When agen-cy Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich., decided it wanted to convey Chevrolet’s unique relationship with America, it opted to use stock images that presented moments of historical and social significance in the country’s history.
Los Angeles-based design/ production house Imaginary Forces served as the production company for "American Snapshots," which takes viewers from one memorable era to another. The spot is comprised of extensive stock footage, and a few scenes feature a digitally created Chevrolet car inserted into the moment; Venice, Calif.-based Digital Domain did the compositing.
Amplifying the spot’s nostalgic feel is a music track consisting of a reworked version of the vintage song "See the USA, in a Chevrolet." Originally sung by Dinah Shore in the ’40s, the song here is performed by Shawn Colvin with a musical arrangement by Robin Batteau of New York-based Crushing Music.
"The basic premise was to find American imagery or photographs that people could relate to over the course of time," explained Campbell-Ewald’s Mary Ellen Krawczyk, a producer on the spot. "To tell the story about Chevrolet being a part of America through the last 70 years, our best bet was to use stock footage and some famous photographs."
Besides Krawczyk, additional agency credits go to vice chairman/chief creative officer William Ludwig, creative directors Arthur Mitchell and David Johns, copywriter Patrick O’Leary, art director Robin Todd, producer/ director of broadcast production Dennis Plansker and producer Denise Sidlow.
The spot starts out with footage of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Charlie Chaplin, Betty Boop and shots of couples jitterbugging. Among the historical highlights are famous images of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, the sailor kissing the nurse on V-J Day, and Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon. Pop culture is represented by images of a girl hula-hooping, a phone booth crammed with kids, a theatre filled with 3D glasses-wearing patrons, movie stars Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, guitar god Jimi Hendrix, shots of hippies from the Woodstock era and actress Elizabeth Montgomery portraying Samantha on ’60s sitcom Bewitched.
More contemporary historical moments included shots of the U.S. Olympic Gold medal-winning hockey team and of Muhammed Ali lighting the Olympic flame. The spot concluded with a present day live-action sequence showing a young girl sitting in front of a computer screen, which displays the various Chevrolet models.
Krawczyk related that the original animatic contained about four times more images than were used in the final version; the animatic was like a montage of the history of time, she noted. "We knew we wanted to follow some sort of chronological history, and figured that the beginning of the Industrial Revolution was a good way to start."
Campbell-Ewald looked at a plethora of stock footage, said Krawczyk, and passed along the information to Imaginary Forces’ Adam Bluming and Karen Fong, who co-directed the spot. They selected the images in addition to finding other imagery that Campbell-Ewald hadn’t specified – such as the hula-hoop and the ’50s Levittown neighborhood.
New York-based rights and clearance services company BZ/ Rights and Permissions. was responsible for obtaining the numerous clearances required. As BZ president and owner Barbara Zimmerman explained, this was a daunting task. The sheer volume of images to clear made it time consuming; even an image as seemingly simple as a shot of an "I Like Ike" button required the O.K. from the Eisenhower estate.
And Zimmerman had to scout out the footage from a number of sources-the partial list of stock footage supplies included Burbank-based Film & Video Stock Shots; Chatsworth, Calif.-based Grinberg Film Libraries; Orland Park, Ill.-based WPA Film Library; New York-based Archive Films; Santa Monica-based Image Bank; San Francisco-based Super Stock; Los Angeles-based Video Tape Library and the ABC network.
There were some famous 20th century images that the agency wanted to include, but the people and companies who owned them declined to give permission. Zimmerman related that these images included Johnny Carson, Norman Schwartzkopf, Dr. Seuss, Coca-Cola, Beanie Babies and the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane and Star Wars.
There were a few problems inserting a digital Chevy into a stock image. Krawczyk noted that while they’d gotten permission to use Marilyn Monroe footage from Seven Year Itch, they realized they couldn’t insert a car into the shot, so ended up putting the image on a movie screen; they were, however, able to put a Chevy into a famous image of James Dean in Times Square.
Zimmerman said the one objection came when they asked to alter the famed Alfred Eisenstaedt V-J Day photo. The Time-Life stock photo library (which controls the rights to it) refused to allow a Chevy to be added. So instead, Time-Life supplied a similar photograph-same day, same couple kissing, but shot by a different photographer at a different angle. "They felt the Eisenstaedt photo should not be changed for commercial purposes," said Zimmerman.
