Cannes - Saatchi &
Saatchi’s legendary New Directors’ Showcase (NDS) has been enchanting audiences
at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the past 24
years. Each year Saatchi & Saatchi’s
Worldwide Creative Board selects a Showreel of some of the most exciting new
global directorial talent, and presents it to an audience of more than 2,300
Cannes Lions delegates in the Grand Auditorium at the Palais des
Festivals. Historically the Showreel is
introduced by a live theatrical spectacle, for which Saatchi & Saatchi
enlists the talents of the most accomplished and exciting technological and
creative innovators around. Ex-Worldwide
Creative Director Bob Isherwood conceived the NDS in 1991, when it fast
established a reputation for unearthing directing talent of the future, with
NDS alumni including iconic directors Spike Jonze, Tarsem and Jonathan Glazer.
As well as the
Showreel providing a springboard for new directors to make their name on the
world stage, the NDS theatrical event has showcased some of the most
groundbreaking technology of recent years.
Saatchi & Saatchi has been coupling emotion with technology for the
past few years through the NDS, and this year that relationship comes full
circle with ‘Feel the Reel’, a theme conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi
creatives Linda Weitgasser and Alex Sattlecker, and bought to life in an
unprecedented experiment where the Showreel becomes the hero.
Audience
interaction plays a big part in this year’s NDS, and in a world first 2,300
people in the audience will wear a sensory wristband using a brand new
emotional technology platform ‘XOX’ created by Studio XO - a groundbreaking
fashion technology company represented by Juliette Larthe of Global Creative Production
Agency PRETTYBIRD. This year the NDS
beautifully marries emotion with the Saatchi & Saatchi ethos of
Lovemarks. Studio XO’s XOX captures
human emotion via their novel wearable technology, and the wearer’s emotion is
projected back at them through data visualization created by visual artists Marshmallow
Laser Feast with Berlin collective
Elektropastete. The ‘feelthereel’
identity was created by Mark Farrow and Gary Stillwell at Farrow. Both MLF and Farrow were brought in by
PRETTYBIRD.
Tom Eslinger,
Worldwide Mobile and Social Director, commented: “Aside from a fantastic
collection of directing talent, the wearable technology lets the audience
co-create the event for the first time simply by watching. The theme, and what
will be created by the audience and technology also fit beautifully with our
business and filling the world with Lovemarks. Mobile, and particularly
wearables, is a focus for Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide – we published my
book Mobile Magic this year and have
created mobile ideas for clients for over 10 years. The NDS allows us to test
and learn at scale, while creating the most fun and visual live user test
ever. The panels and people at Cannes
will be talking about wearables and mobile and social and UGC and co-creation:
we will be combining that all together in a very cool live event.”
‘Feel the Reel’ is
the latest in a series of technology firsts presented by Saatchi & Saatchi
through its NDS event in Cannes; The 2010 event bought back to life the late
Creative Director Paul Arden with a live hologram on stage. Live hologram technology was unprecedented at
the time, and has since become ubiquitous in film and advertising, even being
used in the Presidential elections in India this year. In 2011, 2012 and 2013 Saatchi & Saatchi
worked with PRETTYBIRD’s Juliette Larthe on the NDS live show, who bought on
board visual artists Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) to give life to the themes
conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi creatives Jonathan Santana and Xander Smith;
‘Hello, Future’ in 2011 (with Jamie Lidell and Clark); ‘Meet Your Creator’ in
2012 which featured Flying Robots (quadrotors created by KMel Robotics); and
‘Just for Hits’ in 2013 fronted by Professor Richard Dawkins and exploring the
evolution of memes through the internet.
THE DIRECTORS’ SHOWREEL
To
find the featured directors, Saatchi & Saatchi invites submissions from
directors around the world, utilising its Network of some 140 offices
worldwide, and its relationships with key on-line sources. The Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative
Board, with creative direction from recently appointed Worldwide Creative
Director Pablo Del Campo, made a final selection of 19 films by 18 directors.
Andy Gulliman,
Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Film and Content Director and curator of the NDS Showreel commented on the
selection process: “We want to be
introduced to a new generation with a fresh approach and attitude. We want to find young talent that can manage
a traditional format and stand out from the crowd. We want to give great work great exposure.”
This
year the reel has a typically eclectic mix of music videos, animated shorts,
humour, erotica, surrealism and the grotesque.
Directors on the reel hail from Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy,
Switzerland, UK and the USA. There are
some viral hits on the reel, including Tatia Pilieva’s erotic ‘First Kiss’, and
Alberto Belli’s spoof HBO trailer ‘It’s Not Porn’.
There
is plenty of humour in the form of Vania Heymann’s ‘Walking Contest’, which
observes the competitive nature of human beings; The Sacred Egg’s hairy promo
for Breach’s ‘Jack’, Alvise Avati’s comic outer space spot ‘Beans’; and Tripp
Crosby’s comedy sketch highlighting the absurdity of conference calls. Ed Morris’s thought-provoking film on
cyber-bullying for Cybersmile brings us back to reality with a bang, as does
Simon Bonde & Peder’s disturbing monochrome music promo, which shows an
underground fight club discovered by a young boy.
Visual
magic is conjured up by Tarik Abdel-Gawad with his film ‘Box’, which showcases
projection mapping, and Emile Sornin’s pastiche of The Office with a
gravity-defying twist. Animation is
represented by Ainslie Henderson’s beautiful stop-motion music video for James,
and Kyra & Constanin’s enchanting animation featuring spherical
animals. Music videos feature strongly
in this year’s selection, with Truman & Cooper’s moody film of lost teenage
innocence; Josh Cole’s fast-paced story of a Manillan street kid; and Ian &
Cooper’s promo for Joel Compass’s ‘Back to Me’, which won Best video at
SXSW.
A
slick commercial for the Sunday Times directed by Us recreates iconic moments
from film, music and art, while Kibwe Tavares’s beautiful CGI-infused trailer
for ‘Jonah’ is the only movie trailer.
Donato Sansone promises to shock the audience with ‘GrotesquePhotobooth’.
The
18 directors selected for the New Directors’ Showcase reel 2014 and their films
are listed below;
Tarik
Abdel-Gawad - Box
Alvise
Avati - Beans
Alberto
Belli - It’s
Not Porn
Simon
Bonde & Peder - Ghost
of a Smile
Ian
& Cooper - Joel
Compass ‘Back To Me’
Josh
Cole - Rudimental
‘Not Giving In’
Tripp
Crosby - Conference
Call in Real Life
Ainslie
Henderson - Moving
On
Vania
Heymann - Walking
Contest & Bob Dylan ‘Like A Rolling Stone’
Kyra
& Constantin - Rollin’
Wild
Ed
Morris - Cybersmile
#dontretaliate
Tatia
Pilieva - First
Kiss
Donato
Sansone - GrotesquePhotobooth
Emile
Sornin - Disclosure
‘Grab Her’
Kibwe
Tavares - Jonah
The
Sacred Egg - Breach
‘Jack’
Truman
& Cooper - Kid
Wise ‘Hope’
Us - The
Sunday Times ‘Icons’
THE
SHOWCASE THEATRICAL PIECE
The theme ‘Feel the
Reel’, conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi creatives Weitgasser &
Sattlecker, makes the Showreel the hero of the event, and is bought to life with
a theatrical performance centering around the directors’ films. The aesthetic of the show is themed around a
stylized medical experiment environment: the NDS event is a huge experiment on
many levels, with 2,300 ‘guinea pigs’ in the audience who will effectively test
the emotional technology, and have their emotional data collected.
Studio XO’s XOX
emotional wristband technology is instrumental in the experience of the
audience watching the NDS reel. Their
emotional reaction to the reel will be measured by the wristbands, whilst the
data is visualised on a transparent gauze covering the stage around the screen
as the reel plays. Marshmallow Laser
Feast are co-directing the show with Studio XO and overseeing data
visualization, which will be an artistic interpretation of the audiences’
emotional data.
Saatchi & Saatchi creatives Weitgasser and
Sattlecker have partnered with Juliette Larthe of PRETTYBIRD
who brought together Studio
XO, Marshmallow Laser Feast, and Berlin collective Elektropastete to create the
innovative ‘Feel the Reel’ experience. The ‘feelthereel’ identity and logo have been
created by Farrow, and the soundscape created specially for the event has been
composed by Finn McNicholas.
Saatchi
& Saatchi Creatives Weitgasser and Sattlecker commented: “This year we decided to break with
convention and make the directors' showreel the hero of the NDS event in
Cannes. Studio XO's biometric, sensory
wristbands felt like the perfect tool to do this. Together with PRETTYBIRD,
Studio XO and Marshmallow Laser Feast we embarked on the constantly evolving
journey of creating this year's event. It was a super exciting project and it
felt like a real privilege to be able to be part of this huge collective of
creative minds.”
Juliette Larthe of PRETTYBIRD is the Producer of the live show,
which uses new and unique technology developed by Studio XO’s Nancy Tilbury and
Benjamin Males, partnered with visuals created by Marshmallow Laser Feast (under the creative direction of Robin
McNicholas) and programmed by Elektropastete.
Studio XO’s sensory wristbands will capture the emotions of the Cannes
audience as they view the Showreel, and project them back to them in real time
as moving pixels on a gauze surrounding the stage, whilst the Showreel plays. The wristband is a silicon band containing
electronics that draw biometric data out of the body by listening to its ebb
and flow. The wristbands measure levels
of excitement in the host, magenta being the highest state of arousal, and an
LED light embedded in the wristband moves through a spectrum of colours
indicating that the wearer is having an ‘episode’ and experiencing a wide range
of emotions. Information is processed
and broadcast wirelessly.
Benjamin Males of Studio XO commented: “We’re giving the body a vocabulary by
drawing emotion from the body.
Everything we do at XO is about emotion.
We’re able to tap into our souls and get a direct feed of our emotional
response”.
The event will challenge the senses and heighten the
wearer’s experience of the reel whilst starting a dialog around wearable technology
and its intimate use of data in the next decade. Nancy Tilbury of Studio XO added: “Through projects such as ‘Feel the Reel’ it
enables Studio XO to fulfill our manifesto of making science fiction science
fact”.
Juliette Larthe of
PRETTYBIRD commented “To work on the prolific and unmatchable New Directors’
Showcase for the 4th year running is an honour and a privilege,
Saatchi & Saatchi again prove how they have the foresight to break
boundaries and help create new understandings in our ever changing landscape of
what we think we know. Saatchi & Saatchi has wholeheartedly embraced ‘new’
unchartered ground, giving first breath to the immersive and collective vision
of the new creative artists and innovative entrepreneurs working in
experiential and entertainment as a business model. Working in this arena is
not for the faint hearted and I have been amazed yet again by the fearless
courage the Saatchi & Saatchi team has embraced with the groundbreaking
ideas we bring to them.”
MLF
commented: “This is the fourth year
running that we’ve been asked back to direct the NDS through PRETTYBIRD, we’re
flattered by this and proud of our past achievement. Collaborating this time
with Studio XO is exciting and promises to be a game changer by measuring how
people feel while watching the show, and how this can feed back to what we do
as show directors with XO working with us on every aspect, from the moment the
audience enter the Palais. It has been a revelation for us, and hopefully it
will be for the audience and directors.”
This year the Saatchi &
Saatchi NDS is coming to London, and there will also be events in Milan, New
York and Shanghai. On Thursday 3rd July
there will be a screening of the Showreel in the Barbican cinema, London, followed
by a panel discussion chaired by the reel’s curator Andy Gulliman.
Saatchi & Saatchi would
like to give a big thanks to Norma Clarke, Project Director, Global Brand
Team. After 12 years of producing the
New Directors’ Showcase, and 30 years of service at Saatchi & Saatchi, she
has decided to leave the agency and move on to new challenges. She will be
greatly missed.
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