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    Phil Brown Directs “The Calm and The Storm” For U.S. Air Force, GSD&M

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2753 Views

    A column of military vehicles treks across a sun-baked desert road and suddenly finds itself engaged in a life and death battle for survival. Explosions and gunshots abound but the airmen, showing an abundance of calm and practiced precision, leap into action, first ascertaining targets and collecting the wounded, then calling in a U.S. Air Force strike that levels the enemy’s stronghold within seconds and ends the battle as quickly it started. That’s the cinematic power behind the U.S. Air Force spot “The Calm and The Storm,” directed by Phil Brown of production company Spears & Arrows for GSD&M in Austin, Texas.

    “We live in the gaming generation and we wanted to capture the imagination and interest of that generation,” said Jason Wolk, founder/managing director of Spears & Arrows. “A lot of armed forces commercials tend to avoid the obvious, which is occasionally they are in harm’s way and do get into firefights. From the very first conversations with the agency we were on the same page about creating something that had a ‘wow’ factor and was true to what happens in combat. Phil captured what it’s like to come under fire honestly and intensely.”

    Brown, who grew up in a Royal Air Force household (both his father and brother served), jumped at the chance to create an ambush sequence set in a foreign land using all of the assets that the Air Force has to offer.

    “I wanted to create a visceral experience that felt like footage from an embedded journalist,” Brown explained. “I even asked our DP Eric Treml to occasional duck while filming because I wanted the crew to feel vulnerable. We also didn’t want to show close-ups of the enemy combatants; I wanted the feeling they were being attacked by an unseen enemy, which is most often the case.”

    Shot on location in New Mexico, Brown achieved the level of intensity he was looking for by utilizing real Air Force special operators in the spot; and using a combination of an on-set special effects team setting off explosions and firing dust and spark pellets, and post visual effects created by Artjail in New York. All of the action was supervised by actual Air Force special operators to ensure its authenticity.

    Credits

    Client U.S. Air Force Agency GSD&M, Austin, Texas Jeff Maki, SVP, group creative director, writer; Travis Waid, creative director/writer; Cheyenne Gallion, Derek Dollahite, creative directors/art directors; Spencer Gilliam, producer; Lisa Valencia, project manager. Production Spears & Arrows, Los Angeles Phil Brown, director; Jason Wolk, exec producer/founder; Craig Houchin, head of production; Rocky Bice, line producer; Eric Treml, DP; Todd Thompson, first assistant director; Taeko Masuyama, production supervisor. Editorial Rooster Post, Toronto Marc Langley, editor; Chlie Vankoughnett, assistant editor; Melissa Kahn, exec producer. VFX Artjail, New York Lee Towndrow, VFX supervisor; Fred Kim, Eric Concepcion, Manu Gaulot, Herculano Fernandez, Dayung Jo, 2D compositors; Michael Brown, producer; John Skeffington, managing director/exec producer; Steve Mottershead, creative director/owner. Color Artjail, NY Clinton Homuth, sr. colorist; Kevin Wu, color assistant. Music/Sound JSM Music, New York Marc Langley, sound design; Andrew Manning, Norm Felker, producers; Joel Simon, CEO/CCO; Jeff Fiorello, exec producer. Audio Post TBD Post, Austin Dusty Albertz, mixer; Kate Eads, producer.

     

    Media Type:Commercial: Television
    ScreenWork Categories:Commercial
    Video Tags:ArtjailGSD&MPhil BrownSpears & Arrows



    The Docter Twins Direct Part 2 Of FactSets’ “Not Just The Facts” Comedy Campaign From VSA Partners

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    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

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