McCann NY developed this Fios spot that depicts a family that lives in a “half house.” And although you might think it odd that they live that way, the commercial–directed by Kevin Thomas of Thomas Thomas Films–reveals that they have a secret: their half house has full Internet because they have Fios.
To make the ad, director Thomas scouted small houses all over New York, and quickly concluded that shooting inside them would prove too restrictive to get the elegant shots he was imagining.
So although an actual half width house was used for the exterior, with a little help from postproduction house Method, it was necessary to construct the inside of the half house from scratch at Silvercup Studios. Production designer Bradley Thordarson, famous for his work with OK GO (among others), designed and built the house from scratch. The upstairs and downstairs were built separately. The agency and production team researched space-saving tricks that people use in small spaces and also created some quirky new ones. For example, a small elbow hole in the bathroom to ease the brushing of teeth. Two of the rooms shared a sofa that went through the wall and, from a certain camera angle, they created the appearance of a real life split screen.
All the effects with the half house were practical. No post effects were used to create them. All the walls were able to slide to enable different camera angles.
Client Verizon Fios Agency McCann NY Sean Bryan, Tom Murphy, co-chief creative officers; Chris Mitton, Caprice Yu, executive creative directors; Sherrod Melvin, Jeremy Pippenger, group creative directors; Rick Cohen, sr. art director; Peter Sherer, copywriter; Michele Ferone, director of Verizon broadcast production; Lauren Bauder, integrated producer. Production Thomas Thomas Films Kevin Thomas, director. Editorial Mackcut Dave Koza, editor. Postproduction/Graphics Method Marko Forker, VFX supervisor. Music Song Of The Nairobi Trio (Solfeggio) by Robert Maxwell (1953) Color Company 3 Tim Masick, colorist. Audio Sonic Union Paul Weiss, sound engineer. Media Agency VMI/Zenith
The Best Work You May Never See: Javier Bardem, Director David Shane, Mother London Have “Evil’d Enough” For Uber Eats
Uber Eats launches its new brand platform for the U.K.--”When You’ve Done Enough, Uber Eats”--which celebrates moments of often-needed relaxation and downtime delivered by Uber Eats. The first in a series of films has been rolled out to showcase iconic figures entertainingly embracing their downtime.
“Evil’d Enough” stars Academy Award winner (No Country For Old Men) Javier Bardem, who is well known for playing malevolent characters during his acting career. This TV commercial is directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker David Shane and produced through O Positive for agency Mother in London.
Bardem said “Playing a bad guy can be very demanding. Even villains deserve a little downtime after a long day of being evil. And that’s exactly what Uber Eats delivers.”
“Evil’d Enough” parachutes us into what appears to be the middle of a classic film scene, starring Bardem in his next iconic evil role. He and his generals sit at a menacing boardroom table in his lair, discussing the next steps for world domination (for what must be the millionth time). But when Bardem decides he’s had enough of evil-ing for the day, he knows exactly what he wants: a little downtime, provided by sushi ordered on Uber Eats.
Director Shane said, “It’s such a strong idea. We’ve all kind of chafed under the weight of other people’s expectations for us. We may not all be cinematic evil masterminds, but we’ve all needed a break. Javier was a gem to work with. Super invested and really collaborative. There was never a false moment from him. It was just a lovely magical couple of days.”
The integrated campaign launched yesterday (2/3) across the U.K.
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