Our creative storming sessions, affectionally know as ‘happy storming’ creates a huge amount of ideas and references. They involve each member of the company.
We all bring our own viewpoints, experiences and knowledge. It’s an inspiring session where ideas are formed, explored, discarded or make their first steps to a concept that delivers for the client. We have recently done a happy storming session for a potentially exciting client whose business involves timber. We then found an advert for a Japanese phone – the NTT Docomo’s Touch Wood. It was something that he had seen and wanted to share with us.
If you haven’t seen it before, it’s a beautifully made film commercial, three minutes long featuring a giant wooden xylophone, that has been hand-built in the woods of Kyushu, Japan. Kenjiro Matsuo was responsible for the creation of the instrument, while Morihiro Harano has been handed credit for the idea itself; in fact, he confirmed to The New York Times that no artificial music was added whatsoever, with only the background levels being adjusted up for effect (Ref: engadget).
The commercial starts by cleverly showing the surroundings, the crew setting up the instrument and then the director saying ‘Take One’. These are the only words spoken.
It feels more like a documentary than a commercial and transports you to the forest. You feel like you are there and can imagine the stillness and how quiet a forest can be. Slowly the camera pans out to someone opening a specially made box for a wooden ball that is rolled onto the first bar of the xylophone and then the song starts. You can hear a stream in the background, but the first notes of the song compliment this. As you watch the ball rolling down, it makes you think (which for me is the real success of this advert): How have they made this structure? Who built it? Is it real, not just CGI?
The camera follows the wooden ball’s journey, occasionally showing us the full length of the instrument. Finally, the ball comes to rest, perfectly in postion. Only then do you realise what the commercial is about. What is the song? It’s Bach’s Cantana 147 (“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”). Bark, Bach… could be a fun play of words? I hope so.
I’m sure that you will enjoy the wonder of the advert as much as I did and thanks Russ for sharing it with us. It demonstrates an incredible vision and ambition and I would have loved to have been in the meeting when the creatives first pitched this idea to their clients.
Enjoy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArLiKPFsFoU]
James Chantler is Creative Director at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
