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California indie director Harmony Korine, best known for dark and absurdist films like Kids and the Dogme 95 classic Julien Donkey-Boy, has made a hypnotic little number to market that Christmas gift staple: chocolate. The television ad for U.K. retailer Thornton's Confectionary centers on a slightly spooky little boy stuck for the perfect pressie idea, and extends into 30 seconds of surreal stop-start filmmaking until ultimate inspiration.
The ad comes from new London-based agency, Shop. Creative director Tom Ewart, who was working with creative partner Dave Sullivan, just told me how it came together: "l always wanted to work with Harmony since Kids. With this commercial I was looking for something fresh in terms of approach to the casting and also the visual palette.
"For it to be credible that the world is on hold while a little boy thinks, the boy needs to have a depth and intensity that carries it. Essentially the boy is the spine of the ad and I thought Harmony would be good to talk to about finding that character," Ewart said.
The concept for the ad came from a shopping trip.
"We went down to the stores and learnt that you can personalize gifts by icing messages. This level of consideration and personalization is really charming in a world driven by speed and convenience, so we decided to focus on it," Ewart said.
The personalized message is themost important thing – "the chocolate is just a canvas," Ewart said. The boy's writing is never revealed in the ad because "it's between him and the recipient."
The ad also features a mesmerizing sound track, "Radiant Idiot," by film-composer duo Corker/Conboy, remixed by Derailer (aka electro-acoustic experimentalists David Prior and John Matthias). Sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrQN2-WShGQ
