More Fallon, More Sony

Fallon’s latest (over-hyped) project for Sony follows a familiar formula: Take an urban setting, flood it with something that would otherwise be unremarkable and set it all to some nice music. First it was rubber balls in San Francisco, then it was paint in Glasbow, followed by some controversial bunnies in New York and now… foam in Miami.

The first three spots were for Sony’s Bravia campaign, but this latest advert is for Sony’s digital imaging line (i.e. cameras and camcorders). Unfortunately for me, I lost interest after “Balls.” All of the spots attempt to create a sense of wonder by staging experiences that would be—by anyone’s admission—utterly awesome to see in person. The only trouble is that about 90% of the wonderment gets lost in the translation from reality to screen. Instead of childlike awe, I only feel a vague sense of regret that I wasn’t in Miami when they were shooting this.

Working on credits. Any help would be appreciated.

Linkage

Fallon
Behind-the-foam production stills

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

6 Comments

monovich

I see your point but don’t entirely agree. While none of the sequels will ever be as cool as the original, I’ve enjoyed watching them all and it hasn’t cost me anything except my time to to so. What do I have to complain about?

This foam one is at least better than the paint one, and has some moments that seem pretty surreal and amazing. A tidal wave of foam? Makes me imagine being a kid for about fifteen seconds. Worth my time.

Joe Clay

I agree with your final statement, Justin. I feel great regret that I wasn’t in Miami, especially since I could be there in 6-7 hours.

The only time I felt the “wonderment” was when they shot down the street and it looked like the people were standing in clouds. And then I felt even more regret.

igor

i can’t believe this is the final spot…
the production phase seems to be really huge to stop with this result…

the_ocho

I thought this spot was one of the better ones, simply because there is more attention brought to the participants/people in the event. The others focused more on the colors themselves. Its a nicely shot in a semi documentary style manner to a totally staged event/spectacle.

I agree that being there in person would be better, and that is where a lot of advertising may be headed, staging participatory events and spectacles, like the Happenings of the 60’s (building walls out of ice blocks) or more recently flash mobs (massive pillow fights etc). But of course it wont be subversive in any form.

MilkmanD

Reminds me of Sept. 11th footage.

anonymouse

i could only think about how many of those cameras, mobiles phones and camcorders people were holding into the foam were ruined in the process.

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