A :60 spot plugging Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection adroitly illustrates how Nintendo gamers will be able to connect with–and compete against–other players through the use of Nintendo’s new Wi-Fi gaming service for Nintendo DS.
Created by Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, and directed by Ben and Joe Dempsey of bicoastal Rock Fight, “The Sad, Agonizing Tale of Bhuvan Ganguly,” which is playing in movie theaters only, opens on a shot of a weathered laborer, Bhuvan, pushing a heavy cart laden with limestone across a blistering hot desert.
Bhuvan is alone–except for the herd of goats we see in the distance. Weary, the man sits down beside his cart to eat his meager lunch, which consists solely of a banana. Once finished, he tosses the banana peel onto the seemingly never-ending dirt road that stretches before him.
Cut to a city scene clearly thousands of miles away in which a car zooming down a highway spins out of control as if it has slipped on this banana peel. Talk about cause and effect.
Hardcore gamers will pick up on–and surely appreciate–the nod to MarioKart DS, according to Leo Burnett executive creative director Dominick Maiolo. For those of you who aren’t hardcore gamers, MarioKart DS is a popular video game in which players drive along tossing bananas on the road, forcing other players to wipe out (well, hopefully) and earning points in the process.
The tie-in of sorts also makes sense in that MarioKart DS will be one of the first games to launch with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection later this year, Maiolo shared.
FAST AND FILMIC
Given that “The Sad, Agonizing Tale of Bhuvan Ganguly” was made for movie theater showings, Leo Burnett needed to hire a director who would be able to deliver a spot with a cinematic look and feel, and, just as importantly, a director who could turn the job around fast, Maiolo said.
Ultimately, the spot was assigned to Ben and Joe Dempsey, London-based brothers and directing partners who had proven themselves to the agency with a previous Nintendo spot titled “Gents.”
At the outset of this project, the Dempseys realized that the key to making the spot work would be finding the right person to portray Bhuvan. The role, which was not a speaking part, required someone “whose face showed a real sense of daily struggle,” Joe Dempsey said.
At first, the directing duo tried casting that face through conventional methods. However, when that search failed to yield the right talent, they sent a casting director out into the streets of Barcelona (the highway scene was shot in Barcelona, the desert scene outside the city limits) where a man named Talad Mahmud was discovered.
Not an actor by trade, Mahmud, a native of Pakistan, had lived in Barcelona for about four years, working various odd jobs. He was deemed perfect for the role both inside and out. “He was a real person with a lot of humility,” Joe Dempsey said.
With Mahmud cast as Bhuvan, the Dempseys and DP Antonio Paladino headed a couple of hours outside Barcelona to shoot the desert scenes. While Mahmud was a natural on-camera who was easy to work with, according to the directors, the sun wasn’t always so cooperative. “We went into the [shoot] saying we wanted to get this hot, baked desert look, but at one point, the sun completely went [behind the clouds],” Joe Dempsey related. “So we had to be flexible with our scheduling and do all the tight shots [until the sun came back]. Anthony lit them so that you don’t even notice [the sun wasn’t out].”
By the way, while the desert, which was supposed to resemble a remote area in India, looks desolate, it was hardly a remote location. “The camera really does lie because in some of those desert shots [if you panned] literally one millimeter to the right, you’d see bits of highway and petrol stations,” Ben Dempsey revealed.
As for other illusions, you don’t see the wires that were used to create the effect of the banana peel swirling around on the desert road thanks to the artisans at Asylum Visual Effects, Santa Monica.
The car spin scene was shot back in Barcelona on a stretch of highway during an overcast day. It was important to create as much contrast between the locations as possible to create the feeling that they were across the globe from each other, Joe Dempsey noted.
Precision drivers repeatedly performed the stunt in which one car spins out after hitting the imaginary banana peel, causing other cars to also spin out of control.
We don’t just see the main car spin out. We also sit inside the car next to the driver at one point in the spot, getting his perspective on the mishap. According to Ben Dempsey, the goal of that shot was to “take [viewers] within the action of what’s happening rather than observing it at arm’s length.”
SLIPPING INTO THE EDIT
Accustomed to taking part in the edit when they work with agencies in Britain, the Dempseys told Leo Burnett that they would like to take a crack at a first cut of the spot, and the agency obliged, Joe Dempsey said. In fact, editor Meg Kubicka of The Whitehouse, Chicago, actually flew to London and cut for a few days with the duo.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in cutting the spot was figuring out how long the audience needed to see the banana peel sliding around in the desert. “In the [final] version, you probably get one shot of the banana sliding around on the dirt. We did shoot more of that, but it felt a bit like too much explaining, too much visually [if we put more in],” Joe Dempsey said. “Most people know the analogy–a banana skin on the ground means someone or something is going to slip on it. We realized we didn’t need to labor too much visually to show that.”
Looking beyond the spot’s run in cinemas–“The Sad, Agonizing Tale of Bhuvan Ganguly” is slated to accompany showings of films such as The Dukes of Hazzard, Fantastic Four and Supercross through August 25–might we see it in other venues? “You may see this again online. You may see it somewhere else,” reported Maiolo, who wasn’t sure at press time whether the standout spot would journey to television.