We’ve made a new film for greentomatocars.
greentomatocars is London’s largest environmentally friendly taxi service, and one of our newest clients. Whilst most Londoners see their cars all over the place, lots of people don’t know what greentomatocars stand for or that they operate as a regular taxi service. So our first brief was a chance to communicate some of the most exciting things about the company’s mission to people outside their loyal customer base.
Their fleet consists entirely of Toyota Prius hybrids, as the greenest viable option there is today; they hacked one of their own vehicles to make a fully functioning plug-in Prius; they introduced free wifi to their cars; and they’ve built a team of drivers who are famous for friendly, efficient service, and who are rewarded under a progressive franchise scheme.
We wanted to bring to life this sleeves-up but sophisticated approach to creating a cleaner environment. It’s an inventive brand full of optimism, charm, energy and integrity, and we wanted to make a film that embodied these values in its content, tone and methods.
The film was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II over two nights in November, and uses laser technology to trace transient green illustrations and murals across some of London’s darker corners, including Battersea Power Station. The technology was developed by Sensaa. A camera and computer generate graphics from a laser wand as it moves across surfaces, which are then projected onto the building.
A brilliant team joined us in London from various locations across the globe to make this bit of work. Big thanks goes to Edward Shearon and Cecilie Maurud Barstad (illustrators); Angel Sastre (laser technician); Evan Dilworth and Phil Ward (projectionists); Luc Janin (director and illustrator); Fred Robinson (executive producer); Jonny Goldstone, Hamish Phillips, Tom Pakenham, the cast of drivers and everyone at greentomatocars; Hannah Allen, Martin Casson, Martin Davey, Abigail Findlay, Andy Lockley, Doug Lyon, Margot Molinari, Susan Northcott, Ida Rezvani, Tala Saadeh from the agency.
15 Comments
Great video guys.
Very nice! Similar to the laser tag open source project by the graffiti research lab – although that’s non-commercial, so I guess this is all custom built.
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/projects/laser-tag/
Hello. Thanks! Yes, absolutely. Laser Tag is great. We worked with Sensaa as they make a commercial product. http://www.sensaa.com/
Is this the same Sensaa that are shamelessly passing off other artist’s work as their own (eg taking other artist’s video documentation stripping off logos and adding their own watermark).
http://www.lapetiteclaudine.com/archives/014639.html
Shame, as it devalues what would otherwise be an awesome project.
F
Really cool light technology. Enjoyed it. Thumbs up guys.
This seems really cool. I’d like to try it!
What beast of a projector are you using, I wonder?
I always had thought that Dentsu’s collaboration with Berg for the Making Future Magic films was a perfect example of how an agency could support the work of innovative designers and artists. It’s a shame that you have decided to go the opposite way by collaborating with parasites that are shamelessly ripping off the work of those taking risks and making important research, like the GRL.
People like Sensaa should have no place in this industry, and you should know it.
You should give credit to GRL rather than sensaa. It is very disgusting to see companies stealing artists ideas and making profit of it. The least expected would be giving credit to the original developers, not the company copying it…
Hello JL and Paul.
We want to collaborate with anyone with shared creative interests, but most of our work is commercial (including the Berg collaboration).
We’re huge fans of the GRL, and of many artists who understandably choose not to work in the commercial sphere. We also think there’s room for all these people to co-exist, making their own kinds of contributions.
Hey guys, this is absolutely fabulous and definetely the time beyond advertising. Emotional,creative, unexpected, authentic piece of real life just happening. Yet leaving a clear message. Wow.
Congratulations.
Annie
simply wonderful, and very inspiring!
Beeker,
Sensaa didn’t make any kind of contribution; they just stole an artist idea because the creators of the original piece don’t want to use it in the commercial context. Not only they are profiting on other people’s research and creativity, they are doing so because the artists decided not to do this project in the context of advertising.
You can choose to do what you like, obviously, but by deciding to support the activities of people who are clearly damaging for the relationships between artists and agencies, you are not doing any favour to all of those artists you are huge fans of.
beautiful and brilliant work guys. i love your bit about “making future magic”. please what is the song used in the video?
Thanks Vanessa
That’s nice to read.
It’s called “Never mess with Sunday”, by Yppah.
What an inspiring and wonderful piece with an eco message! truly a new generation in advertising.