R!OT Manhattan applied its artistic touch to turn New York City street scenes into Anytown, USA for a new spot promoting the GM Credit Card. Conceived by Mullen Advertising, CLOSER THAN YOU THINK promotes the cards benefits program through the story of a man who is being stalked by a growing fleet of General Motors vehicles.
Directed by Peter Thwaites of Gorgeous Enterprises, London, the spot follows a man as he strolls through a city on a shopping trip. As he walks along, the man becomes increasingly aware that he is being followed by a sleek silver sedan. His alarm grows, as with each corner he turns, other GM vehicles join the pursuit. It all ends happily, however, with the promotion of the GM Card offering 5% back on purchases toward a new car and the man ending up behind the wheel of his own red GM SUV.
R!OT Manhattan Inferno artist Julie Watson digitally removed any distracting elements from the film. I removed canopies, street signs, lines in the road, anything that would take attention away from the key players, said Watkins. The finished scenes are clean and beautiful and allow the comedy elements to come through clearly.
Watkins also assembled the end graphics sequence to facilitate the spots use in multiple markets.
Additional credits include Inferno artist Matt Reilly and exec producer Luis Ribeiro.
R!OT Manhattan is located at 545 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For more information, contact Dana Locatell at (212) 907-1208.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
