Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Creative Planet Communites : Designinmotion - CreoCollective Drives Traktor Coast to Coast for Nextel

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Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 03:09:21 -0400

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News

CreoCollective Drives Traktor Coast to Coast for Nextel

By Katie Makal

Jun 26, 2003, 15:35 PST

Stills from "Tower"
Click for Large Image

For a groundbreaking Nextel campaign that hit the airwaves on May 31, Santa Monica's CreoCollective supervised the physical construction of a 400,000-foot-tall tower, worked for more than two years training homing pigeons to track rooftop data and set up shop in Africa to breed "antennalope," who can relay radio signals. Well, not really, but that's the running gag in Nextel's Coast to Coast Walkie Talkie service television campaign. Created by Mullen, the spots were directed by Traktor. The directorial team worked closely with CreoCollective to execute the spots.

"Tower"

In this spot, a fictional Nextel spokesman explains how the company has constructed a tower in Kansas that is tall enough to reach outer space so customers can enjoy walkie-talkie service from New York to Los Angeles. In voiceover, an announcer reveals that this is a bogus explanation -- but, somehow, the service is available nationwide. While the "how" about the effect remains shrouded in secrecy, the "what" is visible on the screen. CreoCollective created a CG tower, most of the construction site featured in the spot, a cityscape and a bridge. Only the road and river are real.

Stills from "Pigeons"
Click for Large Image

"The idea of the spot looking like a documentary made it interesting. There was no fancy effect that could be used to integrate the somewhat unbelievable tower into the scene," said CreoCollective, speaking collectively. The effects team also composited a construction worker -- played by a member of Traktor -- into one scene and enhanced the outer space experience in another. "There was a lot of discussion about what sort of engineering might go into a structure that reached into outer space," said Traktor, also speaking collectively. "As far as we know, it hasn't been done yet. With CreoCollective's FTP site, we would all review design and compositing works in progress. We wanted the tower to look believable -- almost. Sort of a controlled amount of absurdity. The Internet is good for that."

"Pigeons"

In this spot, the explanation for Nextel's Coast to Coast Walkie Talkie program is that homing pigeons fly from one coast to the other to relay the telephone data. CreoCollective created CG pigeons that are shown conducting their perilous mission and provided graphics for the monitors at the Nextel mock pigeon relay control center.

Stills from "Antennalope"
Click for Large Image

"This spot was supposed to be easier, but it ended up being tricky," Traktor related. "Apparently, there are rooftop-pigeon-based control systems for paging networks, but not yet for cell phones. We had to build our own set, which ended up being on stage when we realized it wouldn't fit into the elevator. CreoCollective composited it perfectly into place, then designed and animated the graphics for all of the computer screens. No pigeons were harmed, although they did complain a bit about the craft services."

"Antennalope"

A herd of antennalope are shown migrating across the plains, frolicking and grazing as antelope do. Thanks to CreoCollective, however, these antelope have antennae so they can relay signals from Nextel's Walkie Talkie service. Nextel's antennalope story is again a bogus one. Traktor initially considered a practical in-camera approach to this spot. "We had actually been speaking with a wildlife ranch in Texas about duct-taping some antennas onto real antelope and shooting this live action," the directors said.

"Originally, we liked the duct tape idea," said CreoCollective, "but none of us wanted to spend all that time on set, so we opted for the more cozy darkness of our office, where we painted out each antler and replaced it with an animated CG antenna." The end result is more realistic. Traktor pointed out, "While we have some experience wrestling reindeer in the Swedish Tundra, CreoCollective offered a more simple solution."

CREDITS

Client: Nextel

Agency: Mullen, Wenham, Massachusetts

Creative Director/Copywriter:

Jim Hagar

Creative Director/Art Director:

Jason Stinsmuehlen

Associate Creative Director/Art Director:

Rich Wallace

Producer:

Alyson Singer

Production Company: Partizan, New York

Director:

Traktor

Head of Production/Producer:

Jim Bouvet

Visual Effects Company: CreoCollective, Santa Monica

Editorial Company: MacKenzie Cutler, New York

Editor:

Gavin Cutler

Producer:

Sundy Procter

Assistant Editor:

Colleen Shea

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