The Luxor from Damast’s POV

yes, it’s true.

You can finally get rid of those Time Life books.

Toronto-based Damast Gordon and Associates has solved the mystery of the pyramids (okay, so this particular mystery pyramid is in Las Vegas – and a hotel – but solved nonetheless).

In an assignment for Austin, Texas agency gsd&m and Luxor Hotel, dga director Boris Damast proves there is more to this pyramid than size (the lobby is big enough to park two Boeing 747s side-by-side). The Luxor is one facility that can house any and all of your needs – Vegas style – and keep you entertained for as long as you can stand it.

In ‘pov,’ the second spot in a pool of three, Damast crams a weekend full of Luxor fun into a 30-second spot that seems more like five and takes the viewer on a roller-coaster ride through the hotel – literally.

Says Damast: ‘The biggest challenge of the spot was in the transitions. We spent a lot of time on planning the shots to get the right effect.’

The result of Ronny Dana’s cinematography and Damast’s cleverly crafted match-frame dissolves is a piece that is seamless – you can’t tell where one shot starts and the other ends.

Accompanied by a fast-talking announcer, ‘pov’ whisks us under the Sphinx’s belly into the hotel and through a boat which is really the lobby past the talking camels by the Nile River Boat Ride up to the 39-degree angle elevator over to the room to drop off luggage then to learn the Secrets of the Pyramid which takes you to the past, present and future down to take a dip in the pool up to get a soothing massage and then over to the flight simulator.

Whew.

‘And,’ our mile-a-minute tour guide taunts, ‘if you’re not getting into it by now do yourself a favor and check your pulse.’

Playing on the ‘theme park elements’ of the hotel, ‘pov’ was shot in black and white and then colorized to give a surreal, carnivalesque texture and tone to the piece.

The four-day shoot also produced ‘People,’ during which Damast and crew braved the Nevada desert and all its perils (lightning storms, dehydration, scorpions), a testimonial ‘teaser’ a la David Lynch, and ‘Room,’ which uses a motion-control rig to compress eight hours into 30 seconds and whose basic premise is: take a good look at your room now because when you get to the Luxor you’ll be too busy to see it.

Each spot in this not-so-traditional multimedia campaign is very different from the others and shows well the breadth of Damast’s vision – from the off-beat ‘People’ to the carefully constructed ‘pov’ and the experimental ‘Room.’

Andrea Kikot produced for dga. gsd&m credits go to art directors Joan Lyons and Tony Sandoval (‘Room’), writer Felipe Bascope and producer Sandy Mislang. Off-line editing was performed by l.a.’s Jeff Wishengrad of Miller-Wishengrad and colorizing was done at c.s.t. JL