We’re thrust into a Cribs-like scenario in which a famous movie star or athlete gives us a tour of his ostentatious home. Here, the celeb de jour opens up his palace to the TV cameras, showing us a game room that would put a theme park arcade to shame. Next, we’re taken to the backyard, with a gorgeous swimming pool, surrounding by equally gorgeous, bikini-clad models.
Our main man introduces us to the lovelies who are named, “Monday,” “Tuesday,” “Wednesday”…well, you get the picture. But this procession of a woman for every day gives way to the sight of a guy seated on a lawn chair poolside, drinking a Bud Light.
The star of the house is perplexed. “You part of the crew?” he asks.
Turns out the visitor, named Steve, just showed up for the Bud Light.
“Who gave you that?” queries the mansion man of the unwanted guest. “Gwen, did you give him that?” he asks one of his lovely lasses.
A product shot intervenes, showing us an enticing glass of Bud being poured. “Refreshingly smooth Bud Light,” intones a voiceover. “Always with it.”
Our tour of the pleasure palace continues to find party crasher Steve, now wearing a bathrobe, in the kitchen eating a papaya. Indeed this is the last straw for the man of the house who, like a spoiled child, whines, “Man, put down my papaya.”
“Mansion” is part of a three-spot campaign directed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based harvest for DDB Chicago. Bonnie Goldfarb executive produced for harvest, with Deb Tietjen serving as producer. The DP was Curtis Wehr.
The agency creative team on “Mansion” consisted of senior VP/group creative director Mark Gross, VP/creative director Dan Fietsam, art director Jason Gorman, copywriter Joe Sgro and senior producer Will St. Clair.
Editor was David Baxter of Panic & Bob, Toronto.
Lensing and Designing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Cinematographer Lol Crawley, BSC and production designer Judy Becker collaborated for the first time on The Brutalist (A24) and emerged as Oscar nominees in their respective disciplines. Their work on the film has also earned major recognition elsewhere on the industry awards circuit. Just this week, Crawley won the British Society of Cinematographers’ Feature Film Award. He also is currently a nominee for both an ASC Award and a BAFTA Film Award. And Becker received nominations for a BAFTA Film Award and an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award. Crawley and Becker, though, traversed distinctly different paths to The Brutalist, being on opposite ends of the collaborative continuum with director and co-writer Brady Corbet going into the film. Crawley had already shot two features for Corbet prior to The Brutalist--The Childhood of a Leader (2015) and Vox Lux (2018). In sharp contrast, The Brutalist marked Becker’s first time working with Corbet. Becker recalled seeing The Childhood of a Leader and immediately wanting to design for Corbet. Describing herself as “stunned” by the film, she related that it reflected Corbet’s talent as a filmmaker, his ability to work within a budget on a period movie and still deliver an end product that looked fantastic while brilliantly telling a story. Becker noted that a big budget period film replete with tons of set dressing, over-dressed locations and the like misses the mark for her. She asked, “Why waste that money?” But when Becker sees a period movie with a pared down budget that looks so good, “I’m really blown away.” Based on The Childhood of a Leader, Becker told her agent that she’d love to... Read More