The Stay - Ritz Carlton

Ritz-Carlton, Esquire, and Harper’s Bazarr teamed up to give 5 Directors a chance to tell stories using the Ritz-Carlton as a backdrop. They describe the concept as, “What happens next to intriguing characters who find themselves inside one or our spectacular suites.” Each filmmaker was also given to criteria. Each film needs to show the hotel lobby and the suite, and the filmmakers were limited to two main characters.

After filming at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and learning about its film history I can see the draw for a luxury brand to advertise this way. These stories allow you to imagen what it would be like to stay in these hotels. Also, I noticed on YouTube they had links to book at the hotels. That being said it was kind of hard for me to find these videos once I learned about them on Facebook. Makes me wonder who they are really meant for.

How could we use this in our own work? Perhaps if I would have saw this when Tru was a new client and they wanted to introduce the brand to the new team members I would have suggested something like this? Tell several stories that allow are inspired by the brand and inspire them to image the interactions they would have with future guests. And I am sure we could do the same with a non-hotel client.

Which one do you think is your favorite so far?

From Paper to Screen

FROM PAPER TO SCREEN from Thibault de Fournas on Vimeo.

Interesting usage of kinetic type, the exploding letters and clean usage are pretty cool. The music shifts from paper to film are certainly dramatic and emphasize the difference well. The differing titles also remind a lot of the opening to Kroll Show... which is awesome always

Films with Empathy

Every now and again, when writing a treatment, I find myself describing one of the objectives is “to create a sense of empathy.” And this short stood out to me as an example of when a film can sucker punch you right in the feels.

I also noticed a few parallels as it relates to the kind of work we do. For example, the scene with Salote and her manager could be compared to some of the communication and coaching themes that we deal with from time to time. Likewise, the idea that “everyone has a story” and “you never know what another person is going through” is a concept we've explored on a few occasions and I specifically like how, in this example, the audience is learning Salote's true motives along with the supporting characters - the misdirection is very clever.

Lastly, this film is simply shot really well. I would be interested in thinking about how we might be about to bring this sort of cinematic quality to our work as well.

Night Shift from Zia Mandviwalla on Vimeo.