Chipotle’s “Back To The Start”–directed by Johnny Kelly of Nexus Productions for Creative Arts Agency, Los Angeles–continued its impressive awards season run, earning Best of Show honors at the One Show Entertainment Awards held Wednesday (6/13) at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica.
Both the short film (which played as a spot during the Academy Awards telecast earlier this year) and soundtrack took top One Show Entertainment honors. The stop motion animation piece, which the previous evening won Best of Show, Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial honors at the AICP Show, promotes the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, an organization created to hep foster sustainable agriculture, family farming and culinary education.
The short is propelled by Willie Nelson’s cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” with David Leinheardt of Duotone Audio Group handling music supervision. Barnaby Templer and J.M. Finch of Fonic, London, served as sound designer and audio post mixer, respectively.
“Back To The Start” centers on a misguided farmer who slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the error of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. The beautifully executed animation is all contained in one long panning “shot” and has no voiceover, leaving the music to tell the story.
And for that, CAA turned to Duotone which came up with a tailored edit of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” that not only matched the mood of the film but also scored to picture naturally and powerfully. Sync licensing was handled by Duotone EP Leinheardt.
Nelson was an ideal choice to perform the song. He co-founded Farm Aid, which assists and increases awareness of family farms. His full-length cover is available for download from iTunes, with proceeds going to the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, a Chipotle restaurants initiative which benefits the small and sustainable farms movement.
“Today’s branded entertainment is more than helping brands sell product,” said Kevin Swanepoel, president and interim CEO at The One Club, producer of the annual One Show Entertainment Awards. “As Chipotle has shown us this evening with its ‘Best of Show’ soundtrack and film to promote a sustainable food system, branded entertainment can give businesses the power to create movements that can cultivate a better world.”
Earlier this awards season, “Back To The Start” earned the GRANDY at the International ANDY Awards, the Grand Clio, and was the top ADC Gold Cube winner at the Art Directors Club’s Annual Awards.
Emcee scores twice
Oscar-nominated (Super Size Me) documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock emceed the evening One Show Entertainment ceremony. It was a big night for him on stage–not just for the hosting gig but also because his feature documentary POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold won a Gold Pencil in the Cinema Documentaries competition.
The film explores product placement in movies–but with a unique, humorous, tongue-in-cheek twist. Spurlock made the movie itself an exercise in product placement, directly pitching agencies and prospective sponsors on the idea of funding the documentary in exchange for visibility in the film. The movie shows Spurlock as he seeks backing from corporate folks, brand managers and agency execs. Beyond the not-so-subtle product placements for the dozen or so sponsors, also woven right into the documentary are three commercials conceived by and featuring Spurlock–one for lead sponsor POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice, another for JetBlue, and the third for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts.
In addition to POM, JetBlue and Hyatt, the sponsors who came on board were: Amy’s Kitchen (frozen foods), the Aruba Tourism Authority, Ban antiperspirant/deodorants (whom Spurlock connected with via New York ad agency kirshenbaum bond senecal+partners), Carrera sunglasses and Solstice Sunglass Boutique, Mane ‘n Tail Shampoo, Merrell footwear, MovieTickets.com, Old Navy, Seventh Generation household products, Sheetz convenience stories, and Thayer’s Natural Remedies.
Spurlock’s production company Warrior Poets produced The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Warrior Poets recently teamed with Snoot Entertainment and spot production vet Shannon Lords to create Warpaint, a commercial production house with shops in New York, L.A. and London (SHOOTonline, 5/7).
Gold Pencils
Among the other One Show Entertainment Gold Pencil winners were:
o For Scripted Series, Brand Arc‘s work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, produced for Toyota.
o For Short Form, BBDO New York’s “Dig Deeper” for HBO. Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks directed, with interactive production by B-Reel.
o For Long Form, 72andSunny‘s “MFCEO” produced for K-Swiss. Jody Hill of Caviar directed “MFCEO.”
o And for Television Promo, Triple Double‘s “Brotherhood Promo” for NBC. Taika Waititi of Hungry Man directed.
The U.S. topped the country tally of One Show Entertainment winners with 16 Gold, 10 Silver and 18 Bronze Pencils, followed by Australia with five Silver and two Bronze, and South Africa with two Silver and One Bronze.
For a complete list of One Show Entertainment Pencil winners, log onto www.oneclub.org.
