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The 14th century legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is no longer restricted to English textbooks. The Pied Piper, using his flute to drive away 'rats', is on-air on most television channels these days. And there's quite a science behind the recreation of this legendary tale.
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The new commercial for Reliance Mobile has actor, Hrithik Roshan playing a blue-robed, modern-day Pied Piper of sorts, playing the flute and luring 'rats' - all sorts of 'restrictions' and 'conditions' in the telecom space - ultimately leading them over a cliff, where they fall to their 'death'. The implication, of course, is that with Reliance's new offering, there are no limits or restrictions to an enjoyable mobile usage experience.
The commercial has been created by Cartwheel Creatives, and has been directed by Abraham Cherian of MAD Entertainment. Prime Focus has done the post production. The film has been produced by Sunil Manchanda.
Pied Piping hot
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The commercial was created within a tight deadline, with just about a week's planning, reveals D Ramakrishna (Ramki), director, Cartwheel Creatives. Furthermore, Roshan's look as the Pied Piper had to be achieved around his current hairstyle, which he is sporting for his forthcoming film, Guzaarish. Considering Roshan's long hair, the team's inspiration for his costume came from rock band, Jethro Tull's frontman, Ian Anderson's look.
Moreover, it was decided that while the fairytale character had to come forth, it was also important to build in elements of modernity. And presto -- Roshan was made to wear a velvet blue tailcoat, but over jeans and boots; quite a diversion from the original Pied Piper's "queer long coat from heel to head", which "was half of yellow and half of red". The 'remixed' costume was designed by Surily Goel.
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"We chose blue as the colour, as it is also the dominant Reliance Mobile colour," Ramki says. The flute, too, was modernised to a concert flute.
The team wanted to initially shoot the commercial at a hill station -- what with the shot of the rats falling off the cliff -- but this was a luxury of time that could not be afforded. Ultimately, a set was built at Filmcity, Mumbai -- which had a nondescript, yesteryears small-town feel to it -- and was made to look like a typical shopping street in a hill station. The shoot itself took two days.
Roshan's quaint dance moves have been choreographed by Prabhudeva -- apparently Roshan's idea, as the two had worked magic for a song in the movie, Lakshya.
"The only brief to Prabhudeva was that the ad shouldn't look like an out and out dance film, and he did a neat job of integrating the dance moves with the storyline," says director, Cherian.
The flute music track has been composed by Sameer Uddin, who tweaked the Reliance signature tune to make it more playful, in sync with the theme.
We smell a rat
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It was the post production that kept the team up for nights. The film demanded that the 'conditions' text from hoardings and signboards transform into digitally created rats, emerging and following Roshan to the top of a cliff where they fall off.
Merzin Tavaria, chief creative director, Prime Focus and the VFX supervisor on the project, says the first job was to select the right kind of text after various stages of experimentation, and then to get it to look like a rat through concept art. The shape and outline of a rat was studied so that the text could be warped into the outline. "Essentially, these text rats are just silhouettes or outlines of rats," explains Tavaria.
Next, the characteristics and movements of rats were worked upon, such as the scampering or the hurried, skittish movements. Say, if the 'head' of a rat moved to show attraction towards the music, then the corresponding 'body' (comprising the clayish text) had to be adjusted accordingly. This was taken care of by 3D animation (the stage of deciding which part of the rat's silhouette moves/turns/curves was the rigging stage).
Keyframe animation was used for some rats; while the rest of them were made to scamper around with the help of the simulation technique (the creation of a mass of rats running together, without making the movements too identical to each other).
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The cliff, the hoardings and the signboards were created digitally in post production. Roshan's shot on the 'cliff' was an effect of matte painting -- which also decided the depth of the valley and other parameters.
"We were sceptical that Hrithik's dance would overshadow the rats moving around, so we even threw in some choreography for the rats in two frames, where they jump in synchrony to the rhythm of the beat," Tavaria says, adding that the difficult part was to strike a balance between the real life-like movements of the creatures and the surreal feel of the transformed textual characters. The post production took about 10 days and involved 30 people.
© 2010 afaqs!From fera muza, Fri 02 Apr 2010 01:39:32 AM hi ,
i strictly feel that the ad is ok .. ! but the strange bit is that it has a striking presence on air.thanks to the airtime pumped in and of course the strange look and feel which kind of breaks the clutter . Knowing that the team had unrealistic deadlines and working with a film star [wihich is always a pain due to time restrictions and whims of the celebs] it is a quantum task achieved .Anyone who has commented on this thread putting themselves as a laymen d on't have any idea of how lay man thinks !! you should go to hritiks blog and check the comments made for this ad.. everyone has loved it.. so please save the negative comments on this commercial for yourselves.
thanks
fera
From kokkonda manoj kumar, Thu 03 Dec 2009 11:01:06 PM Execellent work by all
From Praveen Singh, Sun 15 Nov 2009 08:24:44 AM yes this is new way to present music and absolutely awesome commercial ad.
From ravi karandeekar, Sat 14 Nov 2009 03:51:02 PM I know nobody who uses Reliance mobile. Thanks to Hrithik for informing me that the service is available in the town of rats.
From Naveen Sequeira, Sat 14 Nov 2009 11:41:36 AM What was getting converted into rats...someone pls helppppppppppp me understand....I did finally but the point is, the TA will not get it unless they read this article....the concept is too alien for Indians. That's the problem,,, the advertisin agencies are made up of so many people who are cut out from reality. They are hip nd happenin,, listen to beyonce nd all...and live in their own world. Amen
From vijay, Sat 14 Nov 2009 11:38:32 AM hello people i got the purpose of the advt in first look only.....wonderfull idea is created by creatives and execution production all is well who says its a bad advertisment......it requires enough creativity within you to understand the advt great and a pretty well nice work done by all.
From vijay, Sat 14 Nov 2009 11:36:20 AM hello people i got the purpose of the advt in first look only.....wonderfull idea is created by creatives and execution production all is well who says its a bad advertisment......it requires enough creativity within you to understand the advt great and a pretty well nice work done by all.
From sumit das, Sat 14 Nov 2009 09:07:50 AM very good concept......may be you all should make a series of such ads.
From kishor fogla, Tue 10 Nov 2009 08:23:55 PM wonderful ad... but i feel more than reliance, its an ad for Hrithik Roshan. It has failed to deliver the message.
From harsh, Tue 10 Nov 2009 05:59:38 PM Good work done by creative team ,but does'nt create the positive impact. as per my understanding the ad.. should create the long lasting impact on viewer mind. like this adver...did, but on boring note....
Team Rock....
From shweta bathija, Tue 10 Nov 2009 12:35:45 PM There is a difference between an effective ad and an award-winning ad.....this one is probably the latter.
From kunal, Tue 10 Nov 2009 11:57:12 AM the ad doesn't even deserve a second look. as a consumer, it doesn't appeal to me one bit. i couldnt even see the entire ad coz i got bored...though im all praise for the work behind the scenes.
From bindu gopinath, Tue 10 Nov 2009 10:10:25 AM Super ad! unfortunately message undelivered. Considering Reliance and its TG more care should have been taken to ensure it reaches all.. However I understood the work behind it when I read this write up.. Great job team !
From Anshul Sushil, Mon 09 Nov 2009 09:48:42 PM 1. Clutter breaking - 6/10 - it does not stand out in the clutter of telecom ads - Aircel's piece of cake does!
2. Conveys the message - 6/10 - not for masses...too smart from them
3. Execution - Nice colors and nice post-production - 81/0
4. Use of brand ambassador - yeah - it is remembered after seeing the ad that HR was there - 9/10
5. Media spends - Obvously its all over the place...people cant miss it. - 9/10
Overall - Its not the best of the ad on telecom today but its not the worst too...I would say amongst Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel, IDEA, BSNL, etc - This is 2nd best campaign - best is AIRCEL
From ramesh, Mon 09 Nov 2009 05:40:34 PM do i get paid if i say good things about this bad commercial? was just wondering, seeing the 'wonderful ad' comments for this trash. 'creative leap' indeed, took them right to the edge of the cliff. and what's what reliance adag? their tvc's set a new low everytime - sehwag ki maa, the big tv disasters and now this. and yes, to think they did not even object to the idea because axe has done this before just shows how smug they are in their ignorance. what you need primarily to create a great campaign is a great client - who will inspire with clarity of vision for the brand, empathise with the process of creativity and recognise great ideas instinctively, unfortunately this is something they don't teach at any b-school, iim's included.
From simmi, Mon 09 Nov 2009 03:18:09 PM Perfection achieved!! Plus, Star Power used like never before.
From Ramesh Gandhi, Mon 09 Nov 2009 03:03:54 PM The core message is not through. The Ad has many short comings. The story is too foreign for indian target group. Most of TG wont understand. Rats are actually conditions( written in English) ignores major audience who cant understand English. Even those who can, its too distant a dream for audience to understand that.
The afaq story above tells that it was done in a 7-10 days short span....but whats the fun spoiling so much money, time and efforts when u cant do a pre-test of script, technology and over-all effectiveness of the ad. It seemed creators were too focused on getting fast money from reliance than creating an effective ad.
Blue color and Hritik were only 2 good things abt the ad...but credit cant b given to the creators. Music is also a too long piece to become hit like britania chimes or airtel piece.
From Bitan Chakraborty, Mon 09 Nov 2009 02:46:17 PM Undoubtedly Great Creative Execution! HOWEVER, it was only on reading this article one could understand the main intention of the communication - "all restrictions and conditions of the telecom industry being removed by Reliance". By seeing the ad it has never ever been possible to understand the objective of the communication and one kept on pondering what is getting converted to rats and why? Let's not forget "creativity" is only the means to deliver a piece of communication in an effective manner. If the TG is not able to take home the message from the communication, the entire communication falls flat.
From Moonlight, Mon 09 Nov 2009 02:45:05 PM A nice and very well executed concept. The entire team deserves a big round of applause. Well done !
From Nanasaheb, Mon 09 Nov 2009 02:42:38 PM masses would not understand what is this ad about...i dont know why people praise this ad.. how many people knows piped piper? how will masses would corelate mice & telecom issues. this is a confusing ad i ever seen in my life.
From Balakrishna Parankusam, Mon 09 Nov 2009 02:13:44 PM A catchy tune, a bollywood hearthrob with some fantastic dancing skills and some deft direction has resulted in a nice ad. The rats, some which fall from a red (read airtel) and yellow(idea!) backdrops respectively communicate the intended message appropriately. And I felt that this is much better ad compared to Reliance T20s World Cup ads featuring Hrithik.Good job!
From Ujaya, Mon 09 Nov 2009 01:43:44 PM Its a nice creation. we applaud the team on this creation
From aniruddha, Mon 09 Nov 2009 12:23:25 PM While I'm not sure if the 'masses' will understand this, going beyond the making, what's absolutely comendable is the creative leap that Ramki & his team have achieved from the brief.
From Justin Jose, Mon 09 Nov 2009 12:09:30 PM At least they could have made him do some different dance steps...it was looking more of Krazzy 4 promo...nothing much to comment on the ad....although...the new reliance offer is cool....reliance still believes in doing things differently...while all the marketers were busy offering 1p/sec...
From C.R.Jayaprakash, Mon 09 Nov 2009 11:58:29 AM Good explanation. Useful for Media students.
From Sriram, Mon 09 Nov 2009 11:35:29 AM I saw this as a very memorable ad..I remembered the advt for Hrithik's dance (which was as usual spectacular)...but had a tough time connecting it to Reliance Mobile. And by god...untill I read the story here I didn;'t realise rats are supposd to represent the shakles of telecom !
Seems to be the same same trap we fall in ever so often as marketers...create a great ad with a highest paid actor, spend a lot on media but the target audience never gets message !! The Axe advt worked cause more of the product was seen.
From Nitin Achrekar, Mon 09 Nov 2009 11:28:26 AM I guess teh ad is brilliant and anyone can connect with it. It's such SIMPLE concept, It doesn't matter if one has read the story or not. Every creation needs talented people and hard work so you guys rock (All 30). Keep up the good work.
From Rangarajan Chandrasekar, Mon 09 Nov 2009 11:23:35 AM Excellent concept. Beautifully produced. But the unfortunate thing is the message driven is for all mobiles, there is nothing that singularly states that it is Reliance. We remember restriction removed distinctly but this speaks for all mobiles
From Sachin Kamble, Mon 09 Nov 2009 11:17:32 AM The concept was good in its own state....there will be a section of the audience who will connect it to the old Text Book classic of Pied Piper...and there will be a subset of people (belonging to the veracular language and interiors of India) who will have a connect with Hritk and his dance and the tune of the product.....
Out and out it is a great concept and the hard work has paid out well....
Cheers to the Team.....
From shreoshi, Mon 09 Nov 2009 10:33:07 AM A brilliant concept. Reviving Pied Piper for the younger generation and weaving it well with the product theme.
From Sanjiv pandey, Mon 09 Nov 2009 10:12:26 AM sheer brilliance . The concept was awsome and the tecnicians have done a great job , to make it come alive .
Hritik Roshan adds a signature style of his own .
From Sippu Rout, Mon 09 Nov 2009 10:09:22 AM The quality of production is no doubt excellent, but isn't the ad inherently flawed? The story of 'pied-piper' is taught only in english-medium schools. So won't the large segment of customers from a regional medium schooling background find it difficult to 'connect' with the story. For someone who has read the story of pied piper sometime in his childhood, the ad makes immediate sense, but it may be lost on others.
Some time back there was a similar 'Axe effect' ad which also used the pied-piper theme, but it didn't completely depend on the same to push the message across.
From vijay, Mon 09 Nov 2009 07:52:12 AM it's heartbreaking to know that such a bad commercial had so many people toil behind it. it is a waste of time, energy and airtime.
