Two Sheep Bah information pack

8/8/2019 Two Sheep Bah information pack

1/4

TOSHIBA TWO SHEEP Sebastian Abel Philipp Zakrzewski

1 | P a g e

TOSHIBA TWO SHEEP PRODUCTION JOURNAL

TEAM

Sebastian Abel DirectorPhilipp Zakrzewski Producer

Chris Moon Cinematographer

Patrick Harris Art Director

James Griffiths Editor

Jean-Marc Petsas Composer

Dario Swade Sound Design

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Growing up in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sebastian (born 1979) had no plans of becoming a filmmaker.

On the contrary he used most of his youth playing football, and landed his first professional contractat the age of 16, while settling himself in the Danish national youth team. Nonetheless fate wanted it

otherwise and at the age of 21 a string of injuries brought his emerging career to a stop.

A period of soul-searching followed, forcing him to rethink his future by trying out a wide range of

occupations stretching from nursing elderly and disabled - to brewing coffee in the cool cafs of

Copenhagen.

Though finding these experiences rewarding in their own way Sebastian still felt somewhat

unfulfilled, and it was not until he began working in the home of a Danish film director, a real spark

of interest was finally lit.

Despite always being a passionate film viewer Sebastian had never considered the possibility ofmaking them himself, and now found the mere thought of doing it almost profane. However being

close to a director, realizing that the magic on the screen is based on hard work and craftsmanship

as much as talent, he found the courage to apply for the European Film College where he was

enrolled in the 2004/2005 alumni.

He continued his studies at the Film- and Theater School Holberg, training as an actor, while studying

film science at the University of Copenhagen in the evenings.

In 2008 Sebastian was accepted at the National Film and Television School in London, where he is

currently achieving a Master in Directing Fiction.

FILMOGRAPHY

Maskefald (Masquerade)

Still Life

Hunden

The Garden of Eden

The Things We Do


2/4


2 | P a g e

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

Born in the German Democratic Republic in 1983, Philipp Zakrzewski witnessed the reunion of

Germany after 40 years, which still proves to be a major experience and inspiration in his life so far.

Having been interested in writing short stories and poems from an early age, Philipp stumbled across

film making at the age of 16, when a cinematography student in his hometown Potsdam offered aworkshop on film. The storytelling possibilities of this new medium absorbed him immediately. After

co-directing an award winning short film at the age of 18, several other projects followed. While

starting to work in the industry as script supervisor and assistant director, he continued to direct

short films, ranging from live action over animation to documentaries. However, the mystery of

bringing a story to the big screen was still unresolved, making him switch to the production side of

things.

Graduating from his studies of journalism and media management with an outstanding Bachelor of

Arts, Philipp is now enrolled at the National Film and Television School to gain a Masters degree in

film producing.

FILMOGRAPHY

Die Leidenschaft (Passion)

Down-Up

Wohin der Tag sich neigt (Where the day goes)

Vertrauen (Trust)

Elbwrts

Mit dem 9. November war es praktisch aus (It ended with the 9th of November)Communion

THE IDEA

The first seed for the original Two Sheep Bah viral was already planted during the initial

TOSHIBA presentation at the NFTS.

To be honest, as a young aspiring film director I attended the presentation with some scepticism,

wondering if this would be another companys poorly hidden marketing stunt, but was pleasantly

surprised with TOSHIBAS desire to engage with the students, as well as their encouragement to

make us think out of the box which was exactly what I began to do right then and there.

Having been bombarded with jingles, tag lines, big red logos etc. my mind began to wander off,

creating word plays with the name TOSHIBA; Two ships Tooth hip Aaahhhh Two ships

Aaahhh Two sips of Two sheep Two sheep Aaahhh Two sheep??? Two sheep Bahh???

Two sheep bah the idea was conceived.


3/4


3 | P a g e

However, as I made the first tentative attempts of sharing my idea with fellow students, the

feedback was somewhat off-putting, them raising the question; what does two sheep and a man on

a field, have to do with TOSHIBA products?

Slightly baffled by what that had to do with the viral I replied nothing, at the time unaware that I

had actually managed to do what TOSHIBA had encouraged us to do to think out of the box.

Because yes, two sheep and a man on a field have absolutely nothing to do with TOSHIBAS

products, but is basically a joke solely based on the TOSHIBA name.

A joke which hopefully will prove itself a funny and effective way to get a young audience to

remember the name TOSHIBA, while branding the company as youthful, modern and innovative.

The idea was in place, but now we had to find a way to present it to TOSHIBA.

To avoid the same question what does it have to do with TOSHIBA products we decided to film a

promo conveying the strengths of our idea; the virals focus on the TOSHIBA name, making the brand

easily recognisable to consumers.

I therefore quickly gathered a competent team of students, creating a low budget viral using nothing

but a camera and our creativity.

THE CONCEPTWhen informed that the Two sheep bah promo was chosen among the finalists, we were

obviously very happy, but even more so when we realized that TOSHIBA wanted to keep the viral inits original format including cut-out cardboard sheep, dodgy dubbing etc.

However that provided us with a positive problem; how to proceed the development of the project

instead of just making a more polished and mainstream commercial of the original viral.

At first we considered the obvious; a couple of commercials based on the name-joke, using the same

or maybe new characters, but quickly decided that it was a onetime joke, which would not sustain its

humour throughout a string of virals.

Instead we decided to try and re-use what we felt was the essence of the original viral; its strong

sense of autonomy, the feeling that this was something that everybody could produce that all you

need is your imagination and a TOSHIBA camera.

We therefore began exploring how we could use the viral to communicate this even more clearly

and, once again trying to think outside the box of traditional mainstream advertising, came up with

The TOSHIBA Response a string of warmly humorous YouTube video-responses, criticising the

original Two sheep bah viral - which then turns out to be actual TOSHIBA virals.

A concept based on this principle: if the audience have the imagination, TOSHIBA will provide them

the tools to fulfil their ideas


4/4


4 | P a g e

As we began to develop the new virals, we quickly agreed that they should be made mockumentary

style (the technique that Sacha Baron Cohen uses in Ali G, Borat and Bruno), where to start

with the audience think they are watching an actual video-response, but as the persons

argumentation develops they begin to question if the person is for real - culminating in the

realisation that they have been watching a TOSHIBA viral.

Furthermore we found it important that we made the virals pay off by creating a clear connectionbetween the persons argumentation, and the opportunities that TOSHIBA can actually provide

them.

We therefore came up with three young characters with different nationalities, opinions, dreams

and desires - trying to mirror what could be a typical YouTube segment.

Each one of them would then have a unique criticism of the original Two sheep Bah viral,

however all ending on a note connected to their argument:

THE PRODUCTIONTo keep the sense of autonomy and that the virals were made by non-filmmakers, we decided to use

non-actors who would then improvise the characters argumentations from a string of opinions that

we provided them.

Furthermore we decided to use a production design that was as everyday as possible, delicately

reflecting each characters personality.

We also decided to work with a minimum crew, first of all to avoid the non-actors becoming too self-

conscious, and secondly to generate an environment of possibilities, flexibility and creativity where

everybody joined in with suggestions and ideas.

This way of working gave us a huge amount freedom, but however also provided us with a paradox;

as trying to create something that seems to have been made without an effort, funnily enough takes

a lot of effort.

We therefore made sure that we set out knowing exactly what we wanted to communicate, so that

we could convey it clearly through each characters unique view on the world just using a camera,

our imagination and the adventures spirit ofThe TOSHIBA Response

Two Sheep Bah information pack

Documents

Transcript of Two Sheep Bah information pack