Epic voyage

The Vancouver contingent of Apple Box Productions takes on a three-day assignment for B.C. Tel Mobility entitled ‘Odyssey’ and meets the original client request for a ‘five-dimensional, dream-like labyrinth’ in true epic form.

Constructed by bbdo in Vancouver as part of a clever marketing plan, ‘Odyssey’ consists of three 30s that, at first glance, look like three of the same. Structured as a montage, each spot draws on the same scenarios, but is edited differently.

The basic premise of the spots, which will air mid-month, is simple enough: allows you to make your way through the labyrinth of life, wherever unexpected it may take you.

Toronto-based director Cosimo Zitani takes this idea of movement to heart: our modern-day Odysseus negotiates his way through different scenarios or ‘rooms’ (cloud room, descending/ascending room, beach room, sand pit room, rotating room, forest room and tunnel room) – cellular phone in hand – unbound, unfazed, free; cinematographer Doug Koch handles the camera expressively, twisting and turning; a chair spins in mid-air.

Zitani’s visuals are certainly image-driven: he knows well the importance of form, movement and composition. True to the mise-en-scene aesthetic, Zitani creates, as Apple executive producer Greg Bosworth aptly puts it, ‘a frame that is striking graphically.’

As our epic hero urges us to use our imaginations and free ourselves from the shackles of time and space, Zitani heeds the call. In pure cinematic fashion, Zitani creates a discontinuity in filmic time and space by layering images, employing various film speeds and angles and juxtaposing camera direction. His filmic prose is at once terse, fluid, dream-like, surreal.

‘Odyssey’ marks one of those rare occasions that content and form come together with a true sense of decorum – one in which the parts of the whole work in tandem to create a beautifully crafted piece.

Sarah Duncan produced at Apple and Freda Chan headed up the team as producer at mbl/bbdo. Other agency credits go to David Tennant for art direction and Steve Brook, writer/creative director. Sound guy Bob Smart of Wave creates a different ambiance for each ‘room,’ remixing each spot with its own distinctive sound track. Ian Jenkins of Coast Mountain handled the off-line edit and the on-line edit was performed at Northwest Imaging and FX. JL