ABOUT

Following the success of “A Slightly Life-Changing Story”, the vibe of this whole campaign is joyous and playful; a beautiful abstract daylight aesthetic with a distinctive colour palette. A sense of magic and whimsy that permeates each story, and a tone that is fun and heartwarming, filled with levity, without trying to be overtly comedic.

In the three unique films of this campaign, we’re actually showcasing three examples of a single story – the story of Meta’s Personalised Ads allowing small and midsize businesses to effortlessly and joyfully flourish.

We begin and end each story in an abstracted version of a brick and mortar business. The back wall was designed to split down the middle and magically fly apart as we tracked backwards. A floating ceiling added a sense of dimension to our vertical aspect ratio, but it also gave us a really heightened sense of magic when we literally blew the roof off. In tandem with the back wall, we rigged the initial set dressing to also roll left or right, leaving us with a clean, abstract space to move and dance through. As we move, we pass by repeating elements of the set dressing that give us a sense of space and a platform to inspire the choreography – i.e. barber shop chairs for BSC, or butcher block counters for OATSU. As the camera began to move, we saw both the floor and the background beyond the initial vignette of the business, revealing an infinite-feeling matte blue sky ‘metaverse’.

Between beginning and ending in the tactile feel of the business, our SMB floats through a beautiful joyous daylight minimalism that puts the focus on the people rather than the place. During the project's planning stages, in an effort to be a greener production, we pitched the idea of a sustainable production to the client who were completely supportive of the methodology. The industry is now starting to tackle the impact of transport and energy use, but studies show that scenery construction for a small tv commercial generates an average of 1 ton of waste and a large feature film up to 912 tons, Albert’s New Screen Deal states that the amount of plywood used in construction for a typical tentpole production equals the volume of 2.5 cargo planes. We proposed a novel method of using paper-based cardboard sets known as Vectar boards and teamed up with The Vectar Project, a UK-based production studio with impeccable sustainability credentials.*
We are committed to supporting productions and helping them find cost-effective sustainable solutions. We are convinced that by increasing green jobs and by making it easy to choose green solutions, we can promote a virtuous circle where increased sustainability awareness on sets improves all aspects of production.

The feedback from the production company is that the end client: Meta (Facebook) is now using our techniques to showcase how to have a more sustainable and eco-friendly production which is a monumental result! The ads themselves are pretty great too!

More than just clever material choices, our entire planning process, including the studio recce was done virtually through Teams and Zoom meetings, minimising travel. Using the Vectar sets also reduced studio time, enabled a rapid pre-light process, and saved resources associated with a longer prep schedule.

This choice is a new system, so one of the challenges is to let people know that paper-based sets are now a practical alternative in many cases. There is naturally a reluctance in a very traditional industry to experiment with new solutions and a fear of a new method not providing the same quality as traditional ways of working. We are convinced that recycled cardboard sets offer a viable solution, and have done extensive and on-going research to ensure that we can eliminate any of the difficulties we may come across on set. We believe that in many applications paper-based sets offer significant advantages compared to wooden ‘legacy sets’
Receiving this award would validate and encourage others to think outside of the box and make bold and novel choices when it comes to sustainability. Even when working with the biggest or most demanding clients, there is a viable way to evolve our industry and challenge the status quo, all while being conscientious and respecting the environment.