Volvo Is the Cousin of Death in Odd Spec Spot from German Duo

By Patrick Coffee 

Cars are supposed to make us look cool and keep us safe in that order, according to 95% of the auto ads we see.

Volvo takes the second point to a very weird place in a new spot out of Germany that launched yesterday. It was directed by Daniel & Dorian, the same German film school team behind last December’s Johnnie Walker project that got very popular in our parent publication.

We are fairly sure that this project, like that one, is spec work since it’s not on the official Volvo channel and we got the pitch from Yessian, the music production company that worked on it. We’re also pretty sure Volvo would never run an ad like this one, even in Germany.

So it’s ostensibly an ad for Volvo’s autonomous driving feature, but it feels more like a particularly morbid short produced by the newly European Wes Andersen. Or not.

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“The ABCs of Death” was also apparently a horror/comedy project that debuted in 2012 and featured shorts helmed by a bunch of international directors. Nothing is original, but it doesn’t matter as long as those Basset Hounds are OK.

Published on Oct 25, 2016
Director: Dorian & Daniel

Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
DoP: Jan David Günther
Producer: Celina Finger, Madlen Folk

Production Design: Mona Otterbach
Editor: Raquel Caro Nunez
Music: Yessian Music GmbH
Composer: Ralf Denker Ingmar Rehberg
Sounddesign: Marvin Keil
Idea: Dorian & Daniel
Idea dove scene: Andre Price

CAST
Amber: Johanna Katharina Riebesam
Berry: Stephen M. Gilbert
Clara: Verena Plangger
Dora & Friends: Leonie Walther, Julian Weiss, Martin Lapp
Eric: Frank Roder
Garry: Andreas Wellano
Heinrich: Marcus Widmann
Couple: Katharina Wittenbrink, Manuel Flach
Basset Hounds: True Pleasure Basset Hounds

CREW
Unit Production Manager: Alexander Pietzsch Christian Dieckhoff
Unit Production Manager Assistants: Fabian Kappes David Jasim Anja Schmidt Peer Andre Grote Ganya Mosolf Tobias Gerginov
Costume Design: Annika Osterrieder Kathrin Radke
Hair and Make-Up: Hanna Pfeiffer Carlo Benz
Production Sound Mixer: Markus Fass
1st Camera Assistant: Adrian Huber, Felix Koster
2nd Camera Assistant + DIT: Alexander Zimmermann
3rd Camera Assistant : David zu Höhne, Joscha Bongard
Gaffer: Johannes Reichau, Maximilian Pittner
Best Boy: Felix Zenker, Dominik John
Lighning Technicians / Electricians: Michael Throne, Timon Dangel, Fabian Decker, Mehdi Ayadi, Fabian Rumor, Lucas Maibaum, David zu Höhne, Lukas Eicher, Ernst Lattik, Philipp Henze
Grip: Mark Zechner, Manuel Musch
Production Design Assistant: Marta Jeszke, Carla Jerschl, Amelie Hofmann, Tim Peter
Stunt Coordinator: VIP Stunts, Sigi Polap & Igor Tjumenzf
Swingfog Operator: Christian Grözinger

VISUAL EFFECTS ARTISTS
Visual Effects Supervisor: Julian Weiss
CGI doves: brickbeach c/o Power to the Artists GmbH
CGI explosion: nhb video GmbH
Matte Paintings and additional CGI: Dorian & Daniel
Color Grading: Harvest Digital Agriculture GmbH
Color Grading Artist: Dennis Wieck

Catering: Ganya Mosolf, Nathalie Lamb
Car Rental: car motion service GmbH

sponsored by: Caligari Preis 2016, Gestiftet von der Stadt Ludwigsburg, ARRI Loaner, ARRI Rental Deutschland GmbH

special thanks to: Uwe Nesselthaler, Waltraut, Ochotzki, Ingmar Rehberg, Lukas Lehmann, Max Leist, ZAV München – Hermann Malzer, Agentur Julia Krüger, LVL Jäger – Frank Metzger

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