As line drawn animation unfolds before our eyes to reveal a cityscape, a voiceover poses what sounds like a mathematical problem. “Presume the average minimum temperature during winter is 34.7 degrees fahrenheit, the average rainfall 5.7 inches. Supposing cardboard boxes hae a fiber saturation point of 3.2, how desperate do you have to be to sleep in one?”
The animation of the figures and the cardboard shelter then turns to live action as we see a male teenager huddled under the box.
“Help a kid who has survived life on the street earn a college degree,” relates a voiceover, which is accompanied by a supered Web site address (seattleeducationaccess.org). “Support our scholarship programs.”
The spot is one of two in a package directed by Brian Johnson of Story, Chicago, for advertising trade group Ad2Seattle. Johnson worked on the TV campaign with a team from Seattle animation house Blank Design headed by creative director/art director/illustrator/animator Bobby Hougham.
The creative team at Ad2Seattle consisted of art director/copywriter Charles Noback, art director Andy Durr and copywriter Shannon Mead.
The mathematical word problem approach was designed to initially engage viewers on an intellectual level and set them up to become emotionally involved when the spots switch gears. “By turning the facts in otherwise detached and cold story problems [the other spot discusses hypothermia] into emotional appeals, we struck a chord with our audience,” related Noback. “They weren’t expecting it and that’s ultimately why it works.”
With essentially no budget to speak of, Johnson had to recruit collaborators, such as Hougham, who liked the idea and supported the cause. Furthermore, as a cost-saving measure, Johnson shot the live-action at the end of a day during the production of another commercial project.
Editor was Tony Fulgham of World Famous LLC, Seattle.
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More