While emerging media have caused the role of agency executive producer and producer to change over a relatively brief time, that evolution is being felt not only on the traditional and nontraditional content sides but has also extended to other artisans out of creative necessity. That contention came from Cedric Gairard, executive producer of 180 Amsterdam and a voice of experience–specifically the experience he and 180 producer Cat Reynolds had teaming on the recent adidas “Originals” campaign, which kicked off with the three-minute stop motion animation web film Adi Dassler, from which has been culled both cinema and broadcast commercials.
This campaign centerpiece introduces us to adidas founder Adi Dassler, taking us back in time to his 1920s workshop where it all began. The 1:3 scale recreation of the workshop set itself took 30 people over a month to build and became the perfect interactive backdrop for the Adi Dassler “Originals” website where visitors can spend time with Dassler inside his workshop. Shoes, trophies and Dassler himself are meticulously crafted in miniature and then brought to life using stop frame animation.
Just as Dassler is an original, other groundbreaking talents are introduced in four subsequent films in the “Originals” campaign:
• Sounds of the City features DJ/producer Theo Parish who creates a distinctive soundtrack using the city of Detroit as a sonic palette.
• Handbags for Feet centers on Amelie, a young girl living in Berlin, who expresses her creativity and carefree attitude by photographing the things around her that most people don’t notice.
• Original Games is a celebration of the Olympic Games but experienced in a unique way by a group of friends in Cape Town who have an urban take on sport.
• And Grun (German for “Green”), which follows eight young people in London who spruce up the city by planting anything from cabbages to palm trees, leaving their mark by turning gray into green.
All but Original Games have or will take on a life outside their initially planned web existence, with edited versions of the films gaining exposure in cinema theaters and on television.
And all the films were produced through Stink, London, which deployed four directors on the campaign: Martin Krejci who helmed Adi Dassler; James Brown on both Sounds of the City and Grun; Ben Dawkins on Handbags for Feet; and Henry-Alex Rubin who helmed Olympic Games.
For the “Originals” campaign, 180 sought a journalistic approach and tapped into a researcher who works with the international magazine Colors. Through a network of photographers, journalists, writers and filmmakers in different regions of the world, 180 discovered the “original” subjects who would be profiled in the films. This research, for example, led to the London-based, eco-friendly guerilla gardener in Grun.
Integration Just like a properly integrated campaign has become advertising/marketing nirvana, so too should integration apply to those collaborating on projects, related Gairard. He said it was particularly beneficial for him and his 180 colleagues to meet the four Stink directors at the same time during a spirited meeting in London as the “Originals” campaign was being shaped and developed.
“This way the directors not only saw what they were individually involved in but perhaps more importantly got a sense for the overall campaign,” said Gairard. “They saw their projects in relation to the whole, helping them to do a better, more relevant job with the parts they were responsible for. This kind of sharing and collaboration with one another–and with us–helped to develop this campaign and make it possible. It also ultimately made the work better to the point where what were originally going to be web films managed to attain a level worthy of us cutting down the content to also play in cinema and on TV. That means greater exposure and impact for your creative, which is what every good agency producer strives for. Having four directors in the same room enabled them to reach a collective understanding of their own work, the challenges and missions–and infused everyone with a feeling of teamwork. Stink became a partner with us in all of this.”
This dynamic, noted Gairard and Reynolds, prompted the client to approve a slight incremental budget increase to go from shooting DV to HD. This, said Gairard, offered more flexibility in “the way we film, the way we can post produce and how the quality will stand when you play the work in the cinema.”
Gairard described the “Originals” project as “a family of films, a collective of stories–so we felt strongly that we needed to build a collective of talents that would work closely together and attach themselves to the concepts as they relate to the total campaign. We were able to create a collective of not just directors but also editors, sound designers, composers, creatives to ensure we would have a consistent unifying quality across different films. And once you reach this understanding, it’s easier to let go and trust people. We had a short time, four months, in which to do all these films and as producers we had to let go–we couldn’t be on top of every single detail at every single moment with shoots going on in different parts of the world. That’s why we ourselves have to be integrated with our collaborators when we produce.”
With this kind of integration, said Gairard, “You can function better when necessary in a feature film world model where it’s not uncommon to work with different studios in different parts of the world. For example, you can have one post studio taking care of water scenes, another will be filling in the crowds, another the fur on a coat. You’re breaking down the process to be quick and responsive and to go where the best talent is for each particular aspect. It’s interesting to see how some of that production model is coming more to the world of digital content and commercials.”
Early dialogue Gairard stressed that “the integration concept should not just happen when you have different media. You have to feel integrated in each media channel you’re working in. That’s what helps you attain high production value and how within a tight budget for four films you can end up with five–and how within a web film budget you can expand into cinema and television.”
Having this upfront dialogue with the various directors, creatives and other artists coming together early on in the process affords the agency the luxury of a different channel of communication. “We are not naive. When we’re shooting there has to be a vertical communication on the set or location–otherwise there can be chaos,” related Gairard. “But the habit of being very vertical and disciplinary during the shoot doesn’t have to apply to the entire process. By getting the artists together earlier, you open up horizontal communication, a much more collective, open dialogue. You have directors voicing their perspectives in a collective manner, each being enriched by listening to other points of view and interpretations, helping to define the best way to tackle scripts along with producers, creatives and others. This integration isn’t common but I think it needs to be. It’s production model 2.0, the next level we have to get to.”
Digital production, he continued, lends itself to this open production and creative development approach. “As an agency develops digital talent and expertise, there’s a tendency to break down the linear way of doing production into a much more nonlinear way of working. And that influences how you approach traditional commercials. There are healthy dynamics and new working models starting to emerge.”
To see Adi Dassler and experience the workshop site (made by 180 Digital), log onto http://adidas.com/com/adidassler
In the coming weeks and months, three of the other films will be seen on TV and cinema. But the direct immediate path to find them online is on the adidas “Originals” site, www.adidas.com/originals.
