THE PROJECT LAUNCH

Winning Hearts and Minds With The Pitch

The challenge with this spot was in convincing the powers-that-be to do something bold and original. I knew we needed to make a splash. It had to be completely different than anything the market had seen before. TV3 had a legacy of difficult ratings at the 7 o’clock hour and needed to appear fresh and relevant. Since it was a News show, there was a lot of hestitancy to take such a giant risk. I mean, who uses a musical to sell news? But, after I walked them through the idea and presented them with a detailed storyboard of how the thing would be made they slowly came around to the idea. Here you can see the storyboards from the early pitch:

Animatics, Choreography & Song

But, even with the storyboards, the shoot was complicated by the need to create a song and coordinate dancing. And, all of this had to be done by our on-air talent. None of whom were either professional singers or dancers. Undeterred, I began developing the song with the help of Smoke Music Production. Together we developed the lyrics and style of song so that it would work well with the concept. I married the rough music track to an animatic made out of my very rough scribbles, and then took that to a choreographer. Here is an early animatic cut together with the scratch music before I recorded the final with talent.

Final Spot

After a week of talent rehearsals we went down to Albert Park in Auckland to shoot. I broke the entire thing down into smaller, more manageable segments and then shot it in sequence. Working closely with the steadicam operator we were able to immerse the audience in the look and feel of a Busby Berkeley style musical.