Credits:
PRODUCTION COMPANY: THE COLONY - SYDNEY/U.S.A
DIRECTOR: The Colony
PRODUCER: SUSAN WALKER
DP: WILLIAM REXER II
VFX: POST MODERN SYDNEY
VFX SUPERVISOR: JAMES ROGERS
VFX PRODUCER: JOSIE KING
AGENCY: M&C SAATCHI, SYDNEY
CD: BEN WELSH
WRITER: JOSHUA ROWE
AD: JASON WOELFL
HEAD OF TV: ROD JAMES
Directing collective The Colony
(www.the-colony.com
for telecommunications company Optus, featuring pop artist Rihanna, via M&C
Saatchi, Sydney (Australia). The Optus spot, entitled ³Out of this World,²
began airing nationally in Australia today, August 19th. The spot runs for
one month as a promotion of the Optus Prepay offering, and in conjunction
with Rihanna's ³Last Girl on Earth² tour in Australia (of which Optus is the
major sponsor). The next phase of the TV campaign is still in post
production.
The spot builds on the Optus brand¹s use of animals in its corporate
identity. Penguins have been used over the last couple of years as a
personification of the youth audience who primarily subscribe to Optus
Prepay Mobile. The penguins are basically teenage boys taking increasingly
outlandish adventures around the world and the universe, where they get to
hang out with various music celebrities. In previous commercials they were
found in LA with Pink and traveled to New York.
This Optus spot shows the penguins flying above Earth on their spacecraft,
and beaming up 'prizes' from down below. One of the penguins watches Rihanna
performing in concert via satellite feed. When the penguin decides to beam
Rihanna out of her show and into their ship, she good-naturedly has a bit of
fun floating in the Zero G environment and flirting with the slightly geeky
penguins - who are a little less cool once Rihanna actually arrives.
The spot¹s voiceover explains that when you recharge with Optus Prepay,
customers have the chance to win tickets to see Rihanna live in Australia,
as well as experience a Zero G flight.
Director David Gaddie of The Colony comments, ³This commercial was
conceptualized to convey a very cinematic sci-fi feel, so that it could
compete with the Hollywood sci-fi fare that the youth audience is accustomed
to. We worked with production designer George Liddle (Dark City,
Daybreakers) to create a very dramatic, industrial looking spacecraft. Our
design aesthetic came from the idea that this is a spacecraft made for
penguins. We built the ship to resemble a giant fish with a skeletal
interior.²
Rihanna was filmed on location over one day in Los Angeles. On the set, she
was attached to a flying rig that allowed her to float in the spacecraft.
Gaddie says, ³Rihanna was incredibly good natured about the whole process
and helped us achieve great visual results in collaboration with her
choreographer and movement coach, Tina Landon.
