The opening images are jarring and disorienting. The imprint of hands, elbows and even a human face pressing from the inside out against a latex-like prison, struggling to get out from some sort of strange cocoon.
The camera then reveals that this white cocoon is a large cigarette standing upright on its filter, the top burning and smoldering away. And as it turns out, we are seeing people trapped in dozens of larger than life cigarettes, pressing from the inside in a desperate attempt to escape.
A voiceover asks, “Are you trapped and don’t know how to escape your addiction to cigarettes.
“One out of two regular smokers will die prematurely from smoking. You don’t have to be one of them.”
The human beings continue to struggle but to no avail.
The voiceover continues, “Escape the trap. Say enough.”
Finally a human hand breaks through the latex and reaches outward towards desperately coveted freedom.
This PSA for the California Department of Public Health ends with the appearance of a toll-free phone number which people can call to get help.
The live-action/visual effects combo job was directed by Clark Anderson of Rhythm + Hues Commercial Studios, Los Angeles, for Acento Advertising, also in Los Angeles..
Originally the spot was intended to be in Spanish for the Hispanic market, according to Anderson, but the message proved so powerful that both Spanish and English-language versions were produced to reach a wider audience.
Marco Cassese and Gustavo Garcia were creative director and producer, respectively, for Acento Advertising.
Humanity
“The creative was very solid–a simple powerful idea,” said Anderson. “The question became how do we best capture the drama of seeing someone trapped inside a cigarette? Others bid the job as all CG but for me the key to the story had to be the performance of human actors even if we never saw their faces.”
Thus Anderson sought out modern dancers who could express themselves through movement, even when shielded from our eyes by a wall of spandex. “Everything else extended from that decision to go with the dancers,” related Anderson. “That dictated the scale. We wanted to keep it live and built these overscale cigarettes–fifteen feet tall and around three feet in diameter. The dancers were dressed in leotards so we didn’t see any outline of clothing. They were each standing on top of a ‘cigarette filter’ that was maybe three feet off the ground.”
Rhythm + Hues made three cigarettes in total, with spandex stretched over the columns to produce the desired effect. “For the close-ups at the beginning of the spot, we were able to frame everything live. As the spot progresses and we widen out, we shot these huge cigarettes on a big green screen set and then in post manipulated and multiplied them to appear as a sea of cigarettes…We had two performers–one male [Sharif Danchet] and one female [Simone Bruyere-Fraser]–but they delivered many performances, many moments so that their actions seemed like a huge cast out there imprisoned in these cigarettes.”
Burning love A machine was rigged to suck on real cigarettes as the coals were shot flaring up. “We shot this in macro and matched the angles to mesh with the large scale cigarettes we had built. Through the talent of our Flame artists,” said Anderson, “we took the macro coals and placed them on top of the overscale cigarettes and it looked just right. We got the real look of ashes decaying. We captured the cigarette smoke elements in different ways, some in tented off rooms so that we would have rising smoke, drifting smoke, all to make it look more realistic.”
Also heightening the tone and mood of the piece was the soundtrack, which initially was a heart beat toned down a bit, mixed in with some shrieks. “It was a panicky feel at the beginning which coincided with our making the visuals more abstract so viewers would get quick glimpses though extreme close-ups and not quite know what they were seeing.”
Anderson credited editor Jay Lizarraga of Rhythm + Hues with helping to build the suspense. Paul Babb executive produced for Rhythm + Hues. The DP was Pierre Rouger.
