What do you get when you place deliciously fun My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream in the hands of a wizard of visual confectionery named Gandalf? For Tongalers SOS in Bel Air, the answer is six delightfully playful videos for the My/Mo Live Deliciously Video Series Project.
Based on a blend of the winning Concepts by Josh GreenbArg and Yehudit Mam, this Video Series marries a colorful aesthetic with surrealist moments embellished by animation. To date, two of the six eye-catching videos have made their debut on My/Mo’s Facebook page so we thought it was the perfect time to catch up with the Creative Director behind the series, Gandalf Hypersphere, to learn how they all came together.
But first, let’s get a taste of the work that SOS in Bel Air produced for My/Mo:
(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity)
Marissa: Aside from a smaller project for Lenovo, the My/Mo Live Deliciously Video Series Project was your first big Pitch win on Tongal. Congratulations! Did this Pitch feel any different from ones you submitted in the past? How confident were you that you’d get this project?
Gandalf: Some say we might always believe we will get the projects we pitch for...
For My/Mo, what resonated with us was the ambition of the project. There was everything we like in it: innovations, strong art direction with enough freedom and most importantly a deep desire of making videos worth watching.
Our goal was to have fun from pitch to delivery, and looking at it now, that's what we achieved!
Along with the second phase and beginning of the production, we realised how true that was and got more and more excited! Russel at My/Mo, Tongal Producer Courtney and the Tongal team have all been driven towards making the best project we can, this energy has followed the entire production. That was great!
(Photo Credits: Gandalf Hypersphere)
M: Your production company is global, with a presence in New York, London, and Tokyo. Can you tell us about the key players on your team, how you work together, and what type of content you’re most drawn to create?
G: In order to be the most creative and efficient, we have a fluid business model. There are only 4 full-time people in the UK and the rest made of freelancers. For now, we are represented by trusted partners in Japan and NYC, ending up in us spending around 1/2 year abroad and going back and forth depending on the project coming to us. Next year we’ll inverse it with our main residence in Tokyo while the London office will keep on running.
In terms of content, the outcome really depends. It goes from film production to interactive art installation, augmented reality application or whatever cool things that comes to our minds and would make our clients shine in the mist.
M: The Project Brief called for a very specific style and tone in these videos, which you clearly nailed. What was your approach to art direction in the videos?
G: We wanted the film to be quirkily delicious so we focused on a restricted colour palette and used different seamless tricks. The backgrounds in the Green Tea video, for example, look like melted ice cream.
We also tried to make the films worth re-watching. Therefore, a lot of details that appear to be normal things at first glance aren’t. The sand flooring in the living room of the Cookies & Cream video (where our heroes are wearing socks) is a good illustration.
Finally, the props included absurd things that we love. In the market scene, there’s a trolley (shopping cart) full of red veggies waiting to be weighed individually! There’s also bread and Camembert, hidden wrap party bottles of champagne, a My/Mo scrabble with triple chocolate points, a My/Mo clock and the list can go on for long…
M: Because production took place in London (and My/Mo isn't sold there...yet!), I heard there were some challenges with getting the product to you. Thankfully, it made it to the UK just in time! Were there other production challenges you had to overcome to create the series? How did you handle them?
G: Yeah, that was quite a thing. The day before the shoot we met the team and realised we had enough product to shoot for only one out of the five days! We had some Plan B options but glad we didn’t need to use them :D!
During the pre-production and the shoot there were hundreds of surprises, we’ve picked 3:
M: Lastly, and most importantly, which My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream flavor is your favorite?
G: All of the flavors at one time!
