Creative incubator The Lab at Anonymous Content has released Wake Up, a short film presented by HP and directed by Olivia Wilde (who joined Anonymous Content last summer for her first commercial and branded content representation).
Wake Up stars Margaret Qualley as a woman recovering from amnesia, forced to rediscover her humanity in an increasingly digital world.
HP described the short as “a provocative invitation to start a conversation about how the technology we depend on for our information, entertainment, and social connection has come disturbingly close to supplanting the very interactions that make us human.”
The film debuted last week at ChefDance, an event during the nearby Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
“It was such a thrill to collaborate with Margaret Qualley, legendary cinematographer Matty Libatique [nominated for Oscars as DP of Black Swan and A Star Is Born], and the rest of our extraordinary crew to tell this story about what it means to be human,” said Wilde, who made her feature directorial debut last year with the critically acclaimed Booksmart.
Credits
Client HP Production Anonymous Content Olivia Wilde, director; Matthew Libatique, DP; Akin McKenzie, production designer; David Webb, first AD; Eric Stern, managing director; Kerry Haynie, head of production; Laurie Boccaccio, line producer; Zac Ryder, Adam Groves, executive creative directors; Chase Hilton, Garrett Combes, lead creatives; Esther Peris, producer. Performers Margaret Qualley Editorial Work Editorial Neil Smith, editor; Marlo Baird, exec producer; Christie Price, producer. Color Color Collective Alex Bickell, colorist; Claudia Guevara, exec producer. VFX Moving Picture Company (MPC) Alvin Cruz, on-set supervision; Lexi Stern, exec producer; Sara Gbadamosi, producer; Benji Davidson, VFX supervisor/lead Flame artist; Sam Shiflett, Andy Roberts, Rob Ufer, Hector Cabrera, Peter Ulukpo, Sean Anderson, Ragesh Ramchandran, Manu Gopalakrishnan, compositors; Anthony Riccardi, Kris Fortin, designers/animators. Music Track “Otherside” by Perfume Genius. Music Supervision Walker Music Sara Matarazzo, Stephanie Pigott, exec producers; Danielle Soury, producer. Sound Design Jafbox Sound
How do you top one of the most viral brand videos ever made? Spoiler alert: you can’t. But when Dollar Shave Club tapped Zack Seckler to direct a new campaign to revive the absurdist humor of its iconic launch video, he knew he had a rare opportunity to create something special.
The brief was simple: introduce the concept of a physical “Club” that people would love to join while showcasing Dollar Shave Club’s products and embracing the weird. From script to direction and post, Seckler--an alum of SHOOT’s 2021 New Directors Showcase--was invited to help sculpt that vision.
The result is this “Welcome to the Club” spot which invites us to join a unique, seemingly exclusive but in reality an accessible and affordable fraternity of Dollar Shave Club members. But you need to know the password or more accurately, the two-word phrase--"shave money."
“The Club” campaign brings the brand back to its humorous roots, reflecting a new chapter after being acquired by Nexus Capital Management from Unilever in late 2023. The work takes Dollar Shave Club back to its disruptive beginnings and what made the brand a viral sensation from its inception in 2011.
