“What’s the deal?” the tagline of Comcast’s new campaign to promote its TV, phone and Internet bundle, is expressed in a series of TV :30s by two Canadian actors who get into a variety of humorous situations that are, well, too crazy for them to deal with.
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and bicoastal Anonymous Content, the agency and production company behind the campaign, expanded the TV effort with “Duet,” a three-minute webisode in which the two sing a karaoke version of Air Supply’s “Out of Love” on an old stage, interspersed with stock footage that mocks their vocal efforts.
“It’s a goofy duet with the two guys singing it,” said Nick Spahr, Goodby’s art director, who traveled to Vancouver for the shoot. “We conceived the set design with reference to old videos from the ’80s, we built the sound stage and shot them with one big camera movement across the stage.”
Jeff Baron, the executive producer from Anonymous, said the singers and the three accompanying musicians were shot live with a 35mm camera, rotating star filter and an uncoated lens. The stock footage was added by shooting all the action in front of a green screen and replacing the green background with the stock footage during post. The soundtrack was recorded during the live shoot and the actors re-recorded it in a studio.
Close-ups and mid range shots of the singers were used, with frequent shots of the three musicians interspersed in the background. The stock footage sequence appears near the end, with discordant shots of a roaring fire, a couple sitting on a couch scratching their dog’s belly and horses galloping across a field. Meanwhile, lyrics of the song appear near the bottom of the screen for the karaoke effect: “I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you.”
The actors who appear in the webisode, David Milchard and Donovan Stinson, are popular from the TV campaign, and the webisode also appears on their MySpace page. “The long form webisode goes deeper and gives the guys more personality,” Spahr said. “Viewers get to know the guys, it gives them more to play with. And it gives the campaign life outside of the TV commercials.”
The humorous webisode plays at http://www.whatsthedealwithussingingthisduet.com and will be posted at YouTube this week, Spahr said.
Director Hans Emanuel Joins Caviar For Commercials and Music Videos
Production company Caviar has signed director Hans Emanuel for U.S. commercial and music video representation. The film and advertising director fuses his keen--and Berlinale Film Festival Award-winning--eye for cinematic storytelling with a commercial background across multiple genres including beauty, automotive, dance, and visual effects-heavy projects, to produce creative for clients like Kia, Nivea, Nissan, L’Oreal, BMW and more.
Caviar executive producer Salim El Arja noted, “Hans has a unique ability to blend stunning visuals with heart and humor, rooted in his confidence as a craftsman. This allows him to focus on drawing exceptional performances from actors--including celebrities--and crafting films that are not only visually striking but also deeply engaging and often hilariously comedic. His sensibilities align perfectly with Caviar’s vision, and we’re excited to collaborate with him on work that pushes creative boundaries.”
Emanuel added, “Caviar is a renowned name, certainly since I began my career. They have a solid reputation for quality work, and I’ve always respected them as a company. Life is about where destiny makes you flow with the people you need; thanks to a series of projects, I was introduced to Florence Jacob with Caviar Paris first, and the rest is history. I feel they can support my career growth with their comedic expertise and filmmaking prowess.”
Prior to joining Caviar, Emanuel had been repped by production house Stadium. He was born and raised in Santa Monica, Calif., to a Mexican-German mother, benefiting from a culturally diversified upbringing that carried through his education interests. Knowing he wanted to be a filmmaker from the start, he began his career in the luxury and beauty field,... Read More