This fall I directed a fun (and funny) commercial for rock-star Cincinnati Advertising Agency, Curiosity and their client Roto Rooter. Curiosity has been doing some hilarious (and occasionally irreverent) social media creative work for the company and our commercial continued the lighthearted approach to the venerable brand.
The project had many challenges that are unfortunately familiar to those of us who choose to live in the “fly-over” states… quick turn around, challenging budgets, trying to make freezing cold fall day look balmy, blah, blah, blah, no big deal, the usually drill.
The benefit of limited financial resources is that you are forced to focus on the core of the idea. You have to ask tough questions, plan meticulously and really exercise those creative muscles. I figured in order to to make the most of our script we needed to spend the bulk of our resources on casting and talent fees. This was a character driven script, we needed a character. I convinced the creative team to keep their minds open to all ages, colors, shapes and sizes. We gave the actors freedom to play with the character during casting and found some real gems.
The thirty second version (above) turned out great and as an added bonus we were even able to cut a fun :15 second spot out of the footage (see below).