Brilliant Use of Nostalgia

Friday, February 4, 2011

I'm a sucker for a good commercial, as many of you may recall.

This particular video displays a fantastic use of nostalgia, cinematography, color grading, casting, and direction. Most importantly, it brilliantly connects with the target market. It resonates with the audience in a powerful way, associating the car with their childhood themes. The opening shot uses motion and coloring intentionally identical to some of the famous shots from the original trilogy. It's really quite charming!

There are some other noteworthy elements in this video. In this seemingly insignificant 'corporate' project, the director uses creative storytelling to portray his view of family interaction, childhood fantasy, what middle class American families look like (car, house, appliances, pets), fatherhood, and much more. Is the little character a boy or a girl? We never see a sister, despite seeing the dog twice, the mom twice, the dad twice, and the Vader character in almost every shot. We do however, (at 0:20) see Vader in a pink room with dolls. Does a sister exist? The director is connecting with his audience, and carefully uses expressions of color, set design/props, and body language, to communicate volumes.

Question: If you had to make a 60 second film with no spoken dialog and without showing the face of your lead actor, could you communicate as much as this commercial about childhood, parenting, and American life?