Laptop computers equipped with Intel Centrino mobile technology put digital entertainment right in your lap. That’s the message ingeniously conveyed in “Cleese Hawk Seal.” Created by McCann Erickson, New York, the :30 spot finds Monty Python‘s John Cleese, skateboarder Tony Hawk and singer Seal sitting on the laps of consumers and, in doing so, serving as a metaphor for the entertainment one can get out of a laptop with Intel Centrino mobile technology built in: While Cleese represents movies, Hawk symbolizes games, and Seal stands for music.
Tom Bagot, who worked on the commercial (one of a three-spot campaign) with fellow McCann executive creative director Bill Oberlander, credited associate creative directors Gail Barlow and Sasha Shor, a copywriter and art director, respectively, with thinking up a concept that stands out in an environment where “everybody–whether they make cell phones or iPods–is promising entertainment everywhere.” With so many other advertisers out there pushing the same message, it was particularly vital that McCann come up with something visually unique for Intel, Bagot added.
You certainly can’t help but be intrigued by the visual we see at the outset of this Intel spot: Cleese perched on a man’s lap as he sits on a commuter train. In addition to Cleese, Hawk and Seal, actress Lucy Liu, soccer player Michael Owen and martial arts star Tony Hong appear in the other spots in the campaign. What criteria did McCann use in selecting the celebrities? According to Oberlander, each person not only had to represent a particular entertainment arena, he or she also had to be universally recognized because the spots are being aired internationally.
Dante Ariola of bicoastal MJZ was selected to direct the commercials. “When we found out that he was available and wanted to do the spots, we were very pleased,” shared McCann executive producer/deputy head of production Jonathan Shipman, pointing out that the project required a director who could not only shoot beautiful film but would also resist the temptation to complicate a simple premise. Ariola wasn’t available for an interview at press time, by the way, as he was off in the Sahara shooting.
CELEBRITY SHUFFLE
While the thinking behind “Cleese Hawk Seal” as well as the other two spots was straightforward and simple, the shoot itself, which took place over four days this past August, was anything but. McCann not only had to get three spots made during that timeframe, but also had to shoot print ads simultaneously to take advantage of the limited availability of each celebrity. “It was incredibly challenging,” Shipman said, “and the real challenge from a producer’s perspective was trying to find that balance between making sure we had enough time to get the film but also making sure that we paid enough attention to the print so that it had equal priority.”
To ensure that everything went along in an orderly, efficient fashion, there were extensive preproduction discussions. Shipman and his crew essentially worked it out so that Ariola and his DP Toby Irwin would shoot first, then dismantle their lighting set-up so that still photographer Danielle Levitt and her team could light the space to their specifications, then shoot the images they needed to get.
It was hectic, but the process went smoothly as Ariola and his crew and Levitt and her crew moved from place to place. Seal’s portion of the spot was shot in the lobby of a Los Angeles office building dressed to look like a hotel lobby. Hawk’s segment, which was set in a Paris café, was shot on a set built at Universal Stages, Universal City, Calif. Cleese’s portion of the spot was shot at the most unusual–not to mention uncomfortable–location. “We shot John in a hot train car sitting in the middle of a parking lot at Ontario Airport outside of L.A. It was 90 degree weather, with no fans or air conditioning, and John was wearing a wool Saville Row suit with a derby,” Oberlander recalled, noting that Cleese was a good sport about the situation. “He never once said, ‘This is ridiculous,’ or ‘I’ve come too far in my career to put up with this sort of thing.’ He was just a pro from beginning to end.”
Once the shoot was completed, editor Charlie Johnston of Lost Planet, New York, got to work cutting “Cleese Hawk Seal” (he also edited the other spots in the campaign). Johnston noted that he had actually been involved with the project early on in the process–the agency included him in preproduction meetings. “When we hit the ground, everybody wanted to be on the same page,” Johnston said.
Still, there were challenges in the edit. “We knew we had to get three celebrities into the spot and had to convey the metaphor with each one of them, so the first challenge was, ‘How is it all going to fit?’ ” Johnston said.
There was also the matter of determining the order of the celebrities. “We tried opening the spot with Seal,” Johnston said, “but we realized that he was so powerful [he should wrap up the spot].”
If Seal makes a memorable onscreen impression, you should have seen–and heard–him perform in person, Oberlander enthused. “He was so amazingly electrifying that I had to call all my friends and just have them hear him sing over my cell phone,” Oberlander related. “He could sing ‘Mary Has A Little Lamb,’ and everybody would get goose bumps.”
While Seal provided his own music, Andrew Sherman and Judson Crane of Fluid, New York, composed the burst of filmic music you hear during Cleese’s segment as well as the French café style music heard during Hawk’s and the surge of music over the logo treatment that concludes the spot. Meanwhile, Fluid’s Fred Szymanski handled the sound design.
This may sound like a trivial question, but how did Ariola and crew place a celebrity on a person’s lap? After all, one might get a bit uncomfortable with Hawk perched on their legs for an hour. Actually, it really was a concern, Shipman said, noting, “When we were first talking to John Cleese on the phone, he said, ‘I’m a big guy. I weigh two hundred-plus pounds. How are you going to put me in somebody’s lap?’ “
Ultimately, a cleverly concealed rig was constructed, and the celebrity sat on that as opposed to a lap. “If Seal had been sitting on that woman’s lap, she’d be dead by now,” Shipman said laughing. “He’s a pretty big guy.”