Stefan Copiz, an art director with Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco, had a revelation during the making of a new spot for Comcast called “Dance.” “Older people are much better dancers than younger people,” Copiz shared.
He and his agency partner, copywriter Dan Rollman, saw that first-hand while observing the auditions for “Dance,” which called for the casting of an elderly couple capable of dancing to frenetic hip-hop music–all to demonstrate that Comcast High-Speed Internet service offers a faster hook-up than dial-up and DSL.
Set in a ballroom, the spot directed by Jake Schreier of Plum Productions, Santa Monica, opens with the old folk slow dancing to a mellow tune–this initial scenario represents the slowness of dial-up. They pick up the pace when the DJ plays a more up-tempo tune representing DSL. But the geriatric dancers really bust a move when fast-paced hip-hop, representative of Comcast High-Speed Internet, blasts through the speakers.
Amazingly, no hips were broken and no backs were thrown out during the making of “Dance.”
OLD SCHOOL
Initially, Copiz and Rollman had assumed that the best approach to making “Dance” would be to use young stunt dance doubles for the hip-hop dancing–they could later digitally place the heads of older people onto the bodies of the doubles. But Schreier wasn’t so fast to jump on the special-effects bandwagon. “It was Jake’s suggestion to say, ‘Let’s at least push these older couples in our casting session and see whether we can get great magic with them doing the Comcast High-Speed Internet dance,’ ” Rollman said.
As previously noted, it became apparent during the casting session that there were indeed people in their 70s and above who could still get down on the dance floor. Looking back on the job, Schreier said that the auditions held in Los Angeles were the most fun part of the process. “We just put on an Outkast song [“Bombs Over Bagdad”] and had old people dance,” Schreier said, noting, “All of them were one-hundred percent willing. No one was like, ‘I can’t dance to that.’ They just had a good time.”
According to Schreier, some members of the talent pool had danced with none other than Gene Kelly back in the old Hollywood days. There were others who had played roles in classic films like Breakfast At Tiffany’s. “It was interesting to meet so many people who had been part of Hollywood for such a long time,” Copiz reflected.
Ultimately, Roz Wilson was cast as the “dancing woman,” Elio Vivant as the “dancing man” and Stephen Lentz as the blue tuxedo clad DJ.
MAD HOT BALLROOM
Schreier and DP Max Goldman shot “Dance” on location in the ancient ballroom of a rundown hotel in downtown Los Angeles. “It felt like the right place for an older couple to be dancing,” Copiz remarked, “and it made the last dance all that more surprising to put it in that venue.”
In keeping with the look of the place, Schreier and Goldman kept the tones desaturated and brown.
Of course, getting the dancing right was the most crucial aspect of the one-day shoot. Choreographer Brian Friedman, who has worked with everyone from Britney Spears to Beyonce and served as a judge on the Fox series So You Think You Can Dance?, tutored the talent on the day of the shoot. “He’d teach them a few moves, and then he’d stand back and be like, ‘Lasso, lasso! Spank it, spank it!’ ” Schreier recalled, adding, “That was bad. He was yelling at a 70-year-old woman to spank it.”
Cognizant of the fact that his older performers might tire out more quickly than younger people, Schreier taped the spot out of sequence, getting the more demanding hip-hop dancing on film first.
Once the shoot was completed, editor Jean Kawahara of Umlaut Films, San Francisco, cut “Dance.” In terms of challenges in the editing room, “I think the main thing we were playing with was the music–how it cued in, how much time was spent on each speed,” Copiz said.
The initial two tracks heard in “Dance” are stock pieces. The hip-hop piece was an original composition out of Ego Entertainment.
“Dance” marked Copiz and Rollman’s first collaboration with up-and-coming talent Schreier, by the way, and they both say that they would love to work with the young director again. “We were impressed with Jake in many ways, especially his attention to detail on many levels,” Rollman said, noting that it was Schreier’s idea to use records and record sleeves to convey information in the spot as opposed to the supers that the agency creatives had originally thought of.
Copiz and Rollman were up at midnight the night before the shoot making those props. “There were definitely times during this production where we felt like we were making an independent film,” Rollman said laughing. “But it was fun. We had a limited budget for this, and it meant a lot more figuring things out on our own than we’re used to.”
“It was nice to be that involved,” Copiz added, noting that he and Rollman had just come off working on a big-budget, special-effects heavy job before “Dance.”
Schreier also found the job to be fulfilling, and he got a special thanks from one of his appreciative performers. “I got a very nice card from Roz after the shoot,” Schreier said. “That was very sweet.”
