Put a live-action head on an animation-powered body and you still can’t change the course of human nature—in this case, the fact that a teenage girl and her phone are inseparable. In this mixed media :30 entitled "Girl"—part of a three-spot campaign for Bigmouth US Unwired, a cellular phone service plan in Louisiana—we open on the lass’ bedroom. Predictably, she is gossiping away on a cell phone.
The girl is clearly a multi-tasker. We first see her with cucumber slices covering her eyes and cold cream on her face—no doubt some combo skin conditioning beauty treatment that happens to be in vogue. Soon, however, the cucumbers are off but she is still incessantly gabbing on the phone while applying mascara to her eyelashes, painting her toenails, picking out something to wear from a closet stuffed with clothes, and blasting hair spray on her locks to make sure her coif is just right.
Aided and abetted by animation, the distinctive visual dynamic throughout the spot is that each word she speaks appears in written form and tumbles out of her mouth. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this gal is talking at about three pictures a minute on the cell phone.
Even working on a laptop computer doesn’t slow the flow of words. However, there’s a glimmer of hope. An off-camera voice—presumably of the girl’s mother—interrupts the phone conversation, albeit briefly. The command from mom: "Clean your room."
The girl responds immediately that she can’t because—why else?—she’s on the phone.
She continues gossiping away to an unseen friend at the other end of the cell phone connection. However, she pays heed in at least a small fashion to the command to clean up the room. The teenager takes some of the words that fell out of her mouth and sweeps them under her bed. That gesture is at least an acknowledgement of the maternal wish that she tidy things up.
During this slice of teenage Americana, a voiceover and accompanying animated text inform us that if you’ve "got a lot to say," the Bigmouth cell phone plan is the way to go, offering a flat rate of $39.95 a month for unlimited talking. "The talk never stops."
The creative team at Lawler Ballard Van Durand, Atlanta, consisted of creative director/copywriter Steve Saari, art director Jenn Kintz and producer Janet Mason. Lawler project manager Hilary Stiefelmeyer provided the voice of the "Girl."
Acme Filmworks’ ensemble included animation/live-action director Miles Flanagan, executive producer Ron Diamond, head of production Peter Barg, producer Holly Stone, 2-D animator Adam Byrd, special effects artist/ digital compositor/effects technical director Nicolas Mermet, digital supervisor Michael O’ Donnell, assistant digital compositor/network supervisor Scott Coleman, production assistants/digital ink and painters Patrick Kwon and Rosa Grossman, and offline editor/postproduction supervisor George Khair. For the live-action shoot, Coleman and Byrd served as cameraman and sound person, respectively. Patrick Kwon was the assistant director.
Mac graphics artist for digital file layoff was Patrick Motta of Hollywood Digital. Sound engineer was Chris Basta of Todd AO Editworks, Atlanta. Music composer was the mono-monikered Bix via bicoastal Muhaha Productions. (He has since joined music/sound design house stimmung, Santa Monica.)
Christa Pietromonaco was the principal actor in this spot. The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or emailed.
