Garth Davis Dreams a Whole World for Sony 4K Televisions

IDEA: Sony's 4K Ultra HD television, with four times the resolution of regular HD, literally stops people in their tracks. Filmmaker Garth Davis saw one at the Sundance Film Festival and ended a conversation in midsentence to go look at it. That eureka moment led to 180LA's new 60-second spot for the TV, directed by Davis, who also stars in it and does the voiceover. Filmed with Sony Cine-Alta F65 and F55 4K cameras, the ad features Davis ruminating on how the beauty and clarity of 4K help close the gap between what he can imagine in his mind's eye as a filmmaker—illustrated by the ad's grand and surreal visions—and what he can actually show on a screen. "My brief was very simple," said Davis. "To bring to life my imagination with no boundaries as long as it celebrated the colors aqua and red, and there were scenes epic enough to show off the 4K resolution." COPYWRITING: The agency wanted to explore what such amazing visual resolution would mean to a director. "We literally asked Garth to imagine what kind of world that kind of detail might inspire him to dream up," said 180 copywriter Zac Ryder. "He came back to us with a bunch of ideas, and we worked together to shape them from there." Watching TV at home, Davis looks down to see a small bluebird in his hands. Looking up, he finds himself sitting on a chair in a vast ocean. He sees a woman in a red dress; a giant spaceship; a floating house; dozens of people in period costume climbing huge ladders; cannon warfare among a throng of ships. "The sea connects to our inner world and can be deeply emotional and surreal," said Davis. "I also love how the imagination can be so random, and the connection in the scenes are somewhat there but not understood. … I looked back for inspiration at Salvador Dali, J.M.W. Turner, Fellini and Andrew Wyeth, all of which reminded me to be bold, mad, elegant and precise." Davis' voiceover ends with the line: "Now there are no more barriers between the world that I see and ones I can show you. Only on a Sony 4K Ultra HDTV." The spot ends with the Sony logo and tagline, "make.believe." ART DIRECTION/FILMING: Davis—who also directed Coke's "Sleepwalker" and Schweppes's "Burst" ads—filmed for four days outside Auckland, New Zealand, in a few feet of water in a giant bay. The cinematographer was Claudio Miranda, who won an Oscar for Life of Pi and had worked with 4K cameras before. Davis wanted real water—no CGI. "That meant putting all of the camera equipment, lighting rigs and generators on rafts while we shot, and then moving all of the equipment in and out with the tides," said Ryder. "It was pretty time consuming. But the end result looks incredible." The 4K version of the spaceship, built by MPC in real-world scale at nearly 300 meters in diameter, is the largest digital asset ever created for a commercial, the agency says. It's no coincidence that the spot has strong splashes of color. "One of the things that is unique to Sony, obviously, is color," said Davis. "So, not only are we telling a story that's surreal, we're also trying to capture moments of intense color." SOUND: An original score by music house Human is a mix of piano and orchestral sounds, changing from scene to scene. "We wanted to create a track that would replicate what's happening in Garth's imagination," said Ryder. "So as Garth is imagining new worlds, the melody begins to evolve and find itself." MEDIA: The ad is running on national broadcast TV, in cinemas and in rich-media banners online. THE SPOT: CREDITS Client: Sony Vice President, Brand Experience Marketing & Direct Visual Merchandising: Patrick Bewley Director, Brand Experience Marketing: Christine Gately-Evans Senior Manager, Brand Experience Marketing: Ken Byers Spot: "Imagine" Agency: 180, Los Angeles Executive Creative Director: William Gelner Creative Directors: Dave Horton, Matthew Woodhams-Roberts Copywriter: Zac Ryder Art Director: Adam Groves Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley Producer: Emma Starzacher Account Director: Nancy Bernacchi Account Manager: Mike Slatkin Account Coordinator: Sarah Lynch Planner: Mitch Polatin Production Co.: Reset Director: Garth Davis DP: Claudio Miranda Managing Director: David Morrison Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall Head of Production: Jen Beitler Producer: Karen Sproul Production Designer: Kim Jarrett Costume Designer: Barbara Darragh Casting Company: Catch Casting Casting Director: Linda McFetridge Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors LA Editor: Stewart Reeves Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver Producer: Alexandra Zickerick Effects Company: MPC LA Creative Director: Paul O'Shea VFX Supervisor: Andy Boyd 2D Artists: Miles Essmiller, Paul O'Shea, Martin Hall Concept Artist: Robert Brown Matte Painter: Kristin Johnson 3D Artists: Andy Boyd, Scott Metzger, Ross Denner, Aaron Hamman, Atsushi Imamura, Steward Burris, Jean-Dominique Fievet, Jonathan Vaughn, Rick Walia, Hayley O'Neill, Mike Wynd, Dustin Colson, Ian Wilson Telecine Artist: Mark Gethin Telecine Asst: Derek Hansen Executive Producer: Asher Edwards Producers: Nick Fraser, Diana De Vries Recording Studio: Eleven Sound Mixer: Jeff Payne Asst Mixer: Ben Freer Executive Producer: Caroline O'Sullivan Original Music: human Sound Design: human

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Garth Davis Dreams a Whole World for Sony 4K Televisions

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Tim Nudd

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