Bicoastal production/design studio Blind applies a scissors-and-glue effect to popular films and TV shows in vivid new 3D animated :30s, including "TV Plus RR" and "Triple RR" for Bright House Networks out of Fry/Hammond/Barr, Orlando, FL. The playful spots are 30-second glides through worlds of 'hidden CG' paper cutout such as Pirates of the Caribbean, The Daily Show, sports and rock 'n' roll imagery.
"We've been big fans of Blind's work for awhile and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to work together," said John Logan, creative director and copywriter at Fry/Hammond/Barr. "We didn't have much to work with when we started, just some bad footage and a rough script. Once we closed in on the treatment and got into production, there seemed to be a point in every creative meeting with Blind where I said, 'You can do that?' Since the message was retail, we had to make the visuals amazing, and Blind totally delivered."
Having taken this 4-spot campaign from concept to completion, Blind's colorful :30s show how the conventions of paper cutout design can be thoroughly shattered, springing to life with a little help from Maya and an eye for making CG paper look real.
In "TV Plus RR," a snaking white power cord leads us into a paper cutout baseball stadium as it springs out of a stark white backdrop. Behind the batter's box, a plasma TV pops up aglow with the "MLB Tonight" logo. The voiceover begins, "No one makes it easier than Bright House Networks." We pull back into a brightly colored animated box touting the broadband provider's TV + Internet deal. The voiceover continues, "...do more online with an Internet connection that's always faster than DSL." A cutout paper crowd, toy gun, U.S. Constitution and laptop displaying The Daily Show's Jon Stewart appear. We hear, "...Watch your favorite movie and sports action on any HD TV in the house," in voiceover, as a coastal scene unfolds and paper pirate ships float by a plasma TV screen, showing Pirates of the Caribbean.
Lastly, a paper rocket blasts out of an unfolding laptop and the voiceover concludes, "Faster Internet, more value, better bundles. The choice is easy." Trailed by vapor constructed of puffs of paper cutouts, the rocket flies past an astronaut, resolving on the Bright House Networks logo closing out the spot.
"Triple RR" opens on a CG golf ball rolling into a forest of crumpled paper trees. A voiceover begins, "When you're searching for the best value in interactive TV, home phone and Internet service, look no further than Bright House Networks." Next to a plasma TV alive with women golfers, the ball drops down into a golf hole. We follow the ball, plunging into a guitar-shaped pool with a beach ball. The pool morphs into a 3D guitar pointing to a laptop flanked by giant dancing cowboy boots and a small crowd in mid-ho-down; the animated scene appears as pages lifted directly from a magazine and brought to life. A chalkboard envelopes the screen with the formula, "TV, Home Phone + Internet = $200 savings," as political and sports buttons rain down over an iChat-engaged computer and an iPod. A fleet of paper airplanes leads us over a globe and down to ground level where a row of dominos topples over.
The voiceover concludes, "Faster Internet, more value, better bundles. The choice is easy." To close the :30, one of the paper airplanes hits smack dab into the Bright House Networks logo.