Ground Zero, a Los Angeles agency, bought the distribution rights to Pinky Vodka, a Swedish brand, and began promoting it around Valentine’s Day with a viral video, Cupid, that transforms the arrow slinger myth with a brand related message–since ladies are in love with Pinky Vodka, Cupid’s job is a lot more difficult. The video was produced by Savant Film.
“Fifty-five percent of the market is women, but there aren’t many products geared toward them,” said Court Crandall, executive creative director at Ground Zero. “We launched it around Valentine’s Day so we thought it would be funny to look at Cupid’s life and portray him not as a relaxed cherubic guy, but under duress because he has competition in the market. He has to work harder and faster, like Willy Loman.”
The video is a first person account of Cupid, played by Michael Serrato, who is shown shooting arrows in his golden days before he proclaims, “Today, it’s totally unmanageable because women everywhere are falling in love with Pinky Vodka.” Brief scenes of women drinking Pinky Vodka in a bar follow before Cupid is shown walking the streets, determined to work harder before he returns to his workshop and orders his grandpa to make more arrows.
Carolyn Chen, who directed the video for Savant, said it was lensed in late January in Los Angeles. The indoor scenes were shot in a machine shop to produce “an office, blue collar workday vibe,” and the outdoor scenes were shot in Los Feliz, a trendy area of L.A.
“We created the character and devised some Rube Goldberg devices, like a Gatling gun, a turreted gun he used to shoot arrows,” she said. The next scene shows Cupid in the sky, firing more arrows. “We flew him overhead on some wires and used a special stunt unit that raised him up on a forklift with flying harness wires that we removed in post,” she said.
The one minute thirty-eight second film was shot during one day with a 35mm Arri cam light camera. When asked why a digital camera wasn’t used, Chen said, “All my work is done in film, so it was never considered.”
Chen praised Serrato, who was found through a detailed casting call. “We went to a lot of comedy shops in L.A. and independent comedy troupes and dug deep for someone who could play Cupid. We got a great response.”
She said the goal was “not to make it look like a broad comedy but an intimate portrait of Cupid, which helped the comedy. If we’d tried to be funny with the filmmaking it wouldn’t have been as sweet and intimate.” Crandall said Chen “understood comedy and how to make the product look beautiful in an upscale way.”
The film plays at http://www.pinkyvodka.com and YouTube. Crandall said it was also distributed to an email list of 118,000 women called Billion Dollar Babes.
Denzel Washington, Michael J. Fox and Bono Among Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea Clinton and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation's highest civilian honor in a White House ceremony.
"For the final time as president I have the honor bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor, on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people, who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort, to shape the culture and the cause of America," Biden said in his opening remarks.
"Let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to help this country," Biden said Saturday.
Four medals were awarded posthumously. They went to George W. Romney, who served as both a Michigan governor and secretary of housing and urban development; former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense; and Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Kennedy is father to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health and human services secretary. Biden said, "Bobby is one of my true political heroes. I love and I miss him dearly."
Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of... Read More