Rich Lee of Hollywood-based DNA is among the select group of helmers recognized in SHOOT’s sixth annual New Directors Showcase (see separate story and related coverage in this week’s issue). He earned inclusion in part due to this “Best Work” entry, “The City,” a :40 for Italian energy company Eni sPa out of TBWA, Milan.
The live-action/effects spot opens on a book resting on a table and bearing the title “Eni.” We are about to take a page-by-page journey through the book’s imaginative contents.
“Eni” opens to reveal it’s a pop-up book, the first two-page foldout scene being a man in a small sailboat battling the ocean’s waves. A voiceover relates, “There was a man who raced across the sea to finally go where only the wind could take him.”
The page then turns to the next spread showing a car driving down a steep, winding mountain road as the voiceover tells us of another man who was “always on the move.”
We then see the same man get out of that car on the next pop-up pair of pages, arriving home where he’s greeted by his dog–the irony being, as the voiceover points out, that this man forever on the go “couldn’t wait to settle down” in his comfy abode.
The next two pages reveal a group of people seated at a long kitchen table enjoying a gourmet meal. We then zero in on the chef, a woman who turns off the countertop stove burner. Not partaking in the feast, she chomps down on an uncooked snack. She’s described by the voiceover as the lass “who cooked for everyone” yet “preferred raw food.”
The next couple of pages take us to an office building, eventually focusing on a man looking out the window of the high-rise. This man, relates the voiceover, is “the one who gave light to the town” yet “loved the dark.” At that moment, he flicks off his office light.
We then see two pop-up pages of the expansive city, followed by a couple more pages that feature a large light bulb, accompanied by the Eni logo and the voiceover message, “We want to give you all the energy that you need so that you can decide whether to use it or not.”
Dual role
Lee not only directed “The City” but also served as its visual effects supervisor and editor, working with a coterie of talent at Los Angeles-based effects studio Proof, including effects producer Georgia Scheele.
With roots in visual effects, Lee, who started out doing pre-vis for feature films (including 3D-animated storyboards for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I Am Legend, Minority Report), had worked earlier in his career at Proof. With his knowledge of the talent there, he was able to put together a nimble ensemble of artisans for “The City.”
“The biggest challenge was the time crunch,” said Lee of the commercial. “We had about two-and-a-half weeks to finish everything–this elaborate combination of primarily CG with the people being live-action. So from the moment I was awarded the job, I had to immediately put an effects team together.”
While the budget was decent, it too was “challenged,” said Lee, given the ambitious nature of the project. Lee worked on the job with production companies DNA and Filmmaster, Milan.
Italian connection This marked a return engagement for Lee with Filmmaster. About a year ago, the DNA director wrapped his first commercial, a live-action job done in tandem with Filmmaster–“Pink Snow” for Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport out of McCann Erickson, Milan.
Lee made the Italian connection via Filmmaster executive producer Karim Bartolletti who saw the director’s DNA-produced music video “She’s Got You High” for the band Mumm-Ra. Impressed with that clip, Bartoletti gravitated towards Lee for the La Gazzetta dello Sport spot. Their successful collaboration on that commercial in turn helped Lee land the Eni assignment.
Also playing a part in securing the project for Lee was the fact that he co-directed (with noted DNA clips director Marc Webb) the Fergie music video “Clumsy” which featured a pop-up book centerpiece. Lee related that the client’s visual reference for the Eni spot was that Fergie video.
