You’re not supposed to wake up a sleepwalker. But what about if he or she is "sleep driving?" And what if that person runs out of gasoline in the middle of his or her dream?
Those questions are tongue-in-cheek offshoots from the humorous premise behind a Lexus spec spot, "REM," conceived by art director Robert Prins and copywriter Jeff Spiegel of Team One Advertising, the El Segundo, Calif.-based agency for Lexus.
The :30 opens on a bedroom in the middle of the night. A couple is sleeping peacefully—or so it seems, until the camera closes in on a man in the throes of rapid eye movement. A quick cut takes us into his dream as we see a Lexus zipping along a thoroughfare. Back in slumber land, the man’s body is being put through the paces as well, zipping along the bedroom floor, going halfway up a wall and circling around the table. He’s still asleep. We return to the car, which continues its impressive road-handling performance. The spot then takes us back to the bedroom, where the man’s wall-hugging performance defies gravity. He’s seen zipping up the walls and across the ceiling. His faithful dog bears witness to the feat; the man’s wife remains in a deep sleep.
But Newton’s law kicks in when we hear the Lexus miss on a cylinder and a shot of the dashboard reveals that the fuel gauge has hit "empty." The man too has stopped, precariously perched on the ceiling. The inevitable happens when he falls hard on the bedroom floor.
A voiceover relates, "You never quite turn it off. The 300 horsepower Lexus GS." Supered across the screen is Lexus’ longstanding slogan, "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection." The spot then cuts back to the bedroom where the man, bewildered by what has just happened, sits up on the floor.
Prins and Spiegel came up with the concept about a year ago; it was presented to the client and turned down because, explained Spiegel, the ad wasn’t in line with the thrust of the Lexus campaign at that time. But when up-and-coming car helmer Scott Gillen, who recently joined bicoastal Coppos Films (SHOOT, 11/19/99, p. 7), began looking for spec work to enhance his reel, Prins and Spiegel turned him on to "REM." "A lot of times, new directors will wind up creating their own spec spots, which is a big mistake," opined Prins. "Most creative teams have a backlog of good stuff, and when we saw Scott’s work—particularly an Audi spot with compositing—we thought he might be right for this concept."
Creatively ambitious and elaborate, "REM" entailed the construction of a room on a gimbal. As the room rotated, the "sleepdriver" would move. That movement would be captured frame by frame via painstaking stop-motion photography. Gillen said that the eight-second sequence in which the man was on the ceiling took more than five hours to film. "The job should have ideally employed motion control, but with the budget restraints of a spec piece, we had to go with a less costly alternative," explained Gillen. "The actor had to remain in place for each frame, and then was advanced inch by inch from one frame to the next." Separate plates of the man’s wife and dog were also created and later composited into certain scenes.
Coppos Films invested in the project, signaling its commitment to Gillen’s career development. "We knew Scott had the talent," related Coppos’ executive producer Michael Appel. "We felt his reel needed more conceptual work, some humanity. This project had all that—plus it involved some of the industry’s top creatives. For us, the investment was justified because it showcases Scott’s range. I was able to see firsthand his command on the set, and that he works so well with agency creatives. This doesn’t look like a spec spot."
"This had the give-and-take of a real job," Spiegel concurred. "If this were a real spot that was set to air, I’m not sure there’s a lot we would have done differently." He and Prins plan to show the finished spot to the powers that be at the agency and client levels, hoping to gain some air time.
Gillen said that the chance to work with Prins and Spiegel was made possible by the Coppos studio, which "undertook a huge expense. I’m gratified that the company made this kind of investment in me."
Coppos Films’ contingent on the job included Appel, live action producer Rick Days and visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack. DP was Joe Grasso.
Paul Martinez edited for bicoastal Lost Planet, backed by executive producer Janell Brown. Post Logic, Santa Monica, had a trio of artisans on the spot: visual effects artist/compositor Ricardo Torres, colorist Chris Devlin and producer Megan Dahlman. Composer/ sound designer/audio mixer was Tom Page of Decibel Architects, Los Angeles. Assisting him with the mix was freelance audio engineer Ted Blaisdell. Renee Page served as executive producer for Decibel Architects.
