STORY Director Blair Hayes explores a day-in-the-life of a McDonald’s restaurant in a new ad for Burrell Communications. My Place features a series of vignettes that portray McDonald’s as a gathering place for family and friends. They include a young couple who share a hot chocolate, teens scrolling through social media posts, a family having dinner sans cellphones, and a college student with his nose buried in a text book.
“Traditionally, McDonald’s has been more than a restaurant; it’s a member of the community,” says Hayes. “It’s a place where you go to get together with friends and loved ones, or where strangers become friends.”
Hayes sought to capture each vignette as naturally as possible. The performances are understated. In fact the scene with the family at dinner plays without dialogue. “We found terrific actors,” he recalls. “When mom catches her daughter using her cellphone, she gets her to put it away with a look. She looks at her, not in a ‘commercial’ way, but the way a real mom would.”
The sense of spontaneity and intimacy is enhanced by Hayes’ fluid camera style. He captures scenes from oblique angles and by shooting through crowds and windows to create the sense that you are witnessing what’s going on from a neighboring booth. “The idea was to keep it voyeuristic and vividly real,” he says.
Hayes’ favorite scene was the one involving the college student. As he stares at his book, the restaurant manager comes over to refill his coffee cup. The manager pats the young man on the back and walks off, while offering him an encouraging, “Keep up the good work…your honor.”
“The manager is obviously a mentor figure,” says Hayes. “We invented a back story where, years earlier, the young man worked for the manager as a fry chef or on the line.”
“The commercial ends with the young man looking back as the manager walks away,” adds Hayes. “So you get that sense of accomplishment, pride and community.”
STORY is represented on the East Coast by Ilene Silberman (212) 794-9030; in the Midwest by Amy McIntyre (312) 550-2554, in the Southeast by Miller + Associates, (954) 563-6004; in the Southwest by Gossip!, (214) 288-2813 and on the West Coast by Yvette Lubinsky, (310) 827-2626.
For more information, visit http://www.storyco.tv/
Video Credits
CLIENT: McDonald’s
TITLE: My Place
AGENCY: Burrell Communications
Lewis Williams, Chief Creative Officer; Shirley Portee, Executive Producer; Debra Dale, Producer; Rebecca Williams, VP/Group Creative Director; Terrence Burrell, VP/ Creative Director – Copywriter; Winston Cheung, Associate Creative Director - Art Director
PRODUCTION: STORY
Blair Hayes, Director; Mark Androw and Cliff Grant, Executive Producers; John Pingay, Director of Photography; Marsie Wallach, Producer
EDIT: The Colonie.
Bob Ackerman, Creative Editor; Graham Chapman, Assistant Editor; Tom Dernulc, Finishing; Lyndsay McCully, Senior Designer; Mary Caddy, Executive Producer
COLOR: Filmworkers
Michael Mazur, Colorist
AUDIO: CRC
Ian Scott, Mixer
MUSIC: Yessian Music
Michael Yessian, Composer
Simian Gets An Evolutionary Boost For Collaboration, Reveals “Teams”
Simian, the showreel-building, review & approval, and production asset management platform used globally by creative leaders, is kicking off this fall season with a substantial leap forward for collaboration and project management – with more updates on the way during the holidays!
The new feature, aptly dubbed “Teams”, makes it easier than ever for users to give project responsibilities to team members and clients alike. “You can never have too many options when it comes to permission levels,” says Jay Brooks, Simian’s Chief Technology Officer. “Teams provides a streamlined way to assign multiple users to a project at once.”
“Teams are very powerful, but creating one is effortless,” Brian Atton, Simian’s Chief Operating Officer explains. “Simply enter a Team name, add members, and then apply the newly made Team to any desired project. You can even invite temporary guests without changing settings for other projects or needing to create a new Team.”
“We love helping our clients by providing efficient tools to improve their workflow, and this has been a frequently requested feature as of late,” shares Kellie Atton, Head of Sales at Simian. “It feels great to get Teams out into the wild because I know it’s going to be tremendously helpful to everyone who uses it”.
Teams is now available exclusively to Simian’s enterprise clients. Simian plans to release more product upgrades and enhancements during Q4 2024 and 2025 for enterprise and non-enterprise users, continuing its ongoing evolution as the industry’s leading production asset management solution.
For more information on Simian upgrades and features, visit https://www.gosimian.com/
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