Get a taste of (and for) Tasmania’s weird and wonderful stories: The idea (by JimJam for Tourism Tasmania) is fascinating. The stories (by Justin McMillan) are fabulous.
The idea of presenting Tasmania through the yes of its locals has distinctiveness in its DNA and underscores Tasmania’s ‘brand personality” as a little place where the locals work to make a visit especially rewarding.
Like all sound ideas, this one could have been expressed in a category standard TVC, in this case a montage of tourist hot spot scenes connected by a tagline. But JimJam, director Justin McMillan had a strikingly different execution in their heads.
In fact, several strikingly different executions in their heads. The brand film is a teaser. It gives unusual [read:intriguing] glimpses of the unique locals in the collection of Tasmania’s stories – the laird of crackpot, “bushie’s” backyard, the devil’s keeper…There’s nothing standard about anything in this 90 second film. The brand film’s job is to lure people to Tourism Tasmania’s Stories Told From the Inside Out on its Go Behind The Scenery website. You’ll probably go there next too.
A second commercial promotes The Three Capes Track, the walking track around the Tasman Peninsular, located southeast of Hobart…
…through the voice, and the imaginative wonderings, of a small local child – his captivating story underlined by McMillan’s equally evocative images. You know that he’s the Heliguy, yes?
McMillan tells this story with a hand held camera and Panavision vintage lenses as well as a multi-purpose camera system Heliguy drone – to reveal the parts of Tasmania that are rarely seen.
“As a coastal destination, Tasmania is stunning. It’s just as visually spectacular as some of our more well known tourism traps and I feel like we are revealing one of the country’s best-kept secrets,” McMillan noted.
McMillian worked with two specialist DOPs – Tim Tregoning on the brand film and Ben Shirley on the Three Capes Track spot. “Both DOPs really rose to the challenges these projects presented, creating some beautiful compositions in some tricky situations. It was also exciting to use the Heliguy drone to establish the geography for each story as Tasmania is such a beautiful place to shoot aerials.”
They shot eight films 12 days – ten of them the inside stories of the locals that McMillan describes as, “unashamedly Tasmanian”. “Tassie is full of amazing people and characters and the place has its own vibe and attitude that is easy to translate to screen.”
Editors, Simon Njoo (on the brand film) and Joelle Baudet, (on The Three Capes Track), helped McMillan create a uniqueness to the storytelling of each project.
“When both agency and client allow you to experiment, you can create the best emotional response to the place you are shooting in. As a filmmaker, it was also fun to use some of the tools I’ve been working on over the past couple of years – testing them out over some pretty exceptional terrains.”
Credits:
Agency: JimJam
Production company: Drum Creation
Director: Justin McMillan
Producer: Michael McInerney
DOPs: Tim Tregoning (brand film) & Ben Shirley (The Three Capes Track)
Editors: Simon Njoo, Justin Fisher (brand film) & Joelle Baudet (The Three Capes Track)
Music: Johnny Green @ Rumble