With 2016 about to fully enter our rearview mirror, it’s time for reflection on varied fronts, including assessing what work was among the year’s most worthwhile creatively.
Determining any year’s “best” is a highly subjective proposition so SHOOT staffers looked to at least narrow the field by first culling through two bodies of work, our weekly Top Spots as well as our “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery entries throughout 2016. We then added to the field select pieces of work that might have fallen through the cracks and not earned weekly “Top Spot” or “Best Work” distinction yet which we had covered extensively in other stories during the course of 2016.
We also reviewed our quarterly top Ten Tracks and VFX/Animation charts. We ultimately chose a Top Five from each.
So here are SHOOT’s selections for the Best Work of 2016 divided into Top Spots, The Best Work You May Never See, and our Top Music/Sound Tracks and Top VFX/Animation entries.
Top Spots of the Year
Look no further than our Agency of the Year, McCann New York, to find our selection for the best content in 2016. The fact that our Top Spot for the year wasn’t even a commercial further underscores the new frontiers that are opening in advertising/entertainment content creation. Taking the #1 slot is Lockheed Martin’s “Field Trip To Mars” in which a seamless VR experience on a schoolbus puts students on the otherworldly ride of their lives. (See in-depth coverage of this project in this year-end issue’s Agency of the Year coverage, shedding light on the collaborative effort between McCann and Framestore.)
We return to mainstream high-profile broadcast fare for our number two pick—a Super Bowl spot for Snickers titled “Marilyn,” directed by Jim Jenkins of O Positive for BBDO New York. “Marilyn” takes us back to 1955 (even leveraging the candy bar’s packaging of the 1950s) and features a hungry Marilyn Monroe on the set of the classic film The Seven Year Itch. In the :30, the hungry blonde bombshell transforms into a cranky version of herself, played by actor Willem Dafoe. This latest iteration of “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign also includes Eugene Levy in the role of a stage hand who’s charged with the task of making Marilyn’s dress flap in the wind above a New York City subway grate, an iconic cinema scene.
Taking the year’s third slot is Audi’s “Duel” directed by Ringan Ledwidge of Rattling Stick for agency Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco. The spot tells the story of two hotel parking valets, one male, one female, vying for the chance to get behind the wheel of an Audi RS 7—except that’s not evident at the outset because the action plays out entirely in reverse. The :60 ran during all three Presidential Debate telecasts. Earmarkings of the debate format, political campaign trappings and references are sprinkled throughout the commercial.
Next up in fourth place is a four-minute, off-the-wall perfume ad written and directed by Spike Jonze of MJZ and starring actress Margaret Qualley (the star of HBO’s The Leftovers). Qualley lets loose all inhibitions, dancing, kicking, flailing about, even shooting laser beams out of her fingertips. The short promotes a new perfume from France’s Kenzo brand.
And rounding out our Top Five is a spot which gained Reed Morano inclusion into Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase. Italy’s national organization for people with Down syndrome, CoorDown, teamed up with Saatchi for the fifth consecutive year, this time enlisting the help of the agency’s New York office to create a campaign for World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, 2016. The campaign was manifested through a simple yet powerful online film titled How Do You See Me? that features a girl with Down syndrome named AnnaRose Rubright narrating the life she wants to have, and in this life, she’s played by actress Olivia Wilde. This metaphor is aimed to ignite a conversation around how those living with Down syndrome see themselves and how they are often times disadvantaged when people pre-judge them based on their condition. People with Down syndrome are still too often victims of discrimination. Even more than what is said about them, the way other people look at them is a common indicator of this type of prejudice. Morano directed the online short via Pulse Films.
“Best Work” gallery
There’s a clear public service bent to our best of “The Best Work You May Never See” in 2015. Four of the top five are of the charitable/cause advertising variety, starting with our number one pick, Malak and the Boat, an animated short for UNICEF from agency 180LA, depicting the plight of Syrian refugees, transitioning to live action to show that the tale of a seven-year-old girl named Malak has roots in real life. House of Colors served as the animation studio.
Taking the second slot is the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival’s “Dream” from DDB New York. The short captures the plight of four animals suffering at the hands of humans. Set to a newly recorded version of the classic song “I Dreamed a Dream,” the emotional portrayal begins with animals in their natural habitats singing when their life was good. As the song shifts in tone, the animals continue to sing as they face man-made threats to their lives and the environment. DDB NY worked with animation production company Zombie Studio and music and sound partner Mophonics to bring this piece to life.
Third place goes to a live-action short titled Break the Routine for the U.K.’s National Centre for Domestic Violence and independent charity Victim Support. Directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks for J. Walter Thompson, London, this powerful public service film features a choreographed enactment of domestic abuse. The violent dance finally comes to a halt, underscoring the need for those assaulted to seek out help. On average, high-risk victims live with domestic abuse for more than two years before getting specialized assistance. This public service message aims to get victims to reach out for help sooner.
Our fourth place entry is a departure from the public service discipline. Bret Easton Ellis of production house The Devil You Know wrote and directed this short film, Figaro, for the Paris Opera which was released on its online platform Troisième Scene (Third Stage). In this short, a singer loses his voice during an opera rehearsal. He then loses himself in a night of debauchery featuring heavy alcohol consumption, carnal encounters, even gunplay—all accompanied by music from “The Barber of Seville.” The next morning, after a night of no sleep, our singer staggers and swaggers back to the scene of his embarrassment—only this time delivering in fine voice a virtuoso operatic performance. It’s as if the evening of bad behavior got him to somehow confront his demons—or at least take them out for a spin—and return to his artistic best.
Finishing fifth in our rundown is a short video that’s part of the “Down Syndrome Answers” series featuring people with Down Syndrome responding to parents’ most-asked questions. After all, there’s no one better suited to answer those questions than people living with Down syndrome. Created for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society with the help of agency FCB Canada, our selection is the video which introduces us to Adam who answers the question, “When do babies with Down syndrome learn to talk?”
“Just by casting real people with Down syndrome we start to dispel some misconceptions about the developmental disability,” explained Jeff Hilts, chief creative officer, FCB Canada. “But what will really make this campaign effective is ensuring people find the videos first when they turn to Google looking for answers.”
VFX/Animation
The aforementioned Malak and the Boat tops our 2016 lineup of VFX/Animation Chart entries.
That’s followed by Waitrose’s “Coming Home” directed by Sam Brown of Rogue Films, with VFX/postproduction by The Mill London for agency adam&eveDDB, London. This spot shows us a robin’s migration during the Xmas season. The fully CG bird makes an epic journey across mountains and the sea before finally reaching his home destination where a girl eagerly awaits his annual return. Upon his arrival, the robin is reunited with his companion. They share a festive treat, a Waitrose 1 mince pie, left out for them by the girl as she watches in delight.
Earning third place distinction was BBC Sport’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” promoting its coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Produced by Passion Pictures, this animated piece—set against the backdrop of the luscious Tijuca Rainforest—shows exotic animals preparing for the Games. Jaguars are sprinters, otters are swimmers, alligators are high divers—and their power and grace underscore the athletic prowess of Olympic competitors. These animals gradually transition to the human world over the course of the animation. To the rousing track “Not Gonna Break Me” by British artist Jamie N Commons, we see the sloth take on gymnastics, the armadillo clap its hands in chalk for the clean and jerk, as well as the powerful jaguar crack its neck and line up for the 400m, all before they transform into their heroic and spectacular human athlete counterparts.
Taking the fourth slot is Audi’s “#TheComeback” in which T-Rex, once the most feared predator on the planet, is reduced to a laughing stock when an Internet film captures him unable to make his bed because his arms are too short. The ridicule plummets T-Rex into a crippling identity crisis, making him listless and despondent. That is until a chance encounter with Audi’s piloted driving system revives his lust for life—putting him back in the fast lane and enabling T-Rex to celebrate a comeback. Stephan Wever of Stink directed this film, titled “#TheComeback,” with VFX from Sehsucht Hamburg, for agency Razorfish Germany.
Fifth place goes to the aforementioned “Dream” for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival.
Music/Sound
Number one on our hit parade is the Gatorade short film For The Wind in which WNBA star basketball player Elena Delle Donne talks about her older sister Lizzie who can’t see, speak or hear due to cerebral palsy. Lizzie, though, is Elena’s inspiration, giving her an inner strength. Part of Lizzie’s gift is embodied in her ability to not dwell on what she doesn’t possess but to “celebrate” what she does have. Elena has learned from that as she and Lizzie have a special bond; the two communicate through touch. And one of Lizzie’s great joys is to feel the wind blow across her face. So it’s somehow apropos that Elena was drafted by the professional WNBA franchise Chicago Sky, located in the Windy City. The wind, all it represents and how it makes Lizzie feel, is a big part of this short as we see the two sisters embrace and experience nature’s gusts of beauty. Lance Acord of Park Pictures directed for TBWAChiatDay LA. Contributing to the inspiring feel and vibe of the two-minute film is a soundtrack from Santa Monica, Calif.-based SOUTH Music & Sound Design, with audio post provided by mixer Rohan Young of Lime, Santa Monica.
Taking the second slot was the aforementioned “Dream” for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in which the plight of four animals is underscored by a newly recorded version of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Music/sound/audio post mixing house was Mophonics.
Third place went to United Airlines’ “One Journey, Two Teams,” a Summer Olympics commercial highlighting the carrier’s long-standing relationship with Team USA. Conceived by a creative ensemble at mcgarrybowen, New York, the commercial captures the feeling and emotion of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with real Olympians, actual United employees and a lively interpretation of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” The new arrangement of the iconic song comes compliments of Yessian Music—it’s a musical rendition that stays true to its roots with a dash of Rio thrown in. For more than 35 years, United has been the official airline for Team USA and this ad had director Michael Haussman via Pulse Films helping to capture the Olympic spirit. Olympians do their thing within the world of United—a martial artist flips baggage on the conveyor belt in the airline terminal, a woman pole vaults onto the plane, synchronized swimmers already on board go through their paces in workman like precision. United employees too, inspired by the athletes, perform their duties with a competitive panache. Among the Olympians featured in the commercial were gymnast Simone Biles, volleyball beach player Kerri Walsh Jennings, soccer player Carli Lloyd, swimmer Missy Franklin, decathlete Ashton Eaton, trampoline athlete Logan Dooley, and judo artist Dartanyon Crockett.
Finishing fourth was Fiat Chrysler/Jeep’s “Portraits,” a Super Bowl spot from NY agency Iris Worldwide. More than 60 curated images—ranging from regular everyday people to celebs (Marilyn Monroe, BB King, Aretha Franklin, Steve McQueen), from pop culture (The Terminator, Jurassic Park) to historic moments (D-Day invasion)—are featured in “Portraits.” The images unfold to narration which reads, “I’ve seen things no man should bear. And those that every man should dare. From the beaches of Normandy, to the far reaches of the Earth. In my life, I have lived millions of lives. I’ve outrun robots and danced with dinosaurs. I’ve faced the faces of fear and fortitude, and witnessed great beauty in the making. I’ve kept the company of kings (BB) and queens (Aretha Franklin) but I’m no royalty or saint. I’ve traveled, trekked, wandered and roamed only to find myself right where I belong.”
A parting super conveys the simple message: “We don’t make Jeep. You do.” The reflective tone of the commercial stood out in a crop of more visceral, gimmicky, comedy Super Bowl ad fare. Helping to create this feel was a score from Hum Music, employing the existing track titled “Aerial.”
And rounding out our Top Five is Dove Chocolate’s “Each and Every Day” Directed by Vincent Haycock of Park Pictures for BBDO New York, this :60 follows one woman’s’ entire life in the context of 24 hours, from childhood through her twilight years, as she lives without inhibitions since she is able to wake up and do it all over again each morning. The spot features an Edith Piaf rendition of “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” which serves as an anthem to live life to its fullest. Sonic Union was the audio post house.
See the Top Five Music Tracks of 2016 here.
See the Top Five VFX Chart entries here.
