To support the January launch of Cadbury Trebor Bassett’s Trident Soft and Trident Splash in the UK, AKQA/London and Bikini Films/London created Trident Factory, a 4:50 film that tells the story of the brands in an amusing way, a light hearted mockumentary that studies the mastication process and the roots of pleasure.
“It’s all about pleasure, so we crafted a story about the whole gum manufacturing process and how they would go about making the gum pleasurable,” said Colin Byrne, associate creative director at AKQA. “We didn’t want to present just another brand site, so we came up with the idea of presenting a corporate DVD, a film you’d see if you were a new employee.”
The film uses animation to show the mastication lobe, a fictitious part of the brain that derives pleasure from chewing. Then it uses laboratory scenes to show how the two gums are made, with a Himalayan Blue kneading kitten kneading individual sticks of Trident Soft, and state-of-the-art fusing technology and fruit recognition software used to develop the fruity flavors of Trident Splash.
The film was shot at the Truman Brewery in London, a former brewery that is now a studio and event space.
Andy Leahy, producer at Bikini Films, said the movie was shot with a Panasonic VariCam at 24p HD, for a “filmic look.” He said the film can be viewed full screen at the site, “so we needed to deliver something with a nice look.” He also said the camera is adaptable to different lighting conditions, which assisted him on the job “because we couldn’t spend a lot of time lighting sets.”
Traditional gums are minty and freshen breath, but Trident’s new flavors are soft and fruity, Byrne said. “Trident had a good story to tell, pleasurable gums are quite a revolution.” Trident Factory tells the story in a way that will make viewers laugh as they chew.
A short version of the film can be seen here by clicking SHOOT’s video link below and the full film plays at www.tridentgum.co.uk.
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