Amazon turned to director Peter Sluszka for the fourth straight year to kick off Amazon Prime Day–actually two days earlier this week, July 15 and 16. A mixed media maven, Sluszka specializes in stop motion, set design and fabrication. He brought all that expertise and more to bear on a campaign which included this energetic spot.
This year’s partnership was particularly exciting for Hornet, because Amazon worked directly with Sluszka from the get-go, not just on execution. After mutually exploring more than 30 potential concepts, they eventually landed upon an idea centered around a “Two-Day Parade of Epic Deals”.
The parade that Sluszka and his team ultimately created is a fun, public procession of Amazon’s product diversity laid out in colorful stop-motion. The scenes feature confetti-strewn streets filled with hundreds of originally designed characters buzzing about in an exposition of all that’s on offer in the Prime Day marketplace—from home goods to electronics to outdoor fun to even Nicolas Cage Mermaid Pillows (yep, those are a real thing sold on Amazon).
Like previous campaigns, the world created is a textured universe made of paper and cardboard. Cardboard was the original material of choice because it played off of Amazon’s shipping boxes. In the animations, when one of these boxes opens up…an entire world comes spilling out. Everything is paper: the characters are cardboard, the floats and buildings are spruced up with sheets of colored paper, even the “water” very liquidly splashing out of a pool is paper. At times these creations are so intricately designed and detailed they look almost CG. But, bar one tiny asset at the beginning of the commercial, they’re entirely handcrafted. As Sluszka said, “Aesthetically, paper craft speaks directly to Amazon’s cardboard box. You get an undeniable tangibility and charm by doing it with actual paper.”
CreditsClient Amazon Production Hornet, New York Peter Sluszka, director; Greg Bedard, exec producer; Sang-Jin Bae, head of production; Kristin Labriola, development producer; Matt Creeden, producer; Stephanie Andreou, Sam Stulin, editors; Riley Spencer, production coordinator; Gabriel Pages, Carlos Ancalmo, Kathleen Gleeson, storyboard artists; Steve Lewis, character design; Sam Mason, Tae Kim, Alejandro Diaz, Nicole Gallagher, Fred Gardner, John Nevarez, Kevin Osorio, Joshua Jun, Kathleen Gleeson, Sara Litzenberger, Tomas Valecillo, Tal Rachman, Carlos Ancalmo, designers; Joel Kretschman, live action line producer; Ivan Abel, DP; Richard Coppola, motion control operator; Pete List, Matt Christensen, Matt Somma, Maxwell Sorenson, animators; Tim McDonald, art director; Ben Kress, head of puppet fabrication; Pete Erickson, Kerry Coutu, Matt Scharenbroich, Laura Noveck, Melissa Chow, Gloria Gutierrez, Ilya Smelansky, Nico Benenati, Tiffany Chan, Jackie Nash, Janet O’Sullivan, Maxwell Sorenson, Taili Wu, David Assel, Simon Allen, Lotty Vigue, Koren Harpaz, Brian Haimes, Samantha Smith, fabricators; John Harrison, Peter Fink, VFX supervisors, lead compositors; Bil Thompson, Xiaoxiao Tang, Janelle Miau, Ali Kocar, Nichola Latzgo, Michael Cafarelli, Sang Lee, Keith Yan, compositors; Ivan Joy, Ken Lee, CG modelers; Doug Litos, pre-viz; Ken Lee, lighting & rendering; Tae Kim, matte painter; Shawn King, color correct. (Toolbox: StopMotion, Nuke, Maya, AfterEffects, Premiere) Music DLMDD Sound Design We Are Walker
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
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