We find ourselves outdoors at a sleepy retirement community in Oakville, Calif. Bursts of thunder and lightning streaking through an overcast sky most likely presage an electrical storm. Nothing is out of the ordinary in the senior citizens’ home. A couple of elderly women play cards—not an exciting activity, but at least it’s inside.
Suddenly the lights go out and an alarm blares through the building. Deliberately the seniors spring into action, flashlights at the ready. Oldsters make their way down darkened corridors. One elderly man sticks close to a woman, shining a light on the radio she carries. Presumably, as they march down the hallway, she is trying to tune in the latest news about the power outage.
Another man is led by a seeing-eye dog. A senior citizen in a wheelchair navigates himself safely through the darkness, thanks to a light mounted on the chair. He’s preceded by a woman holding a first-aid kit. Indeed this contingent is, like the Boy Scouts, well prepared.
Then a circle of light illuminates the building’s power box, and the music with its insistent beat turns triumphant. A hand enters the picture and pulls up a lever, restoring the electricity. The elderly guy who flipped the switch looks over his shoulder. At that point, a thumb presses down on a stopwatch. That thumb belongs to a Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE) technician who announces with subdued pride, "You just beat the high school by fifteen seconds."
The gray-haired, over-the-hill gang breaks into celebration, hooting and hollering like a pack of immature teenagers: "Yes, yes, yes … Oooooh. Oooooh. Ooooooooh."
A voiceover intervenes, "For your storm preparation checklist, log onto pge.com." We then see the words, "Pacific Gas and Electric," underneath which appear in orderly succession, "Emergency Information" / "Safety tips"/ "www.pge.com."
Titled "Emergency Drill," this :30 was directed by Tenney Fairchild of bicoastal M-80 Films for San Francisco agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT) & Tonic. Gregg Stern executive produced for M-80, with Glenn Rudolph serving as line producer. The spot was shot on location in Los Angeles by DP Neil Shapiro.
The JWT & Tonic creative team consisted of creative director/art director Greg Rowan, creative director/copywriter John Zissimos and producer Jill Auerbach.
The spot was edited by Jack Douglas of Mint Editorial, Santa Monica, with Sean Shafer serving as assistant editor. Gina Pagano produced for Mint, a company which she and Douglas recently launched (see story, p. 7) Online editor/visual effects artist was Paul Kirsch of Santa Monica-based Colorado. Colorist was Bob Festa of R!OT Santa Monica. Audio mixers were Robert Feist and Eric Ryan at RavensWork, Venice, Calif.
Mint’s Douglas also served as sound designer. Thad Spencer and Daniel Stein of music house Asche & Spencer, Venice, Calif., and Minneapolis, served as creative director and composer, respectively.
