Good Run, a 3:45 online film is the viral portion of the integrated marketing campaign “Life’s Better with a Boat” for Discover Boating, a public awareness initiative managed by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) for the North American recreational boating industry. The film focuses on an older man enjoying a private screening of his boating memories, from a boyhood fishing excursion to a recent cruise with his friends.
Many of the clips, which span a lifetime, look like old footage, but the entire piece was shot in early January at Lake Casitas in Ventura, Calif. “It was all original footage on multiple cameras and film formats,” said Joe Grundhoefer, director of broadcast production for Carmichael Lynch/Minneapolis, the agency that created the film, working with Independent Media Inc./Santa Monica, Calif. and director Wally Pfister (Academy Award nominated cinematographer for Batman Begins, The Prestige). “It was shot in 35, 16, 8mm and video, so we could touch on all the time frames,” he said.
“It couldn’t be stock because it needed to be true cast for all the ages of the gentleman and his family,” Grundhoefer said. The main character and others who represent him as a younger man appear in the video. “We cast for the principal man and built the other actors around him,” said Susanne Preissler, executive producer at Independent Media. “You look for people who have similar bone structure and eye color. The director carefully watched the details of the older actor and incorporated them into the other actors’ performances.”
A 35mm camera was used to shoot the man in the screening room and other scenes that demanded a “smoother, warmer look,” Grundhoefer said. Scenes from childhood and a wedding scene used 16mm to provide an older rougher look. Video was used near the end of the piece for a more contemporary look.
The sound track is A Sleepless Sailor, a vocal track by Kate Rusby, which provides a warm tone throughout.
“We decided to add viral marketing to the mix,” said Carl Blackwell, VP of marketing and communications for the NMMA. “It’s a low cost, high impact tactic that allows us to tell more of a story than a :30 or print ad. This piece captures the life of a life long boater for a campaign that sells the lifestyle.”
The video runs at www.Discoverboating.com, mainstream consumer sites including YouTube, Yahoo Video and MySpace, and boat manufacturer sites, including www.hellieryachts.com. The campaign is slated to run through Memorial Day. Integrated marketing aspects include print, cable, web banners and sponsorship of the online Web cast of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
A General Motors logo appears at the end of the video. “GM is one of the largest engine manufacturers in the boating industry,” Blackwell said. “They saw the concept and fell in love with it and offered to underwrite the production costs.”
DGA Award Nominees Set For TV, Documentaries and Commercials
The Directors Guild of America has unveiled the nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Commercials and Documentary for 2024. The winners will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Garnering multiple nods in their respective categories of Dramatic Series, Comedy Series and Movies for TV/Limited Series were, respectively, Shogun, The Bear and The Penguin. Three of the five nominations in Dramatic Series went to Shogun--Hiromi Kamata for the “Ladies of the Willow World Episode,” Frederick E.O. Toye for “Crimson Sky” and Jonathan van Tulleken for “Anjin.” The other two nods were garnered by Alex Graves for The Diplomat episode “Dreadnought” and Issa Lopez for the “Part 6” installment of True Detective, Night Country. The Bear also took three out of five nominations, in the Comedy Series category: Directors Ayo Edebiri for the “Napkins” episode, Duccio Fabbri for “Doors,” and Christopher Storer for “Tomorrow.” The other two Comedy Series nods went to Lucia Aniello for the Hacks episode “Bulletproof” and Jeff Schaffer for the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode “No Lessons Learned.” And garnering three of the five nods in Movies For Television and Limited Series was The Penguin: Directors Kevin Bray for “Top Hat,” Jennifer Getzinger for “A Great or Little Thing” and Helen Shaver for “Cent’anni.” Rounding out the category were nominationns for Alfonso Curaon on the strength of Disclaimer, and Steven Zaillian for Ripley. Nominated in the Documentary category were Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev for... Read More