TOGETHER WITH Montreal's CURIOUS Montréal creative agency, we've been cooking up, for the past month, an advertisement campaign for Printemps Numérique (http://printempsnumerique.info/en/), a digital arts themed festival hosting more than 70 events, from MUTEK and ELEKTRA's 15th anniversary outing to various exhibits and art shows, betwenn march 21st and june 21st.

 

The campaign's aim was clear: (re) establish Montreal as a cultural hub, where digital artists and ideas are legion; hence the three months long digital spring celebration.

 

Our concept was both bold and simple. We identified four landmarks representing Montreal (social, architectural and cultural) : the Olympic Stadium (the highest leaning tower worldwide), the Farine Five Roses building and sign (if it's on hipster/tourist t-shirts, it passes muster), an ice hockey rink right by Mont-Royal and, yep, poutine (any sane liver's nightmare). With these, we would create four situations where plain Janes and average Joes would somehow witness a digital artist's twist on each one of the landmarks, showing both the artist and Montreal's digital and creative sides. Packshot : Printemps Numérique.

 

Musically speaking, since this was all about digital art, I went with 8-bit textures, tweaky vintage analog synths (Pro One, people, Pro One), synth drums and melodic homages to NES' Zelda, Tetris, the Olympic Hymn and classic baseball/stadium organ tunes.

 

All of the four ads were shot in one freezing day (lousy Smarch weather) and put together by producer Isabella Gennaro, director Cécile Gariépy (http://vimeo.com/cecilegariepy), DOP Guillaume Shea-Blais (http://vimeo.com/guillaumesb), editor Olivier Lamarre, A.D. Léa Giguère-Santini, Léonie Lévesque, Bruno Destombes, Karine-Amélie Lévesque and stage photographer Mathieu Létourneau.

 

The artists/agencies involved : Aude Guivarc'h (stadium), Vallée Duhamel (poutine), Baillat Cardel & fils (Farine Five Roses) and Samuel Jacques (ice hockey rink).