Boccalatte puts Sydney Film Festival in the spotlight with the launch of the 2011 campaign

Sydney Film Festival will on Monday launch a TVC and cinema commercialto promote the 2011 event, part of an integrated marketing andadvertising campaign created by Boccalatte.

The campaign explores the idea of ‘the ingredients for a goodfestival’, with each ‘ingredient’ represented by costumed stylecharacters. The result is an irreverent, stylistically inventive andsurreal romp inside the fun, dynamic and progressive the world ofSydney Film Festival.

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Campaign creative directors, Boccalatte, a Sydney based visual andbrand communication agency, have been tasked with the challenge ofcreating a campaign that will grow audience numbers and make thefestival more accessible. Targets include both people aged 35 and over,including baby boomers, who are already interested in film and ayounger Generation Y demographic. This audience is a particularemphasis for the campaign, as research shows 60% of new festivalattendees are drawn from the ranks of those aged 18 – 35.

To achieve this, Boccalatte developed a highly creative, conceptualapproach, working closely with director Scott Otto Anderson ofPhotoplay. The execution describes the ‘world’ of the Sydney FilmFestival and uses life-sized characters played by actors clad instylised costumes, each representing one of the ingredients in a goodfilm festival. The characters take the viewer through a fantasticalnarrative, bringing to life the breadth of stories and emotions thefestival-goer can experience and making connections that resonate witha range of potential audiences.

“We started by thinking about the number of films and the diverse rangeof stories that are told throughout the film festival” saidBoccalatte’s founder and creative director, Suzanne Boccalatte. “Filmsmove, inspire, horrify, sadden, shock, amuse, delight, madden andthrill us. We can all relate, in some way, to the stories, aspirations,emotions and events that occur in film. This inspired us to considerthe details and narratives that happen within different films. By usingfilm narratives to describe the festival to the audiences, we directlytarget their interests, personality or preferences, giving us theopportunity to talk directly to many different audiences in a varietyof ways”. 

The resulting Photoplay produced TVC was directed by Anderson, whoworked in a closely collaborative process with Boccalatte. Damien Drew,a local costumer designer renowned for his work on Star Wars and TheMatrix, created the distinctive and visually arresting costumes. The adunfolds as a journey from on ingredient to the next and SuzanneBoccalatte describes it as ‘a non-linear romp through an Alice inWonderland type world, highly stylized and surreal, fun, and bright”.

The client has been thrilled with the output, claiming it to be one ofthe great campaigns in the Sydney Film Festival’s 58-year history. “Ithink everyone will feel very proud of what has been achieved”, saidthe Festival’s Artistic Director Clare Stewart.

The campaign created by Boccalatte is fully integrated, with executionsacross print, outdoor and online advertisements, using stills capturedby celebrated photographer Helen White. The motion component includes aTVC and cinema commercial with 15 second, 30 second and 45 secondedits. Boccalatte’s work also includes the design of the festivalprogram, all marketing collateral as well as magazine, newspaper,outdoor and online advertisements. Sydney Film Festival runs from June8 – 19.

The Sydney Film Festival began in 1954, making it one of the longestrunning events of its kind in the world. The festival runs for twoweeks each year in June and showcases Australian, international andalternative films. In December last year, UNESCO named Sydney as an”International City of Film” and the festival is the jewel in thatcrown.