Sound Lounge helped capture the horror of gun violence for the video The Most Vicious Cycle produced by the student organization March for Our Lives and New York ad agency McCann. The studio, aided by a Foley team from Alchemy Post Sound, created a dense and intricately choreographed soundscape for the film, which presents the all-too-familiar images of a school shooting and its predictable aftermath of anguished families, protests and empty promises from politicians. The video urges young people to break the cycle by turning out to vote.
Set to the song Safe by Keisha, her brother Sage and rapper Chika, the video opens with slow motion images of a shooter firing a semi-automatic rifle in a school hallway. That sets off a Rube Goldberg-like chain of events as protest posters drop from the ceiling and cause a skateboard carrying a bubble machine and books labeled “thoughts and prayers” to trundling down a ramp. It, in turn, sends a bocce ball rolling by tributes to victims. To underscore the point about the endless succession of such tragedies, the shooting sequence plays three times with slight, but telling, changes in its details.
SPW Credits
Client: March For Our Lives. Sarah Chadwick, Sofie Whitney, project strategists & coordinators; Ryan Deitsch, content creator; Jackie Corin, national outreach director; Matt Deitsch, chief strategist.
Agency: McCann New York. Andre De Castro, Nick Larson, creatives; Gaby Levy, producer; Sean Bryan, Tom Murphy, chief creative officers; Joyce King Thomas, creative advisor; Nathy Aviram, chief production officer; Rob Reilly, global creative chairman; Susan Young, Daniela Vojta, executive creative directors.
Production: Mill+. Ben Smith, director; Ian Bearce, Christina Thompson, exec producers; Tia Perkins, producer; Andrew Hollingsworth, Danika Casas, production coordinators; Kyle Cody, shoot supervisor.
Editorial: The Mill. Ryan McKenna, editor; Matthew Campbell, edit assist.
VFX: The Mill. Christina Thompson, exec producer; Grace Tober, producer; Roshni Kakas, line producer; Umesh Chand, production coordinator; Angus Kneale, chief creative officer; Ben Smith, creative director; Kyle Cody, shoot supervisor, 2D lead artist; Venuprasath D, 2D lead artist; Christian Nielsen, 3D lead artist; Molly Intersimone, Badarinath Chinimilli, Prasanna Bhatt, Rajeshkumar K, 2D artists; Tim Kim, Ryan Federman, Todd Akita, Tighe Rzankowski, Dave Barosin, Weicheih Yu, Sudakshina Sridharan, Vittal Kuntla, Fazal Khan, Giri Prasath S, Raj Kumar M, Sunil MM, Sendil Kumar J, 3D artists; Scott McGinley, Alex Allain, John Wilson, animation; Clemens den Exter, design; Laura Nash and Wendy Eduarte, motion graphics; Anish Mohan, asset supervisor; Senthil Murugan Balasundaram, tracking supervisor; Mikey Rossiter, colorist.
Foley: Alchemy Post Sound. Leslie Bloome, Foley artist; Ryan Collison, Foley mixer.
Music: Supervised by Rob Kaplan and Aaron Mercer from Wool & Tusk; “Safe”
Track: Produced and Engineered by Drew Pearson; Mixed by Jon Castelli; Engineer for Mix by Ingmar Carlson; Mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge, NY; Assisted by Chris Allgood; Written by Kesha, Sage, Chika, Pebe Sebert, and Drew Pearson; Chika vocals recorded by Mitch Davis at Pull Music; Executive produced by Lagan Sebert and Hampton Howerton for Vector Management; Digital marketing, Jon Romero for Vector Management; Kesha appears courtesy of Kemosabe Records/RCA Records
Commercial production company Explore and director Jeremy Pinckert went to a familiar well to pull inspiration for their latest production for Go RVing. "Hotel Hassle" was initially conceived as an audio-only campaign, but Go RVing's SVP/CMO Karen Redfern asked Explore to adapt the script into a new, live-action commercial. The adaptation from audio ads to digital commercial spots involved adding re-written lines and a few iconic scenes from Pinckert’s ideas that provided anchor moments for the ads. In particular, 'Hotel Hassle' features a room key that just won’t open the door. The visual he added (a round sensor on the door where the key unlocks) not only modernized the ad into the age of tap, but also gave the spot a technology vs. human undertone, invoking the AI-character Hal from Stanley Kubrick’s '2001 A Space Odyssey.'
Explore and Pinckert also added a visual hook to the ending of the spot that leaned on his own experiences traveling with his family. He found his hands were always full, clutching a few bags, random loose objects, his phone, and of course, his coffee. In the commercial, there is a moment where all of the frustrations are just too much for the protagonist and he almost curses in front of the family. What if the director added an action where the protagonist accidentally spills their coffee and the camera freezes precisely at this moment?
"Hotel Hassle", part of Go RVing's larger Don't Go There! campaign, is currently being broadcast nationwide via strategic digital channels.
