We recently had the pleasure of writing/directing/producing a television spot for Clearly Contacts’ (a Coastal Contacts brand). What made it more special was that the star of the commercial was [Vancouver icon] Trevor Linden.
The approach to the spot was grown up and informational with limited reference to Trevor’s hockey career. But, we also wanted to find a way to let Trevor have some fun and to leave some Easter eggs online for his adoring BC fans. With that in mind, we wrote a series of “behind the scenes” spots designed to poke fun at bad, pun-filled athlete endorsements.
The campaign helped spread the word about the simple fact that we all pay too much for eyewear, but it also allowed Clearly Contacts to flex their humour muscle and remind us why they were named in BC Business’ Top 20 Innovative Companies.
The “director” (who was being directed by Leah Nelson, as was the television spot) was played by Graeme Duffy, local improv actor. Not only is he hilarious, but his diminutive size next to Trevor made him perfect. What we didn’t expect was that Trevor would go toe-to-toe with Graeme in the improv ring, one-upping our scripted lines as he went. In fact, his acting was so good that Graham had to break character on a few occasions to see if Trevor was actually as uncomfortable as he seemed. Of course he wasn’t—he was just so “in character” that he had us all fooled, causing Leah to stop the filming and say “Ok stop. Who is acting right now?”. So, there you have it; Trevor Linden can act. What’s more, he was probably the most pleasant actor we’ve every had the opportunity to work with.
Stay tuned for more behind the scenes action in the Clearly Contacts YouTube stream, or on Twitter.
Hi everyone. We’ve just thrown down a little portfolio update with four new projects, including this video for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Gala of Hope.
By now, this is sooooo last week, but we wanted to show-and-tell a project we worked on with Rethink Communications to promote the upcoming Vancouver Design Week. It started with a great concept and a lovely set of graphics designed by the Rethink creative team, which we (with Todd Smith) animated into a 2200 frame video. We then printed those 2200+ frames onto custom bills and filmed them at high speed, 10 at a time, rifling through a currency counter. The end result is a really cool flipbook-style video that we all had a blast putting together.
If you’re like me, and if you’re from Vancouver, you watched Trevor Linden captain the Canucks through some pretty awesome times, including the infamous ’94 playoff run. Needless to say, we were excited, honoured and charmed to work with Clearly Contacts to write, produce and direct this television spot featuring Trevor and his pair of magic (yet inexpensive!) glasses. Thanks to Faction Creative for bringing them to life.
Not too long ago we got a call from Memelabs, Vancouver-based video contest platform. They were putting together a contest for PBS to promote all of the exciting, new digital media experiences they’re offering.
We were engaged to work with the Memelabs and the PBS creative teams to produce the seeder video. After a number of story iterations, we landed on a script from the PBS team in which Dick, a private detective, acts as reluctant spokesperson for the contest.
We had a ton of fun art directing and animating the spot. Thanks to our pal, Chad Brealey, for being the face of Dick, and to Ryland Haggis for the great sound design (we liked working with him so much that we talked him into joining Team Ant on a full-time contract to soundify all of the fun stuff we’re working on right now!).
You can also see the spot here in our portfolio in higher res.
