Thierry Poiraud via Paranoid Paris (he is also repped by Independent Films, London), directed this spot for Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the company responsible for managing the French national railway network. Charged with promoting RFF and its ongoing modernization of the rail network, the commercial will air on terrestrial and cable/satellite channels and is already proving to be a hit online.
Although the film was shot traditionally using ARRI Alexa cameras, Poiraud employed a variety of techniques including model making and 3D animation to create a world that marries real life and the magic of miniature railway. With an up tempo score by Metronomy, this 45-second spot takes the viewer on a whimsical and exciting journey across France that captures the full scale of RFF’s day to day operations.
We see the role the RFF plays in people’s everyday lives, transporting them as well as products along the railway network–with the occasional intervention of a giant human hand that modernizes the railway infrastructure as it continues going about its daily business.
A voiceover relates the slogan, “Building tomorrow’s network while running today’s.” An end tag carrying the RFF logo also contains the message, “Tomorrow on track today.”
Poiraud observed that working on the RFF film “reminded me of shooting my first animated films when I was a kid. We shot all over France for a month at locations I’d heard of but never visited using only a small crew. After the shoot, we recreated most of the locations as small-scale models, which my son is now playing with at home and I had the chance to put Sergio Leon’s comment that Cinemascope was invented to shoot trains into practice.”
“Captain America: Brave New World” Tops Weak Weekend At The Box Office
"Captain America: Brave New World" kept falling but still hovered above all others at a weak weekend box office.
The latest Disney-Marvel offering brought in another $15 million according to studio estimates Sunday, when most of Hollywood's attention was on the Oscars.
The Anthony Mackie-led "Captain America: Brave New World" opened strong at about $120 million on a three-day weekend last month, but plunged to $28.2 million last week in one of the most significant second-week drops for a Marvel movie. It's earned $163.7 since its release.
It was slammed by many critics and audiences, failing to bring the Marvel reset some had hoped for. That task now falls to May's "Thunderbolts" and July's "Fantastic Four: First Steps." But "Captain America" will face little competition through March, and could remain at No. 1 for a while.
The weekend's only significant new release, Focus Features' "Last Breath," earned just $7.8 million. The based-on-a-true-story adventure starring Woody Harrelson, Simi Liu and Chris Lemons is about a routine deep-sea diving mission that goes terribly wrong when a young diver is stranded some 300 feet below the surface.
It got strong reviews, with Lindsey Bahr of The Associated Press praising the "white-knuckle experience" and "pure suspense and anxiety" it brings.
At No. 3 was Oz Perkins' "The Monkey," which brought in $6.4 million for a two-week total of $24.6 million. It's among the strongest openings for indie distributor Neon, whose film "Anora," and its director Sean Baker could make a major mark at the Oscars later Sunday.
"The Monkey" marks another successful low-budget collaboration between Perkins and Neon, whose "Longlegs" brought in $126.9 million globally last year.
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