XBox Mosquito says Play More
The XBox Mosquito ad helped introduce Microsoft’s XBox console when it was released in 2003, debuting on television on 13th March.
An excerpt from the Framestore CFC summary of the advert:
“The ad tells the story of how the mosquito fell from grace. Like all such stories it begins in Eden. We see a single mosquito flying around in a jungle setting, its familiar high-pitched whine filling the soundtrack. But the creature’s song (for that is what the whine is) suddenly changes, and it plays a five note motif, rising and falling in mid-air according to the pitch of the notes. We next see a row of nine mosquitoes similarly engaged, then swarms of them, as the insect chorus builds and the beat kicks in. In one shot, the mosquitoes form themselves into a gigantic, pulsing bass speaker in another, into a pair of headphones in place upon the head of a grooving beaver. For the whole of the animal kingdom seems to be listening to the tiny music makers. From a lowly break dancing maggot, through snakes and birds to a pair of line-dancing giraffes, the natural world is captivated by the song of the mosquito.”
A Caribbean-sounding voice provides the narration from the mosquito point of view: “In the beginning nature gave us a fantastic gift. Music. We played and played. Life was a melody. One day, a voice told us, ‘Get a job’. So we sucked and sucked and sucked, fathers, mothers, children,”
The ad moves to mosquitoes as we know them – but close up. Mosquitoes suck the blood from the skin of human flesh of all kinds and body parts. It’s hard to watch.
“And we lost our gift. We became bad musicians. So bad”.
Again from the CFC site:
“The gruesome close-ups give way to a final flurry of slaps as people around the world are shown dealing out the traditional fate to the now unhappy mosquito. The spot concludes with a shot of a tiny child, pensively running a toy train over the squashed remains of several mosquitoes. The lad looks into the camera’s eye and appears to be paying close attention to the narrators final message: “Humans, you have a natural gift for play; don’t lose it. Work less. Play more.”
Credits
Microsoft worked with advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH London) in the creation of the campaign. Creatives Farid Mokart, Fred Raillard who now work with Marcel Paris were the minds behind the concepts of the ‘ages of man’ and mosquito ads. Fred&Farid show the 90 second advertisement on their portfolio site. Other BBH staff included creative director John Hegarty and agency producer Andy Gulliman.
Director Daniel Kleinman, at the time working with production company Spectre, London, worked with producer Johnnie Frankel, DP Ivan Bird, and set designer John Bramble. Kleinman later merged Spectre with Stark Films to form a new company, Large, before forming his own company, Kleinman Productions. He’s now working with other directors at Rattling Stick.
Editor Steve Gandolfi, Cut & Run, London showcases the ad as a 2.37 mb quicktime file.
Post Production was done at Framestore, London, with Post Producer Helen MacKenzie and Post Coordinator Rebecca Barbour. Framestore show the 90 second ad as a 15 mb quicktime movie and provide a very interesting write-up on their site.
Believe it or not, not a single living mosquito was used in the Xbox commercial. Digital mosquitoes were developed with 3D software Maya 4.0, with seven levels of detail depending on how close the shot was. Automatic tracking software, 2d3’s ‘Boujou’, sped up the completion of shots such as the camera move up the arm of a hospital patient (with a production line of mosquitoes at work along the defenseless limb. Animals and birds, which were supplied as stock footage, were all placed on composited backgrounds in Discreet’s software Inferno.
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(4.92 out of 5)
nice post….FrameStore has created lots of wonderfull Commercial in past as well!!
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