swerves close to Owen’s BMW. The van’s door slides open to reveal masked gunmen. The gunmen threaten to fire unless Owen surrenders his passenger (actor Tomas Milian of Traffic), whom they accuse of diamond smuggling. A thrilling car chase ensues, rife with heavy gunfire, car crashes and explosions.
The piece was tailor-made for movie veteran Frankenheimer, who’s helmed some major action sequences. In fact, his 1998 release Ronin (its story is based on international mercenaries hired to pull off a heist) was one of the inspirations for the creation of this digital film series. "The Fallon guys wanted something in the vein of Ronin," said Golin.
"In watching a lot of John’s films, I noticed—especially in Ronin—that the deluge of elements and visual excitement that make up his shots is really incredible," observed Andrew Hardaway of Radium, Santa Monica and San Francisco, who served as visual effect supervisor and a 3-D effects artist on Ambush and the Lee-directed Chosen. "I tried to achieve that in Ambush, in shots in which automatic gunfire was ripping up everything in sight. I tried to layer things like sparks and muzzle flashes in a way that would be really heart-pounding."
Compositing supervisor/ Inferno artist Jonathan Keeton and lead compositor/Inferno artist Chris Jones were part of a Radium team that created 89 digital effects shots for Ambush, including all the bluescreen shots from inside the car, which were composited with effects plates of the exteriors. Effects work was also integral in artillery sequences, which Radium artists intensified by creating digital shell casings, muzzle flashes, tracer rounds, spark hits and brake smoke.
Radium also greatly enhanced the fiery explosion at the end of Ambush. "When we shot that scene on location in Malibu Canyon, we were limited to the size of the explosion we could use," Hardaway explained. "So we did a small explosion mainly for interactive light in our effects plate. In post, we added quite a few more digital explosions and particle-driven debris, as well as physical debris pieces bouncing out of the fire, as if they had been blown to bits."
In Chosen, Owen meets a ship carrying a young Tibetan boy (who could be the next Buddha) at a shipyard, but must elude the bad guys, including a hypodermic-wielding villain disguised as a Buddhist monk. Follow casts Mickey Rourke as a jealous husband who hires Owen to follow his wife. After tailing her to an airport, Owen gazes at the beautiful woman close up, as she sleeps. The reflective piece ends with Owen choosing to let her escape. Star offers Ritchie’s wife, Madonna, as a smart-talking spoiled celebrity who gets her comeuppance in the form of a bumpy ride. Power Keg involves a photojournalist on the run in a politically volatile Latin American country.
Acknowledging that the directors come from five different parts of the world (Frankenheimer, U.S.; Lee, Taiwan; Kar-Wai, Hong Kong; Ritchie, U.K.; and González Iñárritu, Mexico), Golin said that the team hadn’t set out to hire a multi-national group.
"Our idea was to deliver five significantly different films," stated Golin. "We chose people who were suited to the scripts." For instance, he observed, Kar-Wai’s Follow is much more of a narrative piece, with little car footage; its moody, dreamy tone matches that found in the director’s films. Golin added that the comic Star contains some of the snappy dialogue sequences for which Ritchie’s movies are known.
In addition to the films themselves, the Web site will offer several DVD-like extra features slated to go online this week. By downloading a free BMW player, viewers will be able to access vehicle information and directors’ commentaries in addition to five sub-stories—one- to two-minute DV pieces that are related to the films. "We’re trying to offer the most multi-dimensional kind of experience possible," said McDowell.
Ben Younger of Thru-Line, a division of bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures, directed the sub-stories. "I had my crack New York crew and we really busted our asses to get this out and to do it right," reported Younger, who worked with a fraction of the budget afforded to the five other filmmakers. "I got some nice performances and, for the money, it’s pretty amazing."
Newton Thomas Sigel (whose feature cinematography credits include X-Men and Three Kings) served as DP on Ambush. Fred Elmes, ASC (Chain of Fools, Blue Velvet), was the Chosen cinematographer. Robert Duffy of Spot Welders, Venice, Calif., and Tim Squyres edited Ambush and Chosen, respectively. DP and editing credits on the other shorts weren’t available at press time. Radium’s Mark Holmes served as lead Inferno artist on the Ritchie-directed Star.
Mychael Danna (Girl, Interrupted; 8MM) served as composer on Chosen. Ren Klyce of Mit Out Sound, Sausalito, Calif., did the sound design for Ambush. Claude Letessier of Santa Monica-based Primal Scream was sound designer on Follow, and Primal Scream’s Klaus Badelt composed the music for Star. Music credits for Powder Keg were yet to be determined at press time.
SPOTS
Each of the five teaser TV spots promoted one of the short films. Each commercial consisted of footage from each respective short. The theatrical trailer contained footage from Ambush. The spots and the trailer were edited by David Henegar of Uppercut Editorial, Minneapolis.
Additionally, a sixth short film, entitled Driving Techniques, is in the offing. It will consist of stunt driving footage from the five BMW shorts. Driving Techniques will be cut by Bert Cambridge of Uppercut.
Primal Scream, headed by executive producer Nicole Dionne, is also credited with music and sound design for the five commercials and the trailer. Primal Scream’s Michael Wandmacher composed music and Letessier served as sound designer for the theatrical trailer and for the Ambush spot which ranked number eight on SHOOT’s "Top 10 Spot Tracks" this week (see Music & Sound Design: Spring Edition Special Report, p. 20).
Primal Scream’s Badelt was the composer on the TV spot for Follow. Jeff Rona of Primal Scream composed music for and Letessier sound designed the Chosen spot. Los Angeles-based band Remy Zero, which is repped by Primal Scream, composed some of the music for the Star spot; the other Star composer was yet to be determined as SHOOT went to press. Primal Scream is also slated to work on the Powder Keg commercial.
