Ground Zero, a Los Angeles agency, bought the distribution rights to Pinky Vodka, a Swedish brand, and began promoting it around Valentine’s Day with a viral video, Cupid, that transforms the arrow slinger myth with a brand related message–since ladies are in love with Pinky Vodka, Cupid’s job is a lot more difficult. The video was produced by Savant Film.
“Fifty-five percent of the market is women, but there aren’t many products geared toward them,” said Court Crandall, executive creative director at Ground Zero. “We launched it around Valentine’s Day so we thought it would be funny to look at Cupid’s life and portray him not as a relaxed cherubic guy, but under duress because he has competition in the market. He has to work harder and faster, like Willy Loman.”
The video is a first person account of Cupid, played by Michael Serrato, who is shown shooting arrows in his golden days before he proclaims, “Today, it’s totally unmanageable because women everywhere are falling in love with Pinky Vodka.” Brief scenes of women drinking Pinky Vodka in a bar follow before Cupid is shown walking the streets, determined to work harder before he returns to his workshop and orders his grandpa to make more arrows.
Carolyn Chen, who directed the video for Savant, said it was lensed in late January in Los Angeles. The indoor scenes were shot in a machine shop to produce “an office, blue collar workday vibe,” and the outdoor scenes were shot in Los Feliz, a trendy area of L.A.
“We created the character and devised some Rube Goldberg devices, like a Gatling gun, a turreted gun he used to shoot arrows,” she said. The next scene shows Cupid in the sky, firing more arrows. “We flew him overhead on some wires and used a special stunt unit that raised him up on a forklift with flying harness wires that we removed in post,” she said.
The one minute thirty-eight second film was shot during one day with a 35mm Arri cam light camera. When asked why a digital camera wasn’t used, Chen said, “All my work is done in film, so it was never considered.”
Chen praised Serrato, who was found through a detailed casting call. “We went to a lot of comedy shops in L.A. and independent comedy troupes and dug deep for someone who could play Cupid. We got a great response.”
She said the goal was “not to make it look like a broad comedy but an intimate portrait of Cupid, which helped the comedy. If we’d tried to be funny with the filmmaking it wouldn’t have been as sweet and intimate.” Crandall said Chen “understood comedy and how to make the product look beautiful in an upscale way.”
The film plays at http://www.pinkyvodka.com and YouTube. Crandall said it was also distributed to an email list of 118,000 women called Billion Dollar Babes.
“Sentimental Value” Tops The European Film Awards With 6 Wins, Including Best Picture and Director
Sentimental Value was the big winner at the 38th European Film Awards on Saturday evening (1/17) in Berlin. The feature took home six awards from the European Film Academy--best European film, best director for Joachim Trier, best screenwriter for Trier and Eskil Vogt, best actress for Renate Reinsve, best actor for Stellan Skarsgard, and best original score for composer Hania Rani. Also enjoying a highlight evening was director and co-writer Oliver Laxe’s Sirat which dominated the crafts categories with five awards--for best cinematographer (Mauro Herce), editor (Cristobal Fernandez), production designer (Laia Ateca), sound designer (Laia Casanovas), and casting director (Nadia Acimi, Luis Bertolo, Maria Rodrigo). Here’s a full rundown of the winners: European Film: SENTIMENTAL VALUE (titled AFFEKSJONSVERDI in Norwegian) (Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden) – directed by Joachim Trier, produced by Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Juliette Schrameck, Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz, Fionnuala Jamison, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Lizette Jonjic, Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Maren Ade, Atilla Salih Yücer & Lars Thomas Skare European Documentary: FIUME O MORTE! (Croatia, Slovenia, Italy), directed by Igor Bezinović European Animated Feature Film: This award is presented in co-operation with CARTOON, the European Association of Animation Film. ARCO (France), directed by Ugo Bienvenu European Director: Joachim Trier for SENTIMENTAL VALUE (AFFEKSJONSVERDI) European Actress: WINNER: Renate Reinsve in SENTIMENTAL VALUE (AFFEKSJONSVERDI) European Actor: Stellan Skarsgård in SENTIMENTAL VALUE... Read More