Discovery Channel Turns to BIGSMACKtv to Create Awesome Spots

What is truly awesome? It's that jaw-dropping, singular element. Cue BIGSMACKtv...

DMN Newswire--2008-11-20--As part of the Discovery Channel'seffort to support its new brand positioning and tagline, "The World is Just Awesome", the cable net turned to BIGSMACKtv to conceive and execute spots that showcase the often-understated intensity of that statement.

Awesome.  An adjective used so often we sometimes forget its meaning. What is truly awesome? It's that jaw-dropping moment, that singular element that turns the ordinary into the sublime. It's an action, a nimbleness of mind. It can mean anything to anybody.... But we all know it when we see it.

The assignment: BIGSMACKtv was tasked with creating five spots built around Discovery Channel's feature talent giving unscripted answers to the question "Why do you think the world is just awesome?"

Bear Grylls of MAN VS. WILD, Mike Rowe of DIRTY JOBS, Adam and Jaime of MYTH BUSTERS, and Josh Bernstein of INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH JOSH BERNSTEIN were all shot individually on greenscreen. "Our mission was to bring their answers-- honest, unrehearsed and off-the-cuff --to life," said Miles Dinsmoor, EP.  "To visually illustrate what they were saying, while they were saying it."

"We wanted to evoke the wonder in the real world," said Andy Hann, Creative Director. "But that's not easy.  Sometimes you have to bend reality in order to see what's truly great about it."

The solution was to create a surreal look blending photo-real 3d, fantasy 2d/3d, and hand-drawn animation, all anchored within the same CGI photo-real warehouse dubbed the "Awesome Room". A place where the rules are suspended and anything can happen.

"We wanted to ground and unify the campaign with the room," said Andy Hann.  "But we also strove to make each spot unique.  Tweaking the style to suit the needs of each spot required us tapping into a range of methods-- from fully realized modeling and texturing of fur, fluids and dynamic simulations, all the way down to sketchy hand-drawn alligators."  

"I was excited from the moment they presented this concept," said Heather Roymans, Creative Director for Discovery Channel Marketing. "The team at BIGSMACKtv had a huge task ahead of them ... to bring these awesome stories from our key talent to life ... and they hit it out of the park!"

The results are stunning. A cobra strikes from beyond Bear Grylls' head for MAN VS WILD; planets tumble and bounce like perilous beach balls for MYTH BUSTERS with Adam and Jaime; Josh Bernstein, from INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH JOSH BERNSTEIN, suddenly finds himself deep in an ever expanding cave; and Mike Rowe from DIRTY JOBS sweeps away the debris of civilization...  before being attacked by a monkey.

About BIGSMACKtv
Based in Philadelphia, PA, BIGSMACKtv is to branding and promotion what hot-sauce is to chili -- that little bit of spice that makes all the difference. Specializing in the creation of broadcast promotion, motion graphics, and entertainment branding, BIGSMACKtv is the babyface who brings the guts and the poetry to branding and promotion and produces it all in state-of-the-art facilities. This new boutique-style studio focuses on delivering campaigns in innovative ways for traditional clients in the network and cable television field. BIGSMACKtv can be reached at www.bigsmack.tv

SPOTS:
Bear Grylls, MAN V. WILD: "It Is Awesome"
Josh Bernstein, INTO THE UNKNOWN "My Greatest Fear"
Jamie & Adam, MYTHBUSTERS "It's All We Got"
Mike Rowe, DIRTY JOBS "Paid to Fail"
Mike Rowe, DIRTY JOBS "Monkey"

CREDITS: DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Marketing & Branding Officer: James Hitchcock
VP Creative Director: Dan Bragg
Creative Director: Heather Roymans
Art Director: Amie Nguyen
Writer / Producer:  Erin Newsome
Production Manager: Kevin Lahr

CREDITS: BIGSMACKtv
Creative Director: Andy Hann
Producers: Kelly Dials, Larry Schwartz
Art Directors / VFX:, Gabriel Matula, David Sparrgrove, Jeremy Fernsler, Jyoteen Majmudar, Linas Jodwallis,
Animator / Compositors:  Tom Schiro, Steven Browning, Aaron Beaucher, Raquel Barroso, Amir Elsaiegh, Ihan Cheng
Modelers: Steven Browning, Mark Wurts
Editor: Tom Jones
Color Correction: Michael Wardner
Sound Design: Bob Schachner
EP: Bob Lowery, Miles Dinsmoor

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