St.
Luke's have created a beautiful set of three 60-second
commercials for BT, highlighting the company's Customer
Care programme. The spots were directed for Outsider
films by Dom and Nic ('Snow' and 'Football') and
for Academy by Nick Gordon ('Sounds'). Framestore
CFC created the digital effects on 'Snow', 'Football'
and 'Sounds', and the Telecine for 'Sounds'.
Each of the spots uses an atmospherically filmed,
mildly surreal scenario to illustrate a different
aspect of customer care. 'Snow' shows a cross section
of Londoners preparing for an event – it gradually
becomes clear that they are anticipating a snowfall.
"If you knew when to expect things," says the voiceover,
as the expected snow starts falling, "Imagine how
much more you could do with your day." Thus BT's
pledge to keep promised appointments is memorably
evoked.
The promise that a human operator will always be
available is illustrated in 'Football'. A young
girl whispers sotto voce instructions (under the
shouts of her father and his brothers) to a football
team on the television, which they obey. And in
'Sounds' a woman struggling to sleep against a variety
of noises from outside goes out onto the balcony
of her hotel to find that the whole neighbourhood
is willing to make bringing the noise level down
their business. All three spots close with the BT
logo and the tags 'More committed to service. More
power to you.'
Inferno Artist Ben Cronin supervised the 'Snow'
shoot for Framestore CFC. His VFX work can be seen
in the spot, where – unsurprisingly, given
that the shoot took place in May - many varieties
of artificial snow, both practical and digital,
were required. The culminating event of the spot
- a snowfall on Primrose Hill - required Cronin
and his animation team (Chris Syborn, Jake Mengers
and Matt Estela) to put snow in the air and all
over the grassy rise. With the camera moves tracked,
the 3D snow elements were created, providing Cronin
with a variety of depths of field with which to
compose his shots. He achieved the ground dusting
of snow through the skilful application of a couple
of 'keys', using the textures and lighting of the
grass to help form the snowy 'surface'. The heavy
sky over the north London scene was also a digital
construct, built by Cronin.
Cronin also did a lot of work on crowd replication
for the 'Football' spot, as the entire 'match' the
family is watching was actually shot in Scotland,
with local team Inverness Caledonian Thistle (and
250 of their fans) providing the action.
Dave Ludlam provided the Telecine for Sounds, complementing
the strongly atmospheric look.
BT Customer Care Snow
Agency St Luke's
Agency Producer Kate Male
Production Company Outsider Films
Directors Dom and Nic
Producer John Madsen
Inferno Artist Ben Cronin
3D Animators Chris Syborn, Jake
Mengers, Matt Estela
Post Producer Helen Stanley
BT Customer Care Football
Agency St Luke's
Agency Producer Kate Male
Production Company Outsider Films
Directors Dom and Nic
Producer John Madsen
Inferno Artist Ben Cronin
Post Producer Helen Stanley
BT Customer Care Sounds
Agency St Luke's
Agency Producer Kate Male
Production Company Outsider Films
Director Nick Gordon
Producer John Madsen
Inferno Artist Ben Cronin
Telecine Colourist Dave Ludlam
Post Producer Helen Stanley
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