Employees at Baltimore agency Exit10 get pelted with snowballs in slow motion in this flaky and—let's be honest—rather painful-looking holiday video. No one got hurt during filming. Not much, anyway.
The idea "came out of that dark place where all holiday video concepts come from," says Eric Hartsock, Exit10's managing partner and creative director, "meaning, the small conference room the creative team refuses to leave until they come up with something that sticks."
The team used a Phantom Micro camera shooting 1,500 frames per second to capture the action in super slow-mo, so we get to see the staffers' cheeks wiiiiggle and jiiiigle with each icy impact. "The lights were blinding—you need a ton of light to shoot 1,500 fps," Hartsock says. "So literally no one could see the snowballs coming." No computer effects were employed to goose the visuals, either. Those gummy bears flew around for real!
All 17 agency employees took part, including Hartstock. He's the dude with the cheese puffs who gets popped around the one-minute mark. Now that's leading by example—Martin Sorrell should be so bold. "It must have been a bit cathartic to hurl snowballs at your coworkers," says Hartsock, "because no one resigned immediately after."
In this industry, they're probably used to taking it on the chin.
