For client The Tombras Group, Gravity has produced the visual effects and graphics featured within a powerful, five spot campaign promoting Safe Driving for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Gravity produced the spots through agency The Tombras Group of Nashville, TN, working with partners Believe Media and director Bo Platt. Zviah Eldar, Gravity CEO/Chief Creative Director, and Bob Samuel, Gravity’s CMO/Executive Producer, made the announcement. To view this work, please click here.
In the spot entitled “OMG” (both :15 and :30) we see three carloads of young people in separate cars, while the driver of each is texting or speaking on his/her cell phone. Concurrently, a meteor plummets to Earth, and crashes into one car, leaving behind the enormous letters “OMG.” Another car hits a debris pile which turns out to be the letters “LOL,” while a third smashes into enormous letters on the freeway that read “L8R.” The end tagline reads, “One Text or Call Could Wreck It All.”
In the spots entitled “Bubbles” (both :15 and :30) we see a number of people driving cars, while their thoughts appear as “bubbles” over their heads.
These thought bubbles include “I’m unbuckled,” “I’m drunk,” “I’m speeding,” and “I’m distracted.” We see a woman driver get pulled over by a police car, while the VO says, “Hate to burst your bubble, but if you’re not obeying the rules of the road, we will see you.” The end card reads, “More Cops. More Stops.”
The :30 spot called “No Worries” depicts a group of drunk teenagers leaving a party and getting into a car. The driver is encouraged to “not do anything to get noticed,” while he confidently replies, “no worries, I got this.” He proceeds to smash into a parked car and cause several ‘near miss’ accidents along the way, until he finally hits a fire hydrant and comes to a stop. A young girl says, “My mom’s gonna freak out,” and we then hear the VO say, “There’s no way to hide it. If you’re underage and you drive drunk, you will get caught.” The end card reads, “Underage Drinking = Adult Consequences.”
Said Samuel, “This job was a series of ‘firsts’ for us: our first job with Bo Platt and Believe Media, our first job with The Tombras Group, and our first job with Alex Postelnicu in place here as our Creative Director/VFX Supervisor. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. Bo was incredibly collaborative, as was the entire team from Tombras. Alex and Yuval Levy (Gravity’s CD/Head of CG) were able to quickly hone in on their direction and spend more time designing and implementing than de-ciphering. And of course, we always relish the opportunity to make cool stuff crash and blow-up.”
Adds Alex Postelnicu, who served as Gravity’s Creative Director and VFX Supervisor, “Our biggest challenge with the graphics featured in these spots was for them to appear as realistic – and believable – as possible, including the letters in the street, and the ‘thought bubbles’ appearing over the heads of various drivers. We wanted to weave these graphics into the storylines of each spot without being intrusive, so that our target audience—young people who use their cell phones while driving, or those who drink and drive – would be receptive to a clear and understandable message. Our biggest goal was believability, with beautiful graphics that were whimsical and fun, while maintaining a very serious undertone, and conveying a very serious message.”
CREDITS FOR FIVE NHTSA SPOT CAMPAIGN:
Agency: The Tombras Group, Knoxville TN
Creative Directors: Brian Potter, Nick Vagotti
Producer: Craig Mungons
Production: Gravity New York
CEO/Chief Creative Officer: Zviah Eldar
Creative Director/VFX Supervisor: Alex Postelnicu
Creative Director/Head of CG: Yuval Levy
Lead Flame: Alex Postelnicu
Lead Modeler: Brian DiNoto
Lead Lighting Artists: Chimin Yang, Sangdo Park
Head of Production: Karen Bianca Bisignano
Producer: Adam Goins
Production Coordinator: Emily Davis
CMO/Executive Producer: Bob Samuel
Live Action: Believe Media
Director: Bo Platt
Executive Producer: Gerard Cantor, Liz Silver, Luke Thornton
Producer: William Butler Sloss
DP: Roman Vasynov
Editorial: Jump LA Los Angeles
Editor: David Trachtenberg
Executive Producer: Betsy Beale
Assistant Editor: Eddie Mikasa
Producer: Rebecca Baker
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld/CO 3 NY
Music & Sound Design: JSM Music New York
About GRAVITY
Gravity is an international visual effects, design and brand communications company with proven expertise in three integrated divisions: Features & Television, Commercials, and Digital. With 250 talented professionals across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Connecticut and Tel Aviv, the company is a widely renowned generator of high-end visual effects, creative content, motion graphics design, animation, branding, and digital strategy.
The company’s clients include Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, HBO, Paramount Pictures, The Weinstein Company, Dimension Films, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Verizon, Pantene, MGA Entertainment, Carlsberg, Kmart, and Braun. Gravity’s recent feature film credits include “Tower Heist,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”, “The Adjustment Bureau”, “Arthur”, “The Other Guys”, “Salt”, “The Reader”, and “Ghost Town.” The company’s television credits include HBO’s “Bored to Death”, “The Sopranos”, and “Sex and The City.”
Gravity’s New York office is located at 315 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY, 10017. The phone is 212/986-1584. The company’s West Coast office is located in the Lantana Building, 3000 West Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, 90404. The phone is 310/264-3909. For more information, please visit www.gravityworld.com.
