Dude, watch the road!
You know how in old movies the moving road will be rear-projected on a canvas over the hero's shoulder, and he'll just be blithely chatting away to whoever's in the passenger seat? This is like that times a thousand.
Granted, on a third viewing I realized that the guy was supposed to be in the backseat, but a) how often do adult men find themselves in the backseat of a sedan? and b) the establishing shot through the windshield threw me off. That said, the sci-fi/war-movie/fantasy stuff our hero sees through the window is all beautifully designed and shot, especially the dragon and the flying saucer hovering over the car.
DirecTV has really decided to go all-out with its advertising lately, and it's been doing an excellent job with it. The "Parecidos" ad from last year is one of the funniest/weirdest spots I can remember watching, and while the concept is a little less spot-on here, the execution and production design are very good indeed.
A question: Where are they driving? I mean, I feel like if you can get from the 1940s to the future on one highway, somebody should at least make a note of where the road is, so that selected scientists and humanitarians can hang out with the inventors of the spaceship and maybe do a few tests on that dragon. Also: Best road-trip vacation ever.
This spot, from Grey, New York, and MJZ director Rupert Sanders, is a departure from the humor that another MJZ director, Tom Kuntz, brought to other recent DirecTV ads—the one with Charlie Sheen, etc. With new strides in technology like DLNA rolling out across the tech world, it may actually be time for the company to point up specific features to make it clear that it really does provide an interesting and useful service.
While this may be less memorable than the company's variations on the Law of Unintended Consequences, it's also a much more effective description of the product's advantages.
CREDITS
Client: DirecTV
Spot: "Road Trip"
Agency: Grey, New York
President, Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Directors: Todd Tilford, Perry Fair
Senior Vice President, Creative Director, Art Director: Denise O'Bleness
Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Associate Producer: Lindsay Myers
Vice Presidents, Account Directors: Tamar Arslanian, Beth Culley
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
Director of Phortography: Greig Fraser
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
Editorial Company: Work, Spotwelders
Editor: Neil Smith
Visual Effects: MPC
Managing Director: Andrew Bell
Visual Effects Supervisors: Franck Lambertz, Mike Wynd
Visual Effects Team: Ben Persons, Brendan Smith, Sharon Marcussen, Brinton Jaecks, Ryan Knowles, Mike Wynd, Ross Denner, Daniel Marsh, Fred Durand, Ian Wilson, Danny Wynne, John Cherniack
Telecine Company: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin