Being a hit man isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. There are new found financial responsibilities which were never covered in the Mario Puzo books.
Consider this cinema trailer/TV spot, “Mobster,” in which a young, gun-wielding hit man is putting the screws to a guy who presumably hasn’t paid his friendly loan shark.
“Three days. You get three days or you end up like Paco,” warns the mobster. A bloody Paco is lying dead, face down on the kitchen table, next to the guy being threatened by the hit man.
Additionally, the mobster has a baseball bat-carrying colleague who puts the lumber through a nearby TV set screen.
“Got it,” says the man at the receiving end of this intimidation. “But you didn’t have to smash the TV.”
“I was trying to make a point,” explains the bat man.
“Yeah, well you’re going to have to pay for that.”
The hit man chimes in angrily, “I don’t pay for nothing. It’s a movie. Nobody pays for anything in the movies. You smash things up and walk away. That’s the way it is.”
The supposed victim now takes the offensive. “What do you think happens– a little fairy comes in and cleans up your mess.”
Suddenly Paco wakes up from the dead, adding that the mobsters are going to have to buy him a new shirt since the one he’s wearing has blood all over it.
“This isn’t even your stuff,” says the gun-toting hit man. “It’s props and wardrobe.”
Exasperated, the hit man walks away, muttering the parting line, “I’m pissed.”
A supered message appears which reads, “If life were like the movies, you wouldn’t need Visa.”
Visa is then identified as the official credit card of the Toronto International Film Festival (the weeklong-plus fest had ended at press time.).
“Mobster” is one of two trailers/TV spots that promoted Visa’s sponsorship of the film festival. The other, “Sniper,” is similarly themed when a rooftop sniper successfully shoots and apparently kills a man in a building across the way. But just seconds later, the supposed victim is standing alongside the sniper, telling him that he will have to pay for the window shattered by the bullet, as well as new clothes since his are now blood stained.
Tim Godsall of untitled, Toronto, directed the two-spot package for Leo Burnett, Toronto. (Godsall is repped in the U.S. via Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.) James Davis executive produced for untitled, with Tom Evelyn serving as producer. The DP was Tico Poulakakis.
The Burnett creative ensemble included chief creative officer/copywriter Judy John, creative group head/art director Israel Diaz and producer Karen Peterman.
Editor was Chris van Dyke of School Editing, Toronto. Online edit facility was AXYZ, Toronto. Colorist was Elaine Ford of Notch, Toronto. Audio post mixer was Mike Rowland of Wanted Post-Production, Toronto. Music was done by The Hive, Toronto.
Principal actors in “Mobster” were Wesley French, Tony Cianchino and Sevag Sagherian.
