Kabuki, the highly stylized form of Japanese theater, doesn’t often appear in advertising, but the art form figures prominently in a new, nearly four-minute Internet film advertising Polaroid’s Mio, a new, high-end instant camera that takes wallet-size photos. The short film was done via Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.
Accessible at www.miomovie. com, the strange short, Kabuki, was directed by Jim Tozzi of Station Wagon Films, Santa Monica. It depicts a man who falls asleep at his kitchen table, only to be awakened to find a strange man and woman in Kabuki makeup in his house. This sets the surreal tone for the film, in which the duo proceeds to toy with an orange and a kitchen chair while the frightened and perplexed man watches on. To document the eerie happenings, the guy grabs his Mio camera and starts taking photos of the intruders.
As suddenly as they appeared, the two vanish. Immediately after, the man’s doorbell rings; he walks to his front door, opens it and is greeted by the strangers—each holding a slice of pizza up to his/her mouth; inexplicably, a whole pizza floats in the air between them. Badly frightened, the man snaps a picture before retreating.
Cut to the next morning, when he awakens at the kitchen table, upon which are several photos of the night before: pictures of an orange, a chair—but no one in Kabuki makeup. Walking through his living room (nearly devoid of furniture), he finds a trail of several more pictures on the floor, including that of a pizza delivery guy. He then opens the front door, revealing a beautiful sunny day. The man smiles and the foreboding score abruptly switches to upbeat Hawaiian music. All is well with world again, as the last image—the word "fin"—appears on a black screen.
The ambiguous ending leads viewers to wonder if the man was haunted by spirits, or if the characters were simply elements of a very strange dream—perhaps induced by the man’s late-night pizza. According to Lisa Leone, associate creative director/art director at Leo Burnett, "The idea [for Kabuki] was that someone was experiencing a bad dream, or even an acid trip, and in the throes of it, he grabs a camera to document it. In the morning, all the photos are of inanimate objects."
Other scenarios were considered for the Mio film, including one involving a little boy named Billy and cardboard cutouts that would be moved around, reports Leone. "That, if you can believe it," she says, "was even more bizarre than Kabuki, so we wound up not going that way."
In addition to Leone, the agency creative team on the film included Jonathan Hoffman, executive VP/ executive creative director; Matt Horton, creative director/copywriter; and producer Vince Geraghty.
Serendipity
The project initially began as a spec piece for Tozzi, who called Leone shortly after launching Station Wagon with executive producer Tony Mosa this past summer. Tozzi asked Leone if she knew of any scripts he could shoot for free. Leone had gotten to know the director last year when, through his former roost, bicoastal M-80, Tozzi helmed a Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats Squares campaign, out of Leo Burnett. That offbeat series of spots, which included "Commuter," "Wig" and "Floating Friend," depicted imaginative uses for the sticky confection.
Leone, eager to help Tozzi, took his request to Hoffman, who had also worked on the Rice Krispies campaign. "I told him, ‘I can take two weeks off to go shoot something no one is ever going to see,’ or maybe we could make it a project we could do for one of our clients," Leone recounts.
Polaroid proved to be a good fit. The client wanted to promote the Mio, and was "really happy to have us do it gratis," says Leone.
For Kabuki, Leone states the target was a young, urban audience that likes to buy electronic toys. "We wanted it to have the feel of an indie film," she explains.
The creatives decided the format of the project would be a three- to four-minute short film, so the Internet was the natural choice. "On the Internet, you have more time to let a story play out," Leone notes. "You don’t have to build in as much branding. There’s a lot more room to play."
As Leone tells it, the early conceptual stage of Kabuki was as wacky as what wound up on screen. She relates that she was at a bar with a friend, discussing possible storylines. "I knew I wouldn’t remember [what we discussed] in the morning. So my friend and I wrote ‘Kabuki’ on a cocktail napkin with mustard," she relates. "Matt [Horton] and I then wrote it up, and passed it on to Jonathan [Hoffman]."
From there it went to Tozzi, who faxed back a full treatment. Careful consideration was given to casting. After a fruitless day of searching for someone to portray the main character, Tozzi and Leone had a number of conversations—one of which led to the idea of using an actor they’d cast in an unaired Rice Krispies Treats Squares commercial called "Lost and Found."
Tozzi and DP Eric Schmidt shot Kabuki in one day in late July, at a house in Southern California. Tozzi and Schmidt used both DV and 35mm cameras, although the completed film consisted of the 35mm footage.
Leone related that they’d had the interior walls of the house painted black for the shoot, making it scorching hot inside. "Nobody wanted to go inside," she says. "We’d moved all the furniture out on the lawn—it was kind of like Sanford and Son."
Other vendors were generous with their services, notes Leone, who mentions Asche & Spencer, Minneapolis and Venice, Calif., as well as Cutters, Chicago, and Another Country, Cutters’ Chicago-based audio shop. "Cutters [executives] told me they wanted the company to get more involved in different types of projects that they don’t ordinarily do," says Leone. "When we called the editor, John Dingfield, about doing Kabuki, he didn’t even hesitate to say ‘yes’ immediately. He was amazing. We didn’t have the money to do regular type of post work; John did all the effects on the Avid."
Thad Spencer and Tommy Barbarella of Asche & Spencer composed the score for Kabuki, and Grant Martin at Another Country was the mixer. Station Wagon’s Mosa served as executive producer and line producer.
The agency directed consumers to the Web to view Kabuki by taking out classified ads in the "personals" sections of various newsweeklies in major markets. One such ad read: "Exorcist needed. Will pay top dollar to rid house of two spirits. Please help end my torture. Being subjected to haunting of a Kabuki nature. If you can help, contact me at www. miomovie.com."
Leone notes that the Independent Film Channel has contacted the agency about possibly airing the short. And while there are no current plans to create new online films for the client, Leone says, "This was something very new for Polaroid and they are very pleased by the response."
