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TRUCE

PRETTYBIRD, Culver City / LOGITECH / 2013

Awards:

Bronze Cannes Lions
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Case Film
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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

BriefExplanation

Showcasing the power of music and the roll it plays in brining people together, Logitech sought to highlight four major events in history where music played an integral role. Setting their sights first on the WWI Christmas Truce, we get to experience fist hand that night on the eve of Christmas in 1914, when German and British soldiers laid down their weapons and came together at the center of no man’s land. It was the music that emanated from the opposing side’s trenches that brought these dueling armies together and allowed them to push aside their differences and act as humans, even if for one evening. This spot serves as a reminder to the fact that even in the most brutal and inhuman of circumstances people can be deeply affected by music and that in the end, no matter our beliefs might be, we’re all looking for that human connection and in this case, it was music that served as that catalyst.

Execution

– A campaign that proved to be not only bold in its scope and scale, but one that was remarkably ambitious when considering the financials and other realities production faced.

The campaign consists of four visually distinct spots from four strikingly different eras: Truce (WWI), El General (The Arab Spring), Radio City (UK Pirate Radio of the 1960s) and Space (International Space Station). Determined to viscerally transport viewers into each of these eras, the director refused to compromise on authenticity and as a result, in just ten calendar days, shot three different countries (Morocco, Romania, UK) with five shoot days and one pre-light. the production designer and his team literally dug life size trenches in the outskirts of Bucharest to recreate the moonscape panoramas that became No Man’s Land in WWI for Truce. In Morocco, production staged a riot with a cast of hundreds of impassioned locals, to recreate the Arab Spring for El General, resulting in police needing to be called in to quell the emotions of those witnessing the spectacle. In Radio City, a production team of only six crew members traveled by boat to the now abandoned Red Sand sea forts in the Thames estuary to shoot the actual fort exteriors, only to be hit by a surge in waves and some bad weather, with production losing a camera in the process. And lastly for Space, we quite literally rebuilt one of the main towers of the International Space Station down to spec on a stage in Romania, with special attention made to allot for wire rigging for our “weightless” actors.

In addition to authenticity of location, production relied heavily on archival images and floor plans, specifically for Truce and Radio City; our WWI trenches were built to spec, along with our Pirate Radio stations. Also, to better replicate the times, period antiques and actual wardrobe items from the various eras were used as props whenever possible.

Due to the incredibly ambitious schedule, each of these spots (with El General and Truce sustaining 2 minutes of film) was shot in a single day, with the exception of Radio City, which had a single day dedicated to interior and exterior shots so that production could shoot the real forts.

The production budget of the entire campaign came to under $900,000, which included local service company fees in England, Romania, and Morocco. The Director and his producer traveled from the States, joining his incredible European AD, DP, and PD who together worked with all local crews in each of the diverse cities. The narrator character was cast out of London – all other actors were local to each locale.

Throughout this monumental production, the agency, acted as true collaborators, working hand-in-hand from start to finish, resulting in a campaign that’s both incredibly brave and smart and one that we are all very proud of.

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