By MILLIE TAKAKI
A drop of water falls from a faucet into a filled bathtub; the resulting ripple partially obscuring a pair of fully immersed feet. A man is in a barber’s chair about to get a haircut. Another man is seen stepping out into the rain. A woman is seated in the back of a bus. And an unseen someone has sat down in a public restroom stall.
These seemingly mundane slices of life are about to take on new fire, literally, in "Heat," a :60 conceived by Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), London, to promote a just debuted weekly entertainment magazine published by EMAP Metro. As the camera switches from one slice of life to another, it’s revealed that they have one element in common: each person is about to pick up an issue of Heat. As the woman in the tub opens the magazine, the "heat" transfers to her-flames surround her head-as she reads the latest news, interviews, reviews and previews to get the inside track on entertainment and events in the U.K.
The man in the barber chair also lights up as he thumbs through the pages; and the hairstylist peeking over his customer’s shoulder too catches fire. The woman on the bus is also aflame. Even the man who runs out into the rain and uses a copy of Heat as a quasi-umbrella, winds up wearing a crown of special effect fire on his head. And as for the public restroom scene, we see flames rising from behind a closed stall door.
Making the spot-entitled "Where there’s smoke"-work so well is the fact that each person is oblivious to the flames around him or her. They are all enjoying their read of Heat. Also enhancing the message are several humorous touches. For instance, upon hearing the toilet flush-signaling an end to the reading session-the flames rising from behind the restroom stall door immediately disappear. Also, a fellow bus passenger dozes off and rests her head on the shoulder of the woman with the Heat-induced flaming head. The slumbering passenger has nary a flame on her while the Heat-reading woman is fully aglow. And the sight of flames seemingly rising from a water-filled tub is in and of itself visually captivating.
The four-day shoot-directed by Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films, London-entailed first filming the characters in position. Mannequins and a specially trained stuntman, wearing a fire retardant suit and protective equipment, were then lensed on fire going through the same motions. The camera lens distances were all precisely measured to ensure that the filming of action sequences matched the model/actors to the mannequin or stuntman footage. The stuntman was Lee Sheward. The cameraman was Alex Melman.
Further work in postproduction involved modifying the final picture using the Flame (no pun intended) at London facility The Mill. The mono-monikered Barnsley from The Mill served as Flame operator, colorist, online editor and artist. Editor was Jim Weedon of The Whitehouse, London. James Saunders and Nick Angell of Angell Sounds, London, were the audio mixers. Original music and sound by composers/sound designers Nick Amour and Andy Carroll of Amber Music, London, complemented an existing music track.
BBH’s creative ensemble consisted of executive creative director Bruce Crouch, art director Adrian Rossi, copywriter Alex Grieve and agency producer Jeremy Smith. Producing for RSA Films was Kai-Lu Hsiung. The national spot broke Feb. 29 in the U.K.
“Memoir of a Snail” Takes Top Prize At London Film Festival
The Official Competition jury said: “Our jury was incredibly moved by Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which is a singular achievement in filmmaking. Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can. The jury is delighted to recognize an animated film alongside its live-action peers.”
Rounding out the winners of this year’s films screening In Competition are:
- Winner of the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition – On Falling (Dir. Laura Carreira)
- Winner of the Grierson Award in the Documentary Competition – Mother Vera (Dirs. Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson)
- Winner of the Short Film Award in the Short Film Competition – Vibrations from Gaza (Dir. Rehab Nazzal)