Here and on p. B6, Playback looks at the three top finishers in the category of editing. The spots gained favor for their overall look and the pace and flow of the images therein. We asked agency creatives to explain the concepts behind the spots and the directors and editors to discuss the process and challenges in arriving at the final cut.

*In This Report

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH TOP SPOTS WINNERS:

Direction/cinematography B3

Editing B4, B6

Art Direction B7

Animation B8

Sound B10, B11

Performance B12

THE YEAR IN SPOTS SURVEY:

Canadian commercial production houses B14

Canadian animation houses B20

* * *

‘The Future is Right Here’ was created as a small broadcast component in what was largely a print campaign for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, but the limited run of the spot still managed to capture the attention of some of the communication world’s biggest hitters.

The spot was conceived out of Axmith McIntyre Wicht by John McIntyre with producer Bob Kirk to help reestablish the province of Ontario as a mecca for foreign direct investment, and veteran editor Norm Odell of Flashcut was instrumental in delivering the sophistication and dynamism necessary to reach the desired audience.

Graphics and effects work were also done by Toronto’s dave and Red Rover Animation and music by John Wellsman.

McIntyre says the spot was aimed at the corporate elite, leaders of multinationals in the u.s., Germany, the u.k. and Japan, and hence ran only on cnn, the information watering hole of the world, and in-flight on leading airlines.

According to McIntyre, the intention was to present the shape of things to come, images and components of the idealized future of society which are already manifest in the province.

That brain power will matter to an increasing degree, that the world is one market, and that quality of life is becoming more of a priority are facts that stand Ontario in good stead among world business centers, says McIntyre, and the spot was constructed to capture those things.

‘It’s designed to suggest you can look all over the world for the future, but save yourself the trouble; the future is right here.’

The facts behind this claim – two-thirds of the Ontario jobs created in the last 10 years have been in knowledge or technology-based industries; Ontario has more science graduates per capita than California or Connecticut, and the province is an established name in animation and special effects – meant that the spot would have a high-tech bent, which had to be backed up by a high-end execution.

‘We had to make it a working demo of what we can do with imaging,’ says McIntyre.

Odell, who calls the spot a ‘creative field day’ for all participants, says his challenge was to make the sophisticated cnn types stop and take notice, added to the challenge of obtaining new and exciting footage sans an actual shooting budget. This hurdle was cleared with the help of the province’s large corporations like at&t, which contributed quality footage from existing material including commercials, corporate videos and cd-roms to the effort.

Odell says he was aiming at an ‘open-architecture feel’ for the spot, with a graphic appeal, arresting imagery, movement and color. ‘The viewer should be propelled into a place that they would want their business to be a part of in the next century,’ says Odell. ‘I like to tease the audience, giving them just a taste of images that they want to see more of and then increase the pace, bombarding their senses with color, movement and content.’

The spot also incorporates layered graphics and Odell cites the contributions of Linzi Knight of Red Rover for unorthodox graphics and Mike Morey of dave for fusing the elements together. Odell also cites the benefit of the agency’s open approach to the process, which facilitated maximum creative output from everyone involved.

The payoff: the agency has had requests for copies of the spot from some airborne execs including one from 60 Minutes and from the president of Wired magazine, who deemed the spot ‘Wired,’ high praise in the vernacular of that publication.