Convergence takes on carnal overtones in this humorous cinema :60 promoting Digital Entertainment Network, an Internet outlet that hopes to carve its identity as the embodiment of Silicon Valley meets Hollywood. Conceived by TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, the 2-D animation spot opens on a young, busty Hollywood starlet sitting at a bar with cocktail in hand. She hits on a man who appears to be a tech head and a bit of a geek.
Nonetheless, the opposites attract as the setting changes from the bar to the back of a van—talk about your whirlwind courtship. This couple goes at it with an intensity that makes the saying "If this van is rockin’, don’t bother knockin’" seem like a mild declaration. For example, when the man’s body bangs against the wall, you can see it make an impression on the exterior shell of the van.
This energetic encounter leads nine months later to a hospital delivery room, where the love child of Ms. Hollywood and Mr. Silicon Valley is born. This offspring, however, is a bit unusual. Rather than flesh and blood, it’s the Digital Entertainment Network logo—and it makes a dramatic entrance into the world. The logo shoots out of the womb with such force that it knocks the doctor off his feet.
The spot was directed by Walter Santucci, via Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials, Hollywood. Santucci is known for his notorious "Evil Cat" cartoons, which have appeared in the Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation Festival and Magna Entertainment’s General Chaos Uncensored Animation Tour. The rest of the Class-Key Chew-Po ensemble included animators Ray Smyth and Lynn Walsh, assistant animators Cecilia Laureys and Peter Doan, executive producers John Andrews and Liz Seidman, and producer Nathalie Messmer.
The TBWA/Chiat/Day team consisted of creative director Jeannine Chanin; art director Chuck Monn; copywriter Jeff Maki; director of broadcast Richard O’Neill; producer Cheri Anderson; and assistant producer Barbara Joy Laffey. The storyboard for the spot was illustrated by freelancer Eric Moe, a former TBWA/Chiat/Day staffer.
Sound designer/audio mixer was Brian Boyd of Brian Boyd Productions, West Los Angeles.
