Do you ever think that all the computers in your office get together in the middle of the night and hatch evil plans to crash simultaneously? Or that your company’s information systems guy is really a sadistic madman that holes up in the office basement, ignoring your cries for help? Maybe, just maybe, the computers are controlling us. If it sounds strangely Gilliamesque, that’s because it is.
In "Labyrinth" for Micronpc. com out of Goldberg Moser O’Neill (GMO), San Francisco, director Terry Gilliam brings all our worst computer nightmares to life. The :60 opens on a chief executive who is working late at the office when his computer screen reads "system failure." He calls the information systems department just as the clock strikes midnight and gets a busy signal. Angered, the executive sets out to find the IS guy. As the exec exits his office in a huff, his computer monitor slowly swivels to follow the man’s movements. There is an overwhelming sense that something bad is going to happen as the executive descends in the elevator through an empty, glass-enclosed building. He lands on a floor where a labyrinth of cubicles housing personal computers stretches endlessly before him. As the man navigates through the maze, the machines come to life. Like spoiled cyber-children, the computer screens flash demands such as "Connect Me," "Fix Me" and "Upgrade Me" as the executive grows nervous and quickens his pace. He enters the doors to Information Systems and finds a computer operator sitting in a dimly lit room with his head down on his desk. Believing the operator is sleeping on the job, the CEO angrily asks, "What is it with you computer guys?" When the executive grabs the dozing man and turns him around, it is revealed that the operator’s face has been replaced by a computer screen bearing the message "Help Me," and his mouth has been reconfigured into the shape of a floppy disk portal. Behind him, a wall of dysfunctional personal computers combine to say "Don’t Ignore Us" as the voiceover intones, "This is where the nightmare ends and a new era begins."
"Labyrinth" is part of an official re-launch of Micron Electronics as Micronpc.com, which aims to highlight its new line of "subscription computing" services. Micronpc’s claim is that its specialized support system will take care of all the technical maintenance so the consumer doesn’t have to.
"The genesis of the spot came with this idea that you are never alone. It’s not like the other guys who drop off these boxes of computers at your office and take off saying good luck," explained GMO senior copywriter Mike Gallagher, who came up with the idea for the spot.
Two additional :30s in the campaign follow the same theme of evil computer vs. helpless consumer. According to freelance agency producer David Verhoef, the campaign’s postmodern, Orwellian mood mirrored the sensibilities of Gilliam’s feature films (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). "There was one shot on the boards where the CEO walks through a bank of cubicles; I thought to myself, ‘This looks exactly like Brazil,’" said Verhoef. The creative team shared Verhoef’s view, but laughed at the prospect of getting the Terry Gilliam to direct their spot. After all, Gilliam had only directed one other commercial in his career, a Nike spot entitled "We’re Ballplayers" via Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Verhoef called executive producer Jon Kamen of bicoastal/ international @radical.media to see what he thought. While Kamen admitted it was a longshot, the boards were sent to Gilliam in London—and miraculously, he called back.
They say that timing is everything; in this case, Gilliam was gearing up to shoot his next film but the schedule had been pushed back a few months. Since he already had his crew assembled for the film, everything was in place to shoot the spot. "It just worked out beautifully that all the people he works with on his films were available. They flew into action," said Gallagher.
The spot was shot at Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England, which was the same soundstage where Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace was filmed. Gilliam drew all the storyboards and rounded up his DP, Roger Pratt, producer Tommy Turtle and percussionist/composer Ray Cooper. Meanwhile, production designer/art director John Beard, who had done all the sets for Brazil, immediately went to work on building the glass-enclosed office building with its endless rows of cubicles (200 in all).
While Gilliam could not be reached for comment at press time, Gallagher said that the director and the agency shared the same vision for the spots. "We talked a lot during preproduction so he knew where I was coming from," said Gallagher, who explained his ideas to Gilliam in terms of film references. "We talked a lot about Brazil. The last scene pays homage to Psycho, and the face that says "Help Me" is like The Fly. It’s a combination of your worst, craziest nightmares."
According to Verhoef, Gilliam was not accustomed to the tight production schedules that spots typically demand. Consequently, what was supposed to be a four-day shoot turned into five days, and the extra time that was necessary for building the sets meant that the allotted postproduction time was scaled back from four weeks to two.
To make the post process more expedient, the visual effects job was split between Gilliam’s own London-based firm, Peerless Camera Company, and Steele VFX, Santa Monica. Because Verhoef was pulled away from "Labyrinth" in the middle of the project due to his wife having a baby, freelance agency producer Craig Allen stepped in to oversee the post process at Steele, while freelance agency producer Gail Gortney flew to London for the shoot. Gilliam, along with Peerless effects supervisor John Swinnerton, took care of overseeing the post work in London.
Peerless was responsible for the visual effects in most of the wide shots. The shop created mattes that extended the "cubicle room" so that it looked infinite, and built a model to shoot the scene where the executive descends in the elevator through the multistoried building. Peerless also constructed the last scene, where all the computer screens read "Don’t Ignore Us." Back in Santa Monica, Jerry Steele of Steele VFX worked on the tighter shots and gave the spot its final touches.
Much of what is seen in "Labyrinth" was shot in camera. Most impressive is that the computers that flash messages were all timed to flick on at the exact moment when the panicked CEO walks by. "What’s amazing is if you hire Terry Gilliam, you get Terry Gilliam," Verhoef said. "[‘Labyrinth’] is pretty much his vision."
