“Click,” a :30 for Unilever’s Country Crock that runs online and on TV, combines live-action and motion-control footage to show a sequence of empty and food laden plates that promote the company’s philanthropic effort SpreadtheSharing.com. At the site, consumers are asked to click on an empty plate and contribute their stories of sharing. For each story, Country Crock will make a donation to America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s food bank network.
The spot begins with a live-action shot of empty plates on place mats on a dinner table. It segues into a motion-control sequence of plates that fill up with food at the click of a mouse. The sequence fuses with the Country Crock logo, which was shot live action as the spot concludes.
The spot relied on “gently applied motion control,” according to Alex Fernbach, Owner/Director/Cameraman of ARF & CO/Hoboken, N.J., the production co. that produced the spot for Stone & Simons Advertising/Southfield, Mich. “We built a large platform designed with an initial series of place mats and food. As the camera tilts down to look at the food we matched the first place mat into the matrix of place mats. As the camera tilted up, we added additional place mats and as it tilted down again we made our change into the sea of place mats. We did 40-50 motion control camera passes with empty plates. They were replaced with food at the post house, so food pops up at the click of the mouse.”
Guy Atzmon, designer at rhinofx/New York, explained how the shots of empty plates suddenly had food on them in response to the click. “They shot one pass of empty plates with multiple passes of different food on the plates, and we brought in the food in post. We switched to the take of food on the plates,” he said, explaining that it was a computer-generated image that used the real shots of food. The spot concluded with separate layers of plates that formed the Country Crock logo that transitioned to the actual logo. “It was a computer-generated transition of the logo made of plates to the live-action version,” he said.
Victoria Webb, vice president/account supervisor at Stone & Simons, lauded the production team on the spot. “Country Crock usually runs traditional commercials. This was a tech departure for us and the team was fantastic,” she said. The spot began running at Spreadthesharing.com and YouTube before its April 2 TV launch date.
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