ONE at Optimus, the live-action production arm of leading post-production house Optimus, announced today that it has joined forces with The Martin Agency and is launching two spots for Project Yellow Light, a film competition for the Hunter Garner Scholarship. The scholarship, awarded annually to the Virginia High School student who submits the most compelling ‘safe driving’ video, was established by Julie Garner, a vice president at The Martin Agency who lost her 16-year-old son, Hunter, in a car accident in 2007. The goal of the video competition is to encourage teens to create videos that will appeal to other teens to get them to embrace safe driving habits.
These new professionally produced spots by ONE at Optimus will be added to the Project Yellow Light web site that also displays teen videos created during the past few years. The spots – “MultiTEXT” and “The Last Text” –are meant to inspire teens be responsible when they get behind the wheel and to create their own videos in support of safe driving.
“Car accidents are the number one killer of teens in the U.S., and more than 300,000 are seriously injured each year,” said Garner. “We launched Project Yellow Light to keep our son Hunter’s name alive and to empower teens to create videos to spread the word about safe driving. After running the scholarship contest for four years, we asked ONE at Optimus to create professional yet accessible spots that would inspire teens to develop their own polished and savvy videos. The spots ONE created were perfect – they hit the message without being ‘preachy’ – and really got the kids excited about taking it up a notch in their own videos.”
More than a dozen employees of The Martin Agency have been involved in Project Yellow Light since its inception in 2007. Friends of Julie Garner at the agency have donated their time and talent to create the web site, guide teens in video production and development and even act as judges to choose the scholarship winners.
The “MultiTEXT” spot depicts a typical hectic high school day set to a music track composed by sounds recorded throughout the school. Through its sharp cuts and driving rhythm, the spot hones in on the message that – while everyday life is getting busier and busier and teens are multitasking throughout the day – the car should be a sanctuary in which driving is the only focus. Said ONE at Optimus Director Otto Arsenault, who directed both videos, “We wanted to demand the attention of our audience and hold on tight to it, so we developed videos that would inspire students and make them think the next time they got behind the wheel. The entire track in “MultiTEXT” is based on sounds that were recorded in a high school. We mapped the sounds to a keyboard and then composed the track.”
“The Last Text” portrays a text conversation between teens that takes the viewer on the journey of a teen heading out to meet friends in the car while texting. With no other visual but the smart phone screen, the video hits at the heart of the risks of texting while driving. Added Arsenault, “Both videos resonate in different ways, and we hope they inspire the best student submissions for Project Yellow Light to date.”
To view the Project Yellow Light spots, please visit http://www.optimus.com/one.
Credits
Director and Editor – Otto Arsenault, ONE at Optimus
Creative Director/EP – John Noble, ONE at Optimus
Writer – Amanda Speva, ONE at Optimus
Producer – Sarah Slevin, ONE at Optimus
Director of Photography – Mark Pallman, ONE at Optimus
Audio Engineer – Joel Anderson, Optimus
Composers (MultiTEXT) – Amanda Speva & Mark Pallman, ONE at Optimus
Additional Sound (MultiTEXT) – Eric Rasmussen
Production Assistant – Abbie Hamilton, ONE at Optimus
About Optimus and ONE at Optimus
Optimus is a leading post-production and production house with offices in Chicago and Santa Monica. A true one-stop shop, Optimus offers a full suite of creative services, including production, editing, film transfer, color correction, visual effects and design, audio mixing and finishing. With ONE, the company’s live-action production arm, Optimus offers all production services, from shoot through post, under one roof – a singular, streamlined creative-driven machine. For more information, please visit http://www.optimus.com and http://www.oneatoptimus.com.
About The Martin Agency
The Martin Agency offers unified advertising, strategic planning, media, direct response, interactive, data analytics, design, branded content and local lead generation. Clients include BFGoodrich, Discover Financial, Expedia, GEICO, Hanes, Manpower, Morgan Stanley, PING, Pizza Hut, Sun Life Financial, Tylenol, the American Cancer Society, USTA, Walmart and ESPN3.com. http://www.martinagency.com
About Project Yellow Light
16-year-old Hunter Garner died in a car crash on June 10, 2007. Project Yellow Light is a scholarship that honors Hunter’s memory and spirit. Hunter’s situation is not unique. He’s one of the 6,000 teens a year whose lives are cut short because of a car crash. Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in America. This scholarship project is designed to change that. For more information, please visit http://www.projectyellowlight.com.
