Director Peter Sluszka takes us on a fantastical pixilation road trip in a spot for the C3 car from Citroën. Peter via Agency H in Paris intergrates a driver with a road and makes the simple pleasures of singing in your car a unique adventure. The song the driver sings to is a remix of Hit the Road Jack, made popular by Ray Charles.
The Citroën C3 has a Panoramic Zenith Windscreen, which is to say you can see a whole lot...as the window reveals not only what’s in front of you but above you as well. The visibility allowed by the window makes the driver feel like they are part of the landscape. This unique feature was the inspiration for this ad.
We begin tight on a pupil with a circular road of miniature cars in motion and pull out to reveal our driver (actor Mike Ivers). He is a giant amongst the small landscapes of city, towns, farmland and even outer space. At one point he transforms into an owl, metaphorically representing the heightened senses and visibility afforded by the Citroën windshield at night. The flash of two cruising comets takes us out of the stop motion world and into the live action world, where we end on the driver seated comfortably in his Citroën C3.
Photographed on a Canon 7D, the driver patiently posed for hours at a time while animators, art department, and a make-up artist changed the world around and on him, all while lip-syncing the song one frame at a time.
FESTIVALS
An official selection at the Annecy 2011 Festival.
