Last year filmmakers, Daniel Titz and Dorian Lebherz, made their names with a 90 second film called Dear Brother, which they created originally as an academic project for AU$12,000. They were students at the Film Academy of Baden-Württemberg at the time and the aim was to give a filmic quality to an established idea, Johnnie Walker’s Keep Walking.
The film achieved 2 million views in its first few days and made the front page of Reddit before the pair approached Johnnie Walker, who took it on. It has since amassed more than 7 million views across all platforms.
Now the filmmaking duo has made another film about death. Also spec. But unlike the classically sombre Dear Brother, the new spot, The ABC of Death uses black humour to underline another idea, Volvo’s Stay Alive.
And Volvo has agreed to put its name to the ad to show off the safety advantages of its Autonomous Driving system.
If the twist at the end of Dear Brother wrenched your heart, the twist at the end of The ABC of Death will tickle your funny bone. You’ll laugh, even though you know you shouldn’t. Kudos to Volvo for its courage.
The film has a definite English village feel and is set to a song with a 50s Frank Sinatra feel. Both of these quirky assets make it stand out – not that it needed any more help to do that.
It is approaching 300,000 YouTube views in its first week online.
The idea for the film came from Edward Gorey’s book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, “a delightfully dark vintage alphabet book from mid-century illustrator Edward Gorey, the Tim Burton of his day,” and was originally planned to be set to a song featuring a child singing his ABCs.
Credits:
Concept: Dorian & Daniel
Directors: Dorian & Daniel
Director of Photography: Jan David Günther
Producers: Celina Finger & Madlen Folk
Production design: Mona Otterbach
Editor: Raquel Caro Nunez
Music: Yessian Music
Composers: Ralf Denker & Ingmar Rehberg
Sound Design: Marvin Keil
You might also like
