The long arm of the law has been substantially extended by computer technology—a point that is cleverly demonstrated in a :60 Hewlett-Packard (HP) spot created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and directed by Fredrik Bond of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ).
"Digital Crime Fighting" is set in Paris during the wee hours of a gray winter morning. A light snow is falling as the spot opens on a shot of a restaurant window from outside. Cut to inside the restaurant, where we see a man in a suit (played by Gilles Masson) sitting at a table, speaking excitedly to two other men (Jean Marc Herouin and Grigori Manoukov) in French. Before we get a sense of what the man is talking about, an arrow-shaped cursor—just like the one you’d see on a computer screen—suddenly darts into frame, swoops behind the well-dressed man and roughly lifts him up by the collar. It yanks him away from the table and tosses him to the floor as his two associates look on, dumbfounded.
The cursor latches onto the guy again and heaves him through a set of double doors, which burst open. The stunned man spills into a courtyard, then gets picked up again and dragged down a narrow street. He waves his arms helplessly as he tries to find his footing. A bewildered young couple looks on as the guy is pulled over their car. All the while, a melancholic orchestral track plays in the background.
So, where is this guy being taken? As it turns out, his ultimate destination is a paddy wagon. Two cops hold the doors to the vehicle open as he approaches. The cursor lifts him a few feet off the ground and deposits him in the back of the vehicle. The cops slam the doors shut, and a voiceover explains, "Using HP mobile technology to get information quickly and easily, the world’s police forces now fight crime digitally." Meanwhile, a series of supers appear on the screen over the scene. Strung together, they read, "crime fighters + hp = everything is possible." The spot concludes with a black screen on which the HP logo and the word "invent" are superimposed.
AN ARRESTING IDEA
While the concept was there from the start, Goodby copywriter Matt Elhardt—who created the spot with art director Joel Clement under the supervision of creative directors Steve Simpson and Steve Luker—credits Bond with fine-tuning the idea. "Fredrik wrote a two-page treatment—if I remember right—and he thought it would be cool to make these guys French criminals," Elhardt said. "[His idea] gave us a unique spot. These are not the clichéd criminals we normally see." According to Elhardt, the original script was purposely vague about the background of these baddies, allowing the agency to see what input a director might have.
We never do find out exactly what these ne’er-do-wells were up to, but Bond did concoct a back-story for himself. According to the director, the three guys are sitting in the restaurant talking about a heist—perhaps the theft of some valuable art—they’ve just pulled off, and the man collared by the cursor is the brains behind the operation.
The criminals are played by three actors that Bond cast in Paris. The spot was not shot on location in Paris, however, but on a set at London’s Pinewood Studios. According to Elhardt, the indoor set worked out better because Bond "was going for a certain look—basically, just before the sun comes up—and if we shot outside, we would have had about an hour every day to shoot if we wanted that light."
Production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski constructed an amazingly convincing facsimile of the narrow side streets of Paris in about two weeks, and then Bond, DP John Lynch and the rest of the crew spent three long days shooting. The actor who played the criminal captured by the cursor did much of the stunt work himself. To achieve the cursor-dragged look, he was attached to a cable that pulled him about like a rag doll.
In the ad, the criminal’s trip from the restaurant to the paddy wagon is conducted at a leisurely pace, as if the cursor is in no rush. "Originally, we had planned for him to go much faster," Bond shared, "but when we saw how it played in the camera as we rehearsed, it became too much action and less mystery and intrigue. So we slowed it down about ninety percent."
"Digital Crime Fighting" was filmed with the visual effects crew in mind: Cedric Nicolas, who served as visual effects supervisor for Method, Santa Monica, was actually on the set to make sure that he would get the plates that were needed to cover the rigging in post. Having Nicolas on hand "was hugely helpful," Bond said. "It is tricky to figure that out when you’re not sitting using the Flame every day."
PIECING IT TOGETHER
Upon completion of the shoot, Bond did a first cut of the spot with editor Angus Wall of Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles. Elhardt noted it was the quickest edit he’d ever taken part in.
The edit may have been fast, but animating the cursor was a time-consuming process because there was debate over how the cursor should look and move. "The hardest part was getting that cursor down," Luker recalled. "We went around and around on the personality of the cursor, and it ended up being a lot more darting and aggressive than it originally was, and that was funny. When you see it in the first scene, it sort of sneaks around them, then swoops like a bird."
The spot certainly has comedic elements: the criminal’s journey to the paddy wagon has him doing what looks like a drunken dance. But the music accompanying the spot has a somber feel. Composer Jason Johnson of music and sound design shop stimmüng, Santa Monica, said that when he and Bond discussed what kind of music would suit the spot, "We both agreed that the goal was to evoke sympathy for the lead character."
Johnson composed what he described as "a straightforward, sad kind of European mafia music." His composition was brought to life by a live orchestra featuring a chamber-sized string section, a solo violin and bassoon and castanets that punctuate the action. The track is complemented by the subtle sound design of stimmüng’s Reinhard Denke.
Ultimately, the visuals, music and sound combine to form an engaging spot that plays like a scene from a foreign film. Elhardt said the agency wanted Bond to do the job because he would give the commercial a cinematic feel without making it look like a Hollywood flick.
In turn, Bond said he couldn’t pass up the chance to bring this smart, original spot to life. "It had an intriguing setup," Bond praised, "and a good payoff that wasn’t foreshadowed."
