Categories: General

Smith and Foulkes: Comcast “Sing-a-Long”

For a series of four spots, Nexus Productions‘ Oscar-nominated directing duo Smith & Foulkes built a campy world brimming with detail and color for Comcast and agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners:

(I recommend starting with “Hi Def” and “On Demand.”)

Re-playability is key. These are going to be blasted into homes over and over for months to come, so I appreciate that Smith & Foulkes and their team of unsung heroes spent so much time and energy adding in little bits for me to discover on each viewing. (That also gave interactive studio Unit 9 endless fodder for developing the companion website.)

The Kimya Dawson-esque soundtrack is either wonderful or wretched, depending on personal tastes, but it was a big factor in Smith & Foulkes’ creative process:

It was really the music that first attracted us to the Comcast project. With this as our starting point we thought it would be fun to create a world where the whole community lives to the rhythm of the music. We decided there would no cuts and the environment would be totally isometric.

That isometric approach reminds me of eBoy’s legendary illustrations, which were undoubtedly an influence on the team. But that’s not to take anything away from the outstanding work that illustrator/character-designer Chris Martin did on these spots. He brought his own unique style to bear on this project, softening the precision of the isometric perspective with his hand-drawn charm.

Adam Smith and Alan Foulkes both made cameos, by the way. See if you can spot them.

Credits

Title: ‘Sing-a-Long’
Client: Comcast
Duration: 1 x 60″, 5 x 30″

AGENCY
Creative Director: Jamie Barrett
Group Creative Director: Chris Ford
ACD/Art Director: Stefan Copiz
ACD/Copywriter: Paul Charney
Copywriter: Andrew Bancroft
Producer: Ashley Sferro

PRODUCTION
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Producer: Chris O’Reilly & Julia Parfitt
Producer: Isobel Conroy
Art Director / VFX Supervisor: Fletcher Moules
Illustration & Character Design: Chris Martin
3D Animation & Compositing: Nexus

LIVE ACTION PRODUCTION
c/o Bright Pictures

INTERACTIVE PRODUCTION
Producer: Pip Malone
Interactive Director: Tim Dillon
Production: Nexus

Justin Cone

Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.