Milan - Saatchi & Saatchi Italy's "Casting" project for Il Ponte del Sorriso went live on-line on Wednesday, February 29th - http://www.youtube.com/ilpontedelsorriso and http://www.facebook.com/ilpontedelsorriso
Il Ponte del Sorriso is a non-profit organization that aims to support the building of a Centre of Excellence for maternal child health in Varese. The Centre will be a place where smiles, colors, bright spaces, attention, play, and warmth are the key words to welcome mothers, infants, children and adolescents. A hospital that helps children heal through play. Because a child in hospital is first and foremost a child.
In the film, a casting director (the "Hyena" Nik Bello) interviews young children, asking them questions unsuited to their age - for example, "Did you bring your CV?", "Are you married?", "Do you have children?", or "What do you think about the financial crisis?".
The children are sometimes silent, sometimes answer in an imaginative way, sometimes they make the director repeat the question several times. After a while the line appears: "Do you think it's right to treat a child line an adult? And yet, many hospitals do."
A 30 second TV ad is planned to be aired in a few months.
The project, created by Luca Pannese, Luca Lorenzini and Alessandro Orlandi, has been welcomed with great enthusiasm and everyone who has worked on it has done so for free. This includes Nik Bello, the production company Movie Magic International, film director Gigi Cassano, director of photography Alessandro Bolzoni, sound engineer Tiziano Crotti, Face & Place casting supervision, Disc to Disc mixing/audio post production/ music, video post-production company Band, film editor Stuart Greenwald and voiceover artist Guido Ruberto. Web production responsible: Silvio Coco.
Saatchi & Saatchi has also designed a new logo for Il Ponte del Sorriso, created by art director David Vismara. Even in the logo, just like in every gesture of the doctors, nurses and volunteers involved, a smile is the real protagonist. A smile is vital, full of joy and hope: the smile is what every child should have. Even in a hospital.
The Saatchi & Saatchi account handler coordinating the project is Francesca Fazzi. Creative directors are Agostino Toscana and Alessandro Orlandi.