PAUSE

Treatment by Pere Sala

HELLENIC BANK ASSOCIATION

INTRO

We live in a world where the virtual is increasingly common, in the network we constantly store personal and professional data that make us vulnerable. Cybersecurity is an issue that is the order of the day and often the frenetic pace of our daily lives can make us lower our guard.

That's why I'm especially excited to have the opportunity to do my bit to make society a little more aware that an instant can make a difference. I think we have a very solid script and with a good production we can create a very powerful piece that quickly reaches the viewer.

Below you will find my visual proposal as well as some ideas that I think can help to convey our message in an impactful and entertaining way.

HERE WE GO!

concept

SERIOUS IS NOT BORING

We are dealing with a serious subject, so the first thing is that I think we have to create an impactful piece, where the viewer quickly understands that we are talking about an important subject. But serious does not mean boring.

The host makes a rather long speach. So my proposal is to work with a formal aesthetic that takes us quickly to the business world and is in line with the brand we are representing, but at the same time play with the staging, the acting and the camera to convey our message to the viewer in a way that is entertaining and impactful.

TWO WORLDS

On the other hand, I think the script has two very distinct parts. Let's call them THE REAL WORLD and THE FROZEN WORLD.

I think these two parts should be conceptually differentiated. Obviously we have the time-frozen effect that already makes the difference. But I think that this effect has to be accompanied by a different camera treatment and above all by a special sound design for this part.

DIRECTION

As I mention,, my intention is to create a serious film that makes an impact on the viewer. My proposal is to work an image that goes according to all this business world we are talking about and with a very cinematographic look.

On the other hand, my intention is to reinforce those two parts that I have talked about before, the REAL WORLD and the FROZEN WORLD.

We would have a very dynamic first part, where we see an office that is at its peak of work, with workers going from one place to another and where we discover our worker immersed in this frenetic rhythm of work. I would like to work with a very dynamic realization, with a lot of movement. I think that all this first part will work to raise moments that we will recover in the second part.

Once time freezes, the atmosphere of the film changes completely. We are still inside a serious film, with its contrast and aesthetics. But now we enter a more surreal and much calmer world. The sound is no longer the same, people freeze and the character of the host appears, who represents this new universe that we discover with our protagonist.

Here we would look for a realization with smoother and more fluid movements. Work a lot on the movements and the staging of the presenter and look for a realization that does not distract us from the speech but at the same time is dynamic.

The host will be the character, who represents knowledge. The girl will be the character who listens to what he explains. I would like to work on this a lot at the acting level, where the girl has to make an evolution until she understands the host's message. She will listen with astonishment and certain admiration. The host is someone who speaks with confidence and in a friendly tone, like a teacher explaining a lesson.

DIRECTION

DIRECTION

In the script, the girl looks at the camera at the moment she says the phrase "I just got an email from my bank" and this is what marks the change to when everything freezes and the host appears. From this point on, I think the interesting thing is that the girl doesn't look at the camera and focuses her attention on the host. But regarding the presenter, I think it can be  

interesting that one or two sentences of the script are said looking at the camera, talking directly to the viewer. I see a couple of moments that might make sense to me. Although it is something that I think we would have to work together with the agency and client. They would be these phrases:   When we receive such a text, we should take a moment and think/ One pause in enough to avoid internet fraud.

STAGING

As I have already mentioned my proposal is to work a lot on the staging in the part of the  host´s speech to get the message across clearly but in a way that is also entertaining for the viewer.For this reason I think it can be very interesting that the host can interact with some elements that have been frozen around him. We can see here some examples, that although they play in a more comic tone, they can serve as an example for the effect I am looking for.

I think that apart from helping us to keep the viewer from getting bored and enhancing the effect, they can also be used to create visual metaphors around security.

The host could, for example, prevent someone in the office from dropping their coffee, creating a visual metaphor that fits with the message he is conveying. Other examples come to mind: The host places someone's shirt properly, removes a piece of lint from a girl's clothes, prevents someone from tripping, or places an object on a table properly. 

In the following pages you can find some examples at the time of the script where they make sense to me. But I'm sure we can find many more actions that fit our movie.

STAGING

STAGING

STAGING

STAGING

TIME-FROZEN EFFECT

TRANSITION MOMENT

The whole concept of the spot is based on this effect, so I am aware that we have to pamper this part to the maximum to make it really impactful for the viewer and make it look 100% realistic. Later I will talk a bit about how we are going to do it on a more technical level. But for now I would like to talk from a more conceptual point of view. 

The first thing I would like to talk about is the moment when time freezes. My proposal is that we see in camera this time that it is progressively realanticized until it is completely frozen. I think this option is much more impressive than freezing the time all at once by cutting.

Another important aspect to achieve this is to find some action that we can progressively freeze. I can think of a few, but my two favorites are: Someone (it could be the protagonist herself )plays with a pen that she spins on a table and we see it come to a complete stop. 

A co-worker stumbles and his coffee is about to fall. I like this one because I think we could get it back to the presenter and have him avoid the stumble.

AFTER TRANSITION

Once the time is already frozen, I think the game is in the camera movements and how the host and the girl move between people and frozen objects.  

Also VFX  resources to create objects floating in the air, where you can play with camera shifts that are very effective.

TIME-FROZEN EFFECT

cAmera

On the other hand, when we freeze time, we will shoot with slower and more fluid movements. Seeking to achieve that feeling of calm to accentuate the effect. Later in the VFX section I´ll explain how we technically perform all this using a Bolt camera.

My camera proposal is to follow the same concept that I have proposed as a realization. I would work in two different parts to enhance the frozen-time effect.

On the one hand we would have a first part where we would use more dynamic movements of travelling and tripod. Also with some rack focus, following a little bit the Scorsese style I mentioned before.

The space where the action takes place is almost another character, so I would like to make a proposal about how I see it.

On the one hand it has to be a space with a lot of people and a lot of activity, where everyone works at a frenetic pace.

Moreover I imagine a modern but at the same time formal and elegant office. Where there is a common work space where our protagonist is located. It could be the typical office where there is a large space and small divisions. I imagine that it could be a company of something related to technology for example.

OFFICE

COlor palette

I would like to work with a color palette where blues, grays and cooler colors predominate. Including the blue of the brand for example. And take advantage of some elements and the character of the presenter to give him some points of color. For example we could use the corporate yellow or some other warm color.

casting

- THE GIRL-

The character of the woman is the main character and the one who marks the point of view. The viewer will discover what is happening with her and it is important to identify and empathize quickly with her. She is also the character that represents the office space and has to go according to the whole look in terms of colors and style. 

We would have to finish defining the age of the protagonist according to the target. But my proposal is that she should be younger than the presenter to create a contrast between the two. The presenter, after all, is the voice of experience. 

Although she is young, my proposal is that we create a character of an empowered woman who, without being the boss, has an important role in the company. Moving away from the stereotypes of the vulnerable young girl. We are launching the message that anyone can suffer a cyberattack and I think the message has more potential if the victim is a woman who transmits security and character.

My proposal would be to look for a woman around 30-35 years old, dressed in a suit, elegant but with a modern touch.  To be well liked and to transmit self-confidence.

casting

- THE HOST-

The host represents this more surreal moment within the spot. My approach is that this is within the more business style, since at the end of the day it stops representing the bank. But I would like him to stand out a bit in terms of color palette from the rest of the space.

This character I imagine someone of a more advanced age, about 50-60 years old. I think we have to look for a character that is elegant, that transmits a lot of security and that can have a slightly ironic point.  

I think he has to be a serious guy but at the same time he is a kind of image being, so I would like to look for some small details in his wardrobe and in his way of acting that will help us to transmit that feeling. For example we can dress him with a colored suit (without being too extravagant) or look for some detail in the tie, in the glasses or some element. We could include in it the corporate yellow of the brand for example.

At first I think of actors like Liam Nelson or Christian Slater. I think they have this elegant and serious point that we are looking for and at the same time you can believe in a role of a character that is part of someone's imagination.

SOUND DESIGN

As I mentioned before, the sound design will be one of the most important elements to enhance the frozen-time effect and make the difference between the REAL WORLD and the FROZEN WORLD. My approach is to create a multi-layered sound environment for the REAL WORLD, playing with the diegetic sounds of a boiling office, without a soundtrack.

Once time freezes, we would work a transition where all these sounds go to the background until they are almost completely silenced. From here we would build a collage using a small soundtrack and we would work the sounds created by the host as his footsteps or his own voice to sound as if we were in a very big place, with a lot of reverb.

In this way we would create a surreal effect and focus the viewer's attention completely on the host.

Here we can see an example where the time is frozen and we can appreciate a small diegetic sound cushion where we hear sounds in the background that make reference to the images we are seeing. I also like the small sound effects used to highlight some camera movements. Although our soundtrack is not going to be so dramatic and I imagine it much more minimalist, since the important thing in our case is the voice of the presenter.

In this scene of Harry Potter we can see a treatment of voice and space at sound level that fits with our proposal. It creates a sense of unreal space that I think can be very interesting. And if we look closely, there is a small sound cushion that helps to create that feeling of emptiness.

SOUND DESIGN

DIEGETIC SOUNDS AND EFFECTS

VOICE TREATMENT

CINEMATOGRAPHY

My proposal in a direction of photography that is naturalistic, working in a space with natural light. Above all, a very elegant and sober photography, where we can work with a very cinematographic look and with a certain contrast.

I think an interesting detail could be to mark very subtly the difference between the REAL WORLD and the FROZEN WORLD. It occurs to me that when the image freezes we could raise the exposure a little and look for a look that is not as realistic as the previous one. That way we could enhance that change a bit more.

The whole concept of the spot is based on the freeze-time effect. Therefore it has to be perfect and we have to do it in the optimal way to get a stunning result. 

By having a character (the host) that moves among other characters that are frozen, we would have to work with a robotic arm in those shots where we have frozen characters and moving characters in the same shot.

What we are going to do is to shoot different plates that later on we put together in post-production. For example we record the shot of the host moving at 25fps, then we shoot a shot of the static characters at for example 200fps simulating the same movement. The movement at 200fps has to be the same but with the speed 8 times faster. These two shots are then joined in post production and in this way we get the effect of the static extras and the host at normal speed.

The extras have to be shot at high speed (e.g. 200fps) while they are static, so they look totally frozen. It is also usually reinforced by using glue on the costumes to fix them in such a way that they look like they are frozen. 

Apart from this, we would generate some elements in 3D. For example the liquid of the coffee is almost falling. And also some objects that we can hang from threads that are then erased in post production.

There are some shots, in which there are no frozen and moving characters at the same time, that can be shot directly in one take. If we want them to be frozen we simply shoot at 200fps with fast camera movement so that they will be smooth.

VFX

HOW TO DO FREEZ-TIME EFFECT

THANK YOU!

PAUSE

HELLENIC BANK ASSOCIATION