The Canadian Filmmakers Festival which is devoted to the celebration, promotion and advancement of Canadian filmmaking talent has launched a new multimedia marketing campaign to help promote this year’s festival running from March 22 to 25.
The campaign is the work of GJP Advertising and according to Deana Beltsis, Director of Marketing for the Canadian Filmmakers Festival says, “They have helped us convey the essence of the show, raise awareness and attendance, but more importantly, helped us carry out our mission to provide home-grown filmmakers with showcasing and networking opportunities.â€Â
As part of the campaign three spots were developed including:
“Jaws,†mimics the horror–thriller film of the same name. The spot opens on the silhouette of an ominous great white shark as it swims through deep, murky water. A Jaws-like theme song plays in the background. The shark heads quickly to the water’s surface, ready to make a kill, but instead only makes a crack in the iced-over surface of the water. A puzzled ice fisherman on the surface looks quizzically around for the source of the noise, but continues fishing when he cannot figure it out.
“Close Encounters†parodies another Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The same fisherman sits fishing on a frozen lake. As he looks up, an unidentified flying object appears. It attempts to communicate with various sounds but the fisherman is perplexed about what it is trying to say. The object responds by instead playing the opening music of the hockey game. The fisherman instantly feels at ease and is elated at hearing the familiar music.
“Terminator†is again a take-off from the movie of the same name. The fisherman remains the star and sits fishing on a frozen lake. An electric charge appears on the ice before him from which emerges a naked “terminator.†The cyborg assesses the fisherman in his warm clothing with his internal system, determines a fit, and takes off into the night with a new wardrobe. The fisherman sits shivering. The super in all of the ads reads: “Films from a land cooler than Hollywood.â€Â
Alan Gee, Chief Creative Officer of GJP Advertising adds that the festival doesn’t offer the typical Hollywood stereotypes so they’ve come up with a “cooler” campaign which helps to “celebrate Canadian truisms and some classic Canadian deadpan delivery in the commercials.â€Â
Two of the TV spots are available for you to view by clicking below and you can check out the full list of films by registering on the Canadian Filmmakers Festival website.
Profile: GJP Advertising
