Feature filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer, last year’s The Magnificent Seven) via production house Wondros directed “The Gift,” one in a series of three :60s making their broadcast debut during the Oscar telecast (2/26) on ABC. The other two :60s were helmed, respectively, by movie directors Marc Forster and the team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
The premise of each short film centers on “how every receipt tells a story,” with the directors being challenged to illustrate their vision for one receipt containing bananas, paper towels, batteries, scooter, wrapping paper and a video baby monitor. The three creative films are part of Walmart’s larger multi-year partnership with the Academy Awards that is aimed at highlighting Walmart’s commitment to the art of storytelling. Walmart is also be making a $250,000 donation to The Academy Grants Program for FilmCraft.
Fuqua directed “The Gift” which shows a scooter-riding youngster who prepares and then wraps a gift–consisting of several of the items on the Walmart receipt–for presentation to some unseen extraterrestrial beings. Their spacecraft beams up the gift from the lad–while also briefly elevating him towards the sky.
Agency is Saatchi & Saatchi NY.
Credits
Client Walmart Agency Saatchi & Saatchi NY Javier Campopiano, chief creative officer; Mike Pierantozzi, Wayne Best, executive creative directors; Blake Enting, head of design; Michael Craven, creative director/copywriter; Scott Bassen, creative director/art director; John Doris, head of production; Emily Green, executive producer; Danica Rosen, Zamile Vilakazi, producers; Aliaksandra Shvedava, digital producer. Production Wondros Antoine Fuqua, director; Astrid Downs, exec producer; Justin Diener, producer. Postproduction Wondros/Zero VFX Brian Drewes, exec producer, post; John Refoua, William Pasley, editors. VFX Zero VFX, Venice, Calif., and Boston Sean Devereaux, VFX creative director/partner; Mike Warner, CG supervisor; Brian Drewes, VFX exec producer; Stella Shalta, VFX coordinator. (Toolbox: Maya, Houdini, Nuke, 3DEqualizer, Mari, Zbrush) Color Company 3 Stefan Sonnenfeld, colorist. Post Sound Services Sony Pictures Studios Martin Schloemer, mix tech; Mandell Winter, MPSE, David Esparza, MPSE, supervising sound editors; Brian Smith, ADR mixer. Music GSA Music Simon Franglen, composer.
FactSet, a global financial digital platform and enterprise solutions provider, has partnered with Chicago-based creative agency VSA Partners to unveil a second round of spots in its “Not Just the Facts” campaign. The campaign originally launched back in April.
The campaign was built on a core strategic insight: While quality data is critical for financial professionals, facts in isolation provide little value. FactSet’s personalization, data connectivity, open and flexible technology, and dedicated service and support provide the context necessary for the investment community to turn facts into valuable insights--and make the most of them.
The new creative picks up where the previous left off. This time it focuses on a particularly boorish office worker, drolly played by character actor Wyndham Maxwell, who ticks off an encyclopedic list of facts and non sequiturs during business meetings and to the bemusement of his colleagues.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign, which plays more like a perfect-pitch comedy series than a typical B2B commercial effort, is a major departure from financial services industry norm--both in its use of humor and in its humanistic approach. Starting this week, FactSet will roll out 16 unique spots—a combination of :30s, :15s, :06s and nine “shorts”—across multiple channels including digital, streaming and CTV.
This :30, “Dinos,” has an office worker’s relevant reference to dinosaurs spark our boorish colleague who proceeds to utter one irrelevant fact after another about the prehistoric creatures.
The Los Angeles–based Docter Twins (Matthew and Jason Docter) directed the original campaign and this new humorous work through their production company, Thinking Machine. The identical twin... Read More
