Episode 1.6 “The Name’s Bond… I mean Hype”
Sometimes we get to do some really really cool things over at the Torch and I wanna pull up an ad we did for a local phone company some time ago. They approached us about doing a “Mission” Ad that took some inspiration from the secret agent/spy movies like mission impossible and the James Bond franchise.
I’ll take this time to say,
I am…
… a complete… JAMES BOND SUPER Tornado (more than a fan) !!!! I was super excited when their marketing department pitched the general idea to me. Almost immediately I set out to conceptualize and create a shot list.
I wanted a helicopter, a car chase scene, running, jumping, a cool suit, heels and slow motion, aerial shots for no reason, smoke machines. I wanted everything that got me excited about the world of international espionage in 45 seconds.
Of course when it comes to advertising the killer of most grand Ideas is budget. So some compromises had to be made, but 80% of what we wanted in was in there in some way which was great.
Believe it or not one of the most challenging scenes technically was shooting the chief’s scene. The chief was acted by the then country manager who was an incredibly busy man so we didn’t have a lot of time. I mean he was a real sport but getting the lighting and the movement right was a challenge especially on a time crunch.
The two Agents: Junika [Agent Berry] and Bjorn [Agent Hype] were just delightful and easy to work with and they really seemed to have a good time even 40 or more takes in.
I usually despise video editing but this project was an exception: getting the tones and the look right was actually fun. I used palette and style inspiration from one of my favourite Bond films - Casino Royale and at the end of it I think it really came together very nicely.
Man I love the film-like projects. Super nod to Paige and Jermaine who were the crew on this one and Marsha who worked on behalf of the client but who handled all the costumes, the scheduling and organizing the epic voice over. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.
Oh, for the record, that’s Bjorn (the guy agent) jumping over the camera closer to the end, we weren’t looking up anyone’s skirt or anything like that [insert maniacal and evil laugh here].
