The Life (advertisement)

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The Life
T.A.G.
ClientMicrosoft
LanguageEnglish (text)
Hungarian (speech)
Welsh (lyrics)
Running time150 seconds
Product
Release date(s)September 7, 2009 (2009-09-07)
Directed byRupert Sanders
Music byHuman
Production
company		Morton/Jankel/Zander
Produced byEric Stern
CountryUnited States

The Life, also known as We Are ODST, is a

Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
, the most prestigious awards ceremony in the advertising industry.

Sequence

The Life opens to a military funeral of an ODST. Rows of candles arranged along the floor burn as a

plasma fire until a Covenant Brute
knocks him aside, sending his helmet flying and scarring Tarkov's face. Tarkov unholsters and fires his M6S (silenced M-6 magnum) sidearm at the Brute to no avail. However, he is saved when a falling alien aircraft crashes into the Brute, killing it. The film jumps ahead again; Tarkov is now a veteran soldier, and oversees a memorial service for one of his fallen comrades amidst burning ruins with a recruit that bears a resemblance to a younger Tarkov. Soon, sounds of gunfire draws him and his team back to the fight, closing with the lines "We are ODST" which transitions again into "Halo 3: ODST".

Production

Background

In 1999, Microsoft made the decision to consolidate its marketing efforts with a single advertising agency, after several years of partnership with different agencies for each of its product line. They entertained pitches from each of the agencies on their roster, and ultimately assigned the global account to McCann Erickson.

series of sequels
and tie-in merchandise including books and action figures.

In 2007, McCann launched a multi-platform global advertising campaign titled

Halo film, but it was cancelled due to funding disagreements.[4] Believe proved a critical and financial hit.[5] Over £84 million of sales were made on the first day of release alone, the highest-grossing opening sale of an entertainment product at the time.[6] Believe received dozens of awards from the advertising community, including eight Clio Awards,[7] Best in Show at the ANDY Awards,[8] and two Grand Prix (for Film and Integrated campaigns) at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival,[9] the most prestigious awards ceremony in the advertising industry.[10] According to the Gunn Report, Believe was the second-most-awarded integrated advertising campaign of 2008, behind Earth Hour for the World Wide Fund for Nature.[11]

In 2012, due to the success of Landfall and The Life, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn was created to broaden the audience of Halo 4.[12] Released initially as five 15-minute episodes online, it was later released as a ninety-minute extended cut on DVD and Blu-ray.[13] Microsoft considers it the "next step" between advertising material and a full-length film, and Frank O'Connor, development director for the Halo franchise, has said that a film will be made "when the time is right".[12][14] Live action shorts were also used in the advertisement of Halo: Reach focusing on the Spartan supersoldiers of the Halo universe. Two shorts, The Birth of a Spartan and Deliver Hope were made, again to appeal to customers who were unfamiliar with the series.[15][16]

Filming

In early 2009, McCann received a brief to create a new campaign for the latest entrant into the Halo series, a

greenlit, and McCann brought back several collaborators from Believe to handle this new campaign, now given the working title of The Life.[17]

Director Rupert Sanders, known for his work with production company MJZ on campaigns such as Lava for

dressed to act as the backdrop to the opening funeral scene; an open-pit coal mine served as the setting for the battle scenes, and an abandoned aluminum factory was used to stage the closing funeral scene.[17]

Sanders drew inspiration for the shooting style and aesthetic of the commercial from a variety of sources, including news footage from journalists embedded with military forces in Afghanistan, and Russian feature films such as Stalker and Come and See.[17] To keep the details within the commercial consistent with established Halo canon, the creators of the Halo series, Bungie, provided Sanders with information on aspects ranging from appropriate fur color and rank insignia for the Brute, to the armor and weaponry of the ODST soldiers.[19]

Post-production

With filming complete, MJZ contacted post-production company Asylum to begin work on the substantial

RenderMan and Mantra for rendering, SynthEyes for tracking, Silhouette Pro for rotoscoping work.[20]

Music

The Life was

Great Highland Bagpipe and traditional string orchestration such as a double bass and cello. Vocals were provided by Kathy Fisher[17] who, despite not being a native speaker of the language, sang the Welsh lyrics provided by Peter Anthony Freeman. The song was later expanded by Williams and used in the original soundtrack for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
under the title "Politics and The Life".

Release and reception

The Life premiered online as a 90-second cut on September 4, 2009, on both the

making-of documentary for The Life, interviews with the director and other crew members, and an unaired scene cut from the ending of the commercial, as well as interactive elements exploring features of the game itself, such as an "evaluation" application offering profiles on several of the game's characters.[21]

Upon its release on September 22, Halo 3: ODST immediately became the best-selling title for the Xbox 360 worldwide.[24] Within two weeks, over 2.5 million copies had been sold.[25] The Life went on to win a number of awards from the advertising and television industries, including honors from the Visual Effects Society Awards,[26] the ANDY Awards,[27] the London International Advertising Awards,[28] and the Clio Awards.[29] The Life received several nominations at the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the most prestigious awards ceremony in the advertising community, going on to win Gold for Cinematography,[30] Silver for Direction,[31] and a Bronze in the Film category.[32]

References

  1. Advertising Age
  2. ISBN 978-1-904994-21-3
    .
  3. ^ O'Connor, Frank (November 9, 2005). "Halo 2: One Year Later". Bungie. Archived from the original on July 17, 2013. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  4. ^ Brodesser-Akner, Claude (October 6, 2010). "The New Halo Game Is a Hit — So What's the Status of the Halo Movie?". New York. Archived from the original on October 9, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  5. ^ "APG Creative Strategy Awards - Xbox 'Halo 3 - believe' by McCann Erickson". Campaign. August 18, 2009. Archived from the original on July 17, 2013. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  6. ^ "McCann Erickson scoops APG Grand Prix for Halo 3 campaign". Campaign. October 9, 2009. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  7. ^ Solman, Gregory (May 22, 2008). "T.A.G. Is 'It' for Halo 3 Team". Adweek. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  8. ^ "Industry news and people moves", Boards, May 2008.
  9. ^ Nettleton, Kate; "Gorilla shares film Grand Prix at Cannes", Campaign, June 21, 2008. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  10. ^ "Fewer ads entered at Cannes Lions as fewer people attend", USA Today, June 24, 2009. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  11. ^ Gunn, Donald; The Gunn Report and Showreel of the Year (2008), Flaxman Wilkie.
  12. ^ a b Graser, Marc (April 30, 2012). "'Halo' Web series to bow before next game". Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  13. ^ Shea, Jessica (October 10, 2012). "The Halo Bulletin: 10.10.12". halo.xbox.com. 343 Industries. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  14. ^ Collura, Scott; Jim Reillydate. "Halo Movie will Happen". IGN. Retrieved April 8, 2010.
  15. ^ Diaz, Ann-Christine (August 24, 2010). "Behind the Work: Remember Reach". Creativity. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2010.
  16. ^ Narcisse, Evan (August 26, 2010). "Halo: Reach Comes Alive with New "Deliver Hope" Trailer". Time. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Ritchie, Kevin; "Xbox’s Halo franchise gets a human face in The Life", Boards, Archived from the original on March 28, 2012, September 10, 2009.
  18. ^ Fera, Rae Ann; "The Problem Solver", Boards, May 2003.
  19. ^ "Behind the scenes: The Life Archived October 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine", Team Xbox, September 30, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  20. ^ a b Montgomery, John; "The Halo Life" (interview with Rob Moggach), Fxguide, January 31, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  21. ^ a b c d Eddy, Andy; "Microsoft Unveils Halo: ODST Live-Action Ad Archived September 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine", Team Xbox, September 4, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  22. ^ "The Work Archived July 22, 2012, at archive.today", Campaign, September 9, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  23. ^ Kemp, Ed; "The Halo effect: can a top video game sell without its protagonist?", Campaign, September 22, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  24. Gamasutra
    , September 25, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  25. ^ Snider, Mike; "Video game Halo spins off books, action figures, and more", USA Today, October 6, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  26. ^ "8th Annual VES Awards Winners Archived April 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine", Visual Effects Society, February 28, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  27. ^ "2010 Winners: TV (over 30 seconds)", The ANDY Awards (2010). Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  28. ^ "2010 Winners and Finalists, London International Awards (2010). Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  29. ^ "Clio Awards Winners 2010: Television/Cinema/Digital Archived June 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine", Clio Awards (2010). Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  30. Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
    (2010). Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  31. Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
    (2010). Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  32. Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
    (2010). Retrieved July 26, 2010.

External links

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