X-UP CASE STUDY

One day at will.i.am's house

THE CHALLENGE

As part of our five-year partnership with Time Warner Cable on their $100M initiative ‘Connect a Million Minds’, we had to figure out how to best use will.i.am’s star power to engage young Americans—in a substantive way—with math and science. The brief was to create a call-to-action that would require the target to engage hands-on with STEM.

The reason we were there is that will.i.am had seen this spot we made the previous year, and he reached out to us, offering to co-produce spots promoting the same cause.

This was one of the spots that resulted. Created using an interrotron—without a script.

We often use the interrotron, an apparatus that allows the director and the subject to establish a connection as if the camera were not there, resulting in unwavering eye contact and greater emotional response from the subject. Read more here.

In between takes for another spot we were shooting, 11-year-old Isis freestyled a (STEM-related) rap for Will, and he was struck with inspiration. The two of them disappeared into his basement recording studio, where we found them working together. Here’s a few seconds of raw video showing what was underway.

[AUDIO ONLY]

Here’s what the two of them created—in about an hour! This was an experience that Isis will not forget anytime soon.

CREATIVE BRIEF

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