There are not enough hours in the day, weeks in a year, or years in the average lifetime. As the familiar saying goes, life is just too short. But in Hollywood Video’s "Resurrection," a clever new spot created by Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, busy consumers are offered some consolation: Five whole days to watch that DVD they rented.
Clearly, what Hollywood Video is peddling here is that priceless commodity called Time. "Resurrection" takes that notion to the extreme. In the ad, a Hollywood Video clerk brings a dead guy back to life. The spot broke July 9.
Directed by Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks, "Resurrection" begins inside a traditional church where a funeral is underway. Somber music adds to the grave atmosphere, and we see the backs of the gathered mourners who have filled up several rows of pews. An open casket sits before them, and a middle-aged man in a dark suit stands at a podium, delivering a eulogy.
"I would like to say just a few words about my father," the man begins, his voice breaking from emotion. Among the mourners, another gray-haired man—likely the eulogist’s brother—chokes back tears. A young boy observes the scene with a child’s sense of unspoiled innocence. Then an overhead shot of the casket reveals a kind looking elderly man in his final resting place.
"Not only did he live a long life," the eulogist continues, "he lived a rich and full one. He touched the lives…"
Just when you start to think you’re watching the tragic denouement in some movie, a young man strides confidently up the church isle toward the casket. Nonchalant, dry eyed, and clad in a blue chambray Hollywood Video shirt and employee I.D. tag, the man’s arrival is clearly unexpected. The startled eulogist tries in vain to continue speaking, while the funeral party gawks at the stranger, not sure what to make of him.
Meanwhile, the intruder ignores the inquisitive stares and gets on with his task at hand. Standing before the casket, he claps his hands and—surprise!—the dead man wakes with a start, and sits up. Gasps and shrieks can be heard among the crowd, and a young woman collapses amid the calamity.
Cut back to the guy in the casket. Newly resurrected, he looks out from his coffin throne, his expression a study in total confusion. Then the supered tag reads: "We Give You More Time." The screen goes black, and beneath the Hollywood Video logo comes the proof: "5 Days On Every DVD."
To be sure, this correlation between extended life and extended DVD rentals is a bit of a stretch. But it’s also what makes the spot funny. According to agency art director Guy Shelmerdine, the creative team knew the execution had to underscore that dichotomy, which meant the performances had to be convincing right up to the payoff. A cinematic scope and high production value added to the magnitude of the funeral scenario, while also camouflaging the surprise ending. "We really wanted to play it straight [until the end], so there aren’t a lot of gags," Shelmerdine said. "We chose Noam because his film is so beautiful. He does great looking film as well as comedy, and few people can do that. He really nailed the movie-like feel and look of the spot."
"We didn’t have a huge budget, so we were lucky to get Noam," added agency producer Clair Grupp. "[Biscuit] completely turned the spot around. The production value is incredible."
By all counts, casting was critical. The spot features 10 principals and some 85 extras. "We tried not to go for clichés but for what I call cinematic realism: people that are great," Murro said. "The world divides into simple categories, actors and good actors. Like when you watch Gene Hackman, you believe him. But people who can’t cry, can’t cry."
Grupp pointed out that the cast comprises several different types of people. For instance, she said, "The principals had a demeanor that’s more sophisticated. We were going for that Upper East Side Manhattan, Godfather-esque quality."
Then there was the Hollywood Video clerk who deftly wrecks the moment "That was tricky," she noted, "because we wanted him to be cool looking, but not too cool, and he had to be subtle enough that he wouldn’t be too broad in breaking that moment." Grupp also singled out the young boy among the funeral goers, whose childlike gaze adds "an emotional quality" to the spot.
According to Murro, after scouting "a bunch of creepy places," "Resurrection" was filmed on location at Emanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles during "one very, very, very long day." The director’s interest in the project stems from his belief that "morbidity and humor are somewhat connected." He continued: "Part of the attraction was creating something and totally flipping it. It was interesting to create a front, the body of the spot, and to have a very serious take on the funeral, which was very much like The Godfather in that there’s nothing funny about it. The challenge was not so much cinematic," he continued. "That’s relatively easy for me. The hard part was how to get a sense of real drama, and believable performances, so that there’s nothing in it that [gives away the] joke. That was the challenge, a real flip between two colliding moods or tones."
DP Bob Yeoman shot "Resurrection" on 35mm in letterbox style to achieve a greater depth of field. As well, Murro said that minimal lighting was used to create a look that "feels very grand, and at the same time, not too grand."
"It was creepy [on the set]," noted Biscuit executive producer Shawn Lacy Tessaro. "To have someone lying there dead, you know. Noam tried to keep the set not jokey, too, so it really felt like a cinematic event."
The principal task, according to Grupp, involved getting "tons of coverage." If someone really did rise from the dead, she pointed out, the crowd of witnesses would have any number of reactions. "We knew we’d have people cry and scream, but we tried fun things, too, all different approaches, having people laugh and faint. We tested things in casting, and did some on the shoot. And we got different close-ups, and some wider shots, all sort of things to have as many options as possible" in post.
Owen Plotkin of Editing Concepts, New York, cut "Resurrection." "I did my best to keep it from being funny," he said. "But I failed."
In the edit suite, two big decisions had to be made. The first, Shelmerdine reported, had to do with timing. "The beginning and end was easy," he said. "We all agreed that the main thing was the performance of the old guy. The challenge was how much of the Hollywood Video guy to see. We had a cut with less of him, so the funeral could play out longer, but we realized we had to establish him [fairly early on] as a Hollywood Video employee [or it wouldn’t work.]"
Grupp praised the end result. "We all thought it would be fun to see it as a sixty. But it really works as a thirty. The spot really has this flow from one scene to the next, an emotional capturing of snippits, which is a nice way of tying it all together. Our goal was to make it cinematic, and the editing speaks to that."
Also during postproduction, the matter of the score also came into play. The agency had hired a music house to compose an original song, but in the meantime, Plotkin began using a stock orchestral piece during editing, which ended up on the final version. "You know that demo love thing," Grupp said. "We really tried to beat it, but the piece that’s on there really works. We needed it to be a secondary element, something you almost don’t notice. And the [original composition] just stood out too much."
The stock track was written by Tom Borton and Steve Allee, and licensed through Los Angeles Post Music, Los Angeles.
Even thought the commercial deals explicitly with death, overall there seemed to be little concern among the agency and production crews that the spot might come off too dark. Murro, for one, never gave it a second thought. "There’s no such thing as too dark or too funny," he said.
