Actor Craig Robinson is best known for his role on The Office. Now he’s starring alongside the new Volvo C30 hatchback in an online comedy series developed and produced by Euro RSCG 4D, New York, MSN, Reveille Productions, Los Angeles, and Drama 3-4, Los Angeles. Audiences can watch the humorous story of competition called Mr. Robinson’s Driving School, unfold over a period of 14 weeks through Nov. 30 at www.drivingschool.msn.com.
In the series, directed by Brice Beckham and David Fickas of Drama 3-4, Mr. Robinson owns and manages a small driving school and is offered an opportunity to take over a much larger driving franchise as its owner retires, but only if he can defeat his arch-nemesis, “Swervin” Merv Lehrman, in a series of challenges–the trials and tribulations of which are chronicled in the series. To give himself a competitive edge, Robinson buys the Volvo C30, which he fondly names Sheila. Among the episodes to air so far are the Freeway Challenge, Salesmanship Challenge, Parallel Parking Challenge and the Change a Tire Challenge.
Since the Volvo C30 hatchback is a vehicle intended for a younger driver than the traditional Volvo car, Volvo wanted to create an engaging experience for the consumer. “We knew digital would be a key player over other media because that’s where the target was,” explained Anna Papadopoulos, interactive media director at Euro RSCG 4D. “Since we had a long-standing partnership with Microsoft and the company had just entered into an exclusive partnership with Reveille (producers of Ugly Betty and The Office), we knew this was an opportunity we wanted to explore. It started to all come together from there. “
Papadopoulos said that Volvo has had a long-term commitment to emerging media platforms, including the first “custom solution” branded content package ever to run on MSN. That effort, called Digital Garage, appeared on MSN Autos in 2001. “However, this has been by far the most unique custom-solution program we have done with MSN and the first to fully integrate product. Unlike television, Volvo and Euro RSCG 4D were able to be part of the show’s development from inception–this has definitely been a soup-to-nuts experience,” she said, addeing that the humor and engagement of the program is right on target. “This wasn’t amateur hour. With all their recent success, Reveille and Craig Robinson provided an accomplished, recognized name to the program. Viewers had a context in which to view the program and understanding of the caliber of humor and professionalism they could expect.”
She pointed out that millions of people have already visited the site and spent several minutes watching the series, taking a virtual driving lesson, sending messages to their friends from Mr. Robinson and opting in to win the new C30. Integrated placements on MSN’s homepage drive traffic to the site.
Production efficiencies
The production team took advantage of the efficiency that digital techonology affords. They shot with a Panasonic HVX, which uses P2 cards. (The Panasonic P2 series was primarily developed for the news gathering industry to acquire and distribute quickly and efficiently without the limitations associated with videotape.)
“These guys were sliding the P2 cards out of the cameras straight into Macs that were sitting on set and they were starting to cut right away. The tremendous amount of efficiency that digital technology affords also fits with the web because even though it’s nice to have some great sponsorship of the program, ultimately you are still not getting anywhere close to what episodic television usually pays for stuff on the air,” said Jared Tobman, one of the executive producers.
It was also more cost effective for the team to shoot driving scenes for multiple episodes in one afternoon on a green screen stage rather than the more movie style approach they took shooting the pilot, which involved a process trailer, car rigs, blocking off streets and hiring police officers, etc.
Fickas pointed out that shooting on the green screen stage also enhanced the actors’ performances. “One of the things we really wanted to do was take advantage of the green screen and be able to control the comedy a little bit more by shooting it on a sound stage. By letting the green screen and the effects take care of our car stuff, Craig could improvise more and we could be a little bit looser than if we were having to deal with traffic, blocking off streets and car rigs. There’s just another element to that.”
He pointed out that he and Beckham also went to see Robinson’s live comedy show before they met him to get a sense of his comedy outside of his work on The Office. “It was so awesome for us to see how musically driven he was. It really fed Brice and I to write stuff that was specific for him–to set him up and really kind of let him go. Everyone felt that Craig has this warm and loveable sympathetic personality. That was exactly what Volvo was looking for in the star of its show to co-star with its car,” said Fickas.
Beckham admitted it took a couple tries to strike the balance between writing a compelling narrative arc and something more quick hitting that is better suited for the Internet. “I think the biggest challenge specific to the web is creating short episodic content–that as MSN would say, people like to snack on–that works as a standalone but also tells a story over the course of 16 episodes. We had to satisfy people who are looking for one snack but also satisfy people who want to come back and keep eating,” added Tobman.
Volvo was definitely satisfied with the results, and that was rewarding for everyone involved in the production. “This experience has been contrary to most creative people’s fears of partnering with a brand and having your creative content sponsored. They gave us the creative freedom to create a world and they provided us with an essential character in that world and then let us run with that,” Fickas said.
“It’s been a dream partnership as far as we are concerned. It’s not at all the relationship that people fear when they think that an advertiser is going to get involved with their project and take it over.”
