Comic short films about the absurdity of the ad business have a proud history going back to Tim Hamilton's brilliant Truth in Advertising. Here's the latest one—director Tim Mason's No Other Way to Say It, about an amusingly bleak voiceover recording session for an ice-cream commercial.
As the creative team tries to get the voiceover artist to nail the right tone for a single line, over and over—and the latter gets more and more distracted—the truth in advertising here becomes painfully clear: The project is mired in idiocy and inertia.
The film was made by Hog Butcher, a content creation company made up of improvisers, comedians and writers from Chicago institutions including Second City, IO and the Annoyance Theater. Hog Butcher is led by veteran Chicago adman Ron Lazzeretti.
Production company One at Optimus and post house Optimus produced, edited and finished the film.
CREDITS
Writer, Director: Tim Mason
Director of Photography: Sam DiGiovanni
Executive Producer: Lisa Masseur
Producer: Emma Jubinski
Second Camera: Myles Green
Audio Mixer, Gaffer: Parker Warf
Editor: Mike Berg
Post Producer: Gretchen Praeger
Assistant Editor: Ben Winter
Audio Desig, Mix: Ben Treimer
Color: Ron Sudul
Color Assistant: Alex Frankland
Music: Julie B. Nichols
Cast: Beth Melewski, Sue Salvi, Megan Kellie, Cayne Collier, Ed Flynn
