Phoenix Creates A Live Wire For AT&T Broadband Spots
San Francisco-based Phoenix Effects & Design, a division of Phoenix Editorial, has completed two 30-second spots for AT&T Broadband Internet service via advertising agency Hoffman/Lewis, San Francisco, and is at work on a third, which will promote AT&T Broadband Cable Television service. All three of the entirely CG spots were directed by Matt Silverman and designed by Jason Ett of Phoenix Editorial. The spots fuse clean, minimalist graphics and a computer-generated cable zipping across a white background with upbeat surf-guitar music to create a lively image for the broadband service. Basing the spots on the existing print campaign, Phoenix artists took the main graphic element, a blue cable, and transformed it into an animated spot for television. The client's primary stipulation was that the cable appear vivid and hyper-real. Using Alias|Wavefront's Maya, Pinnacle's Commotion and Adobe's After Effects, Silverman and Ett worked with 3D animators Mike McCormick and Rob Taylor to create a glossy 3D cable that jumps out from the white screen. The first spot, "Snap," opens with a close-up of the blue cable, which promptly sets off into a frenzied series of swirls and spirals, weaving in and out of title displays and streaming across the screen like a literal live wire. "We wanted to create a visual metaphor linking the wire's energetic and silky-smooth movements with AT&T Broadband's speed and clarity," said Matt Silverman. "By setting the wire's vibrant color against lots of white space and having the wire interact with titles -- either encircling them or literally whipping them on and off screen -- we managed to create a spot that is both eye-catching and effective." In "Morph," the cable is transformed through a progression of undulations and configurations into a soundwave, a videogame shooter, a camera and a tornado to represent AT&T's speed when downloading MP3s, games and photo-quality images. "Pet Cable," the third spot in the campaign currently in the works, animates the cable with cute pet-like characteristics to promote AT&T Broadband's Cable Television service.