Mouse Blazes His Way To Cheese In Digital Domain Production.
CLIENT
Dell Computer Corporation.
PRODUCTION CO.
Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. Fred Raimondi, director/visual effects supervisor; Bojan Bazelli, DP; Ed Ulbrich, executive producer; Holly Port, producer; Mitch Kanner, executive director, commercial marketing. Animal training by Boone’s Animals for Hollywood. Boone Naar, mouse trainer. Shot at Digital Domain.
AGENCY
J. Walter Thompson, Chicago. Dennis Ryan, executive VP/executive creative director; Pam Anderson, art director; Greg Orsekovich, copywriter; Doug Kamp, creative director; Jan Collins, producer.
EDITORIAL
Crazy Horse Editorial, Santa Monica. Steve Svendsen, editor.
POST
Company 3, Santa Monica. Michael Pethel and Stefan Sonnenfeld, colorists; Noel Castley-Wright, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Animatronics by Stan Winston Studios, Van Nuys, Calif. Greg Figiel, art supervisor; Christian Colquhoun, mechanical supervisor; Jon Dawe, mechanical technician; Stewart Artingstall, hair technician; Doug Stewart, painter. Visual effects and models by Digital Domain. Alan Foucher, model-shop supervisor; Rob Nederhorst, 3-D animator; Shannan Burkley, matte painter; Mark Larranga and Sonja Brouchard, freelance compositors.
AUDIO POST
Margarita Mix, Hollywood. Jimmy Hite, mixer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Machine Head, Venice. Chris Neilman, composer/sound designer.
BY KATHY DeSALVO
A new Dell Computer spot out of J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, features a sly mouse who craves cheese, but doesn’t want to navigate the enormous labyrinth maze obstructing his way. The solution? Be direct, which also serves as the tagline for the campaign.
Dell sells direct to consumers and “Be direct” is meant to reflect that. “The main thing we’re trying to do with our brand advertising is to destroy what’s known as `the myth of mail order,’ ” said JWT executive creative director Dennis Ryan, who related that future spots will focus on issues such as Dell’s customer service.
“The other point,” added Ryan, “is that they’re not just direct in how they sell; direct is who they are. [We’re trying to convey] the emotional aspect of being direct: being Gary Cooper-like, forthright, honest. Part of our job is to brand the way they do business and to broaden the definition of direct in consumers’ minds.”
The :30 spot “Maze” broke June 14 and was directed by Fred Raimondi, who also served as visual effects supervisor, through Venice, Calif.-based Digital Domain. The spot not only represents the first Dell branding campaign created by JWT since it won the account last November (San Francisco-based Goldberg Moser O’Neill handles product-specific Dell advertising), but is also the first big-budget spot directed by Raimondi.
It opens as a mouse scurries on a path alongside a wall and stands on his hind legs to peer over it. The camera zeroes in on a hunk of cheese on a pedestal (heroically lit by a light beam). Cut back to a wide shot of the mouse that zooms backward and up to reveal that it’s standing before a massive maze in a gothic cathedral-like setting. “What’s the best way to deal with obstacles?,” the voiceover asks.
Struck by a bright idea, the mouse scurries away again and, in a close-up, looks left and right before striking a match, which he hurls into the maze. “Eliminate them,” the voiceover says, as it cuts to the lit match sailing in the air, followed by a shot of the mouse putting on sunglasses. The match lands and incinerates the maze, as the fire mushrooms out. “That’s why Dell deals direct with every customer. So nothing comes between you and exactly what you want.”
After a close-up of the nose-twitching mouse, whose sunglasses reflect the raging fire, we see an overhead shot in which the mouse surveys the still-smoking burnt-out maze. From the POV behind the mouse, he exhales, causing the charred rubble wall before him to fall down, revealing a clear path to the cheese.
Following a product shot, the voiceover asks, “Got an appetite for success?” as we see a final shot of the mouse, who wickedly raises his eyebrows and peers over his wraparound shades. “Be direct. Dell.”
Serving as director and effects supervisor made Raimondi’s challenges twofold, he noted. “For me,” said Raimondi, “technically, it was a very difficult shoot because there were so many visual effects elements to keep track of and I was playing two parts.”
Raimondi noted some of his ideas, for instance, making the maze the scope of New York’s Grand Central Station–which he’d initially thought to execute by building and shooting a huge 500-foot-deep maze–had to be tempered with more realistic budget considerations, which meant building a 12′ by 12′ maze and using CG to create the surrounding cathedral-like setting.
Raimondi designed the space to resemble a cross between Grand Central Station and the Pyramids and then storyboarded the spot, delineating camera angles for each of the shots.
“I wanted to play off the humanity of the mouse,” said Raimondi, “in the facial expressions, when he looks over the sunglasses, being a wise guy, and the other gag’s when he throws the match over his shoulder.” To learn what real mice can and can’t do, Raimondi bought and studied two mice (named “Ed” for Digital Domain executive producer Ed Ulbrich and “Mitch” for director of commercial marketing Mitch Kanner).
Raimondi then loaded the storyboard into Adobe Premiere to create an animatic. “I essentially had the whole commercial cut before I shot a frame of film,” he said. “I knew exactly what I had to shoot on stage.”
The spot utilized various visual effects, from greenscreen shooting, miniatures, pyrotechnics, CG and animatronics (created by Stan Winston Studios, Van Nuys, Calif., for mouse close-ups; a live mouse is seen in scurrying shots).
Several oversized maze walls were also constructed to match the scale of the 14-inch high animatronic mouse. For the crumbling wall sequence, Raimondi shot several takes of the mouse and the wall falling, separately, against greenscreen. “That way, I could pick the best performance of the mouse and of the wall falling,” he said. “Then I placed the [CG] cheese in the center of the frame, right where that wall fell down.”
Burning the maze presented one of the trickier technical challenges, which was solved by building another 12′ by 12′ maze. They had to match exactly, notes Raimondi, because it goes from one to another in the overhead shot where it burns.
“A guy in our model shop came up with the clever idea to make a stencil of the shape of the maze,” related Raimondi. “And through the holes in the stencil, we forced this Green Dot gunpowder, which burns really fast and is smokeless, and just burnt it up from the center. We composited that fire element over the first maze, and then wiped between the fire and the burnt-out maze.”
Raimondi estimated that his involvement on “Maze” lasted around three months. JWT’s Ryan had previously worked with Raimondi on several DDB Needham Chicago Anheuser-Busch projects, including the :60 Budweiser spot “Clydesdales.” Ryan noted that the director continued to tweak the spot through the post stage–augmenting the mouse’s reaction at spot’s end, for instance. “It was fun to see just how much Fred could bring to the party,” said Ryan.
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DMB&B, St. Louis Dives For Skittles
CLIENT
M&M Mars/Skittles.
PRODUCTION CO.
Big Eye Films, Los Angeles. Buddy Cone, director; Stefan Czapsky, DP; Jonathon Ker, executive producer; Giles Johnson, line producer; Allison Amon, head of commercial production. The Shooting Gallery, Redfern, Australia. Andy Wallis, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
DMB&B, St. Louis. Charlie Claggett, co-managing director/chief creative officer; Ric Anello, executive VP/executive creative director; Carole Christie, group creative director; Ron Crooks, creative director; Catherine Woods, associate creative director/art director; Andy Askren, writer; John Seaton, executive producer; Michele Morris, senior producer.
EDITORIAL
Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles. Sloane Klevin, editor; Jim Sterling, post supervisor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Animal Logic, Sydney, Australia. Zareh Nalbandian, managing director; Emma Ferstl, producer; Andy Brown, visual effects director; Lindsay Fleay, Justin Mettam, Lynne Cartwright and Nigel Haslam, animators; Leoni Willis and Justin Bromley, online compositing; Maryanne Lauric, online compositing assistant. Company 3, Santa Monica. Michael Pethel, colorist. Palomar Pictures. Jim Sterling, post supervisor.
AUDIO POST
RavensWork, Venice, Calif. Robert Feist, engineer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Wojahn Brothers, Santa Monica. Mark Mancina, composer/sound designer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 “Diver,” a teenage Samoan boy pilots his boat to a remote part of the ocean and dives down, deep into the dark water. He’s greeted by a swimming creature that guides him to an enchanted spot on the ocean floor. The boy pulls an amulet from around his neck and drops it into the sand, causing the ground to erupt in light and bubbles. The boy races to the surface, “chased” by a rainbow that explodes into the sky and begins raining Skittles. He climbs back into his boat to collect as many of the Skittles as he can in a basket as they continue to pour from the rainbow.
Spot broke April 27.
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Bob ‘n Sheila’s Drives An Isuzu SUV
CLIENT
American Isuzu Motors.
PRODUCTION CO.
Wild Eye Films, Hollywood. David Briggs, director; Michael Brown, DP; Lawrence Reid, executive producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. Jeff Goodby, creative director; Elisabeth O’Toole, producer; Karin Onsager Birch, art director; Jeff Huggins, copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Bob ‘n Sheila’s Edit World, San Francisco. Ted DePalma, editor; Hank Jenkins, assistant editor; Gina LoCurcio, executive producer.
POST
Western Images, San Francisco. Gary Coates, colorist; Orin Green, Henry artist.
AUDIO POST
Crescendo! Studios, San Francisco. Jay Shilladay, engineer.
MUSIC
Keller & Cohen, Sausalito, Calif. Mark Keller and Jeff Cohen, arrangers.
THE SPOT
Two :30s–“Paint Your Wagon” and “Wandering Star”–feature Isuzu SUVs driving through western landscapes.
Spots broke in May
