Engine produces third in series of ‘Priceless Music’ tvcs for Debit Mastercard via McCann
The third in the series of Debit MasterCard’s Priceless Music TVCs sees Engine and McCann-Erickson, Sydney take the level of creativity and production values up a notch with one of the hottest names in the music industry – Florence and the Machine.
McCann ECD Michael Raso said: “These TVCs are not easy projects and they come to life after a great deal of clever creative and lots of hard work. It’s a big plus that Engine can take care of all the design, production and post production in house and we are very happy with the results they produce for us and MasterCard. I’m delighted to say the ads have been very well received and have had a great impact on raising awareness for Debit MasterCard.”
Says Engine CD Simon Robson (Knife Party): “This TVC is the most vibrant so far with more production, more scenes and more 3D. It follows a similar look and feel to the first two but we are able to append the stop motion with photo-realistic 3D and create even more detailing.”
As with the Birds of Tokyo and Kasabian, the previous two Debit MasterCard Priceless Music TVCs, McCann ECD Michael Raso and his team brainstormed with Engine and then gave the company a great deal of autonomy and flexibility to produce the ads.
Says Robson: “After sitting down with Michael and the team we realised there was a lot of work in this spot and we that we had to figure out complex camera angles which would make the spot feel poppy and colourful whilst still appearing energetic. Florence’s image is very textured, floral and arty and we had to combine this with the graphic, papery, blocky look that has become synonymous with the Priceless Music series. It was a tricky thing to achieve but one that, in the end, looked great.”
Robson began working from a set of ideas based around the fact that Florence was originally called Florence Robot, a name which conjured up a plethora of fun for Engine’s creative team.
Robson continued: “We built a 50’s-style female tin robot for a restaurant scene and had a lot of fun combining steam punk and future retro styles. We have a robot pouring nuts and bolts onto a bowl of cornflakes placed there by a human hand and many other half robot, half human references. The design is very different scene to scene in this spot and there is much less in camera than in the previous two ads. We also worked hard to maintain the physical and textural aspects of the first two spots whilst carefully combining them with the stream of consciousness direction that has been received so well.”
For the Florence and the Machine commercial Engine again concentrated on a wide layering of detail that included Florence’s hair growing and encircling the instruments – signifying her various musical collaborations and a robot that squirts red ketchup which quickly transforms into the Chinese flag, then a model of Mount Everest in Nepal complete with planes, hawks and mountain goats.
Says Engine EP Adam Wells: “We really went to town with this spot taking the real, surreal and abstract combining them and coming back full circle to Florence and the Machine. It’s great to have done three in this series, each more creative than the previous. We are very lucky to be working with such a prestigious brand as MasterCard, a forward thinking agency like McCann and amazing artists like Florence and the Machine. We’re very much look forward to our next project with Michael Raso and his team.”
Debit MasterCard’s Priceless Music Florence and the Machine TVC went live to air nationally on 16 October and Florence and the Machine play opens at Sydney’s Seymour Centre on 15 November.
Client – MasterCard
TVC – Priceless Music – Florence and the Machine
Production Credits –
Executive Producer: Adam Wells
Producer: Chris Seeto
Director: Simon Robson
Lead 3D artist: Max McMullin
Lead designer / animator: Josh Edwards
3D Artists: Sean Pow, Shaun Schellings, Julian Reinhold
2D animator: Nick Petley
Design Assistants: Kiah Barker, Ben Thorn
Flame Artist: Lee Sandiford
DoP: Tony Gardiner
Agency Credits
Agency: McCann Worldgroup
Executive Creative Director: Michael Raso
Creatives: Celine Faledam, Rachel Guest
Agency Producers: Ros Payne, Colin Tuohy
Account Management: Isabel Cox
4 Comments
cool kinda handmade..
Not sure why they insist on perpetuating this utterly rubbish campaign. I suppose it creates work for voice-over artists and animators.
yeah, agree with friend of McCann. What would be MUCH better would be 30 seconds of the music promo and then a super coming up at the end saying ‘Go see Florence at the Seymour centre, she’s great’. OR, better still, have some trustworthy looking bloke speaking straight to camera saying, ‘Go Go see Florence at the Seymour centre, she’s great’. Right, I’m phoning MasterCard…
Great work guys – Team effort