An epic fable with a lighthearted twist–that’s what Fallon Minneapolis and director Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks have created for Travelers in a :60 spot titled “Bridge.”
As “Bridge” opens, we see a man pulling a cart containing a large set of wings through a quaint village. As he walks along at a determined pace, villagers chase after him, clearly expecting to see something momentous happen. And something momentous does happen: The man puts on the wings, stands atop a bridge and leaps off. “He can fly! He can fly!” people shout as the man soars above the river.
“But he can’t swim,” a grumpy old-timer barks as he walks away from the scene.
Cut to the human bird’s splash landing in the river.
“Your risks are always evolving,” a voiceover intones. “Shouldn’t your insurance stay in synch?”
AIMING SKY HIGH “The [Travelers] brand has been around for a long time, and they were the first to insure automobiles and airplanes,” Fallon group creative director Todd Riddle shared when asked to elaborate on the strategy. “They’ve always evolved with the world, and the thinking behind the spot is, if you have insurance, and you don’t have insurance that keeps up with what you’re doing in your life and what is happening in the world around you, you’re not really as covered as you think you are.”
Fallon certainly chose to illustrate this concept in a grand way. “We could have easily gone and shot some people walking down the street and going to their insurance company and talking to their agent. But it really felt like pretty worn out territory frankly and not too dissimilar from a lot of stuff that’s on the air,” Riddle said, noting, “There is a lot of very retail kind of messaging out there right now and not a lot of brand building, and we felt that Travelers was in a place where they wanted to put a stake in the ground and re-launch their brand.” (Travelers recently completed a merger with The St. Paul’s Companies.)
In addition to “Bridge,” the work of Fallon’s Dean Hanson and Dean Buckhorn, art director and copywriter, respectively, the new Travelers campaign includes another spot directed by Murro called “Big Fight,” which centers on a boxing match.
Four other spots helmed by other directors were in production at the time SHOOT spoke with Riddle.
Murro, for one, was eager to get involved in the project. In fact, according to Riddle, Murro flew to Minneapolis to pitch the agency in person. “In his words, he had to do this f—— spot,” Riddle shared, laughing. “He’s just so passionate, and he’s a great talent, which goes without saying.”
TAKING FLIGHT Murro and DP Toby Irwin shot “Bridge” on location outside of Prague, casting local talent. “You couldn’t get those rich faces in L.A.,” Riddle pointed out.
The effect of the man leaping off the bridge and flying was created partly with rigs and partly using bluescreen. All the shots where you see him jumping from the bridge were shot with the actor attached to a bungee, which was later removed by the artisans at London’s Framestore-CFC. Additionally, all the shots where he is flying were shot against bluescreen and comped onto a background plate, which was shot separately.
“The hardest part in this technique is to make the trajectory of the flying look real as the character is shot just hanging stationary and not moving,” explained Framestore lead Inferno artist Stephane Allender. “Once you succeed in creating a successful flying move, you just need to make sure it looks integrated with the background plates.”
Given the scale of “Bridge,” it called for an inspiring piece of music, so Fallon commissioned composer Robert Miller of RMI, New York, famed for his gorgeous orchestral compositions, to compose the orchestral score that accompanies “Bridge.”
Looking back on the project, Riddle pointed out that what is particularly interesting about “Bridge” is what you don’t see. The spot as originally scripted depicted the dreamer as a young boy, showing us his fascination with birds and flight, and Murro shot those scenes. “But at the end of the day when we looked at the edit [Russell Icke of The Whitehouse, which has offices in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, cut the spot], we all agreed that you really didn’t need to tell that part of the story,” Riddle said, noting that when you see the man walking through town towing his cart of wings, “you get the feeling that there is a back story, and you don’t have to be literal as far as telling it. I think storytelling is much better when the viewer can connect the dots versus serving it up on a platter.”
