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By Sean Redmond

As the 42nd annual Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) opened on Thursday, October 5, the first film that was screened was a 60-second spot titled “Violin.” The spot was created by the team of Larry Ziegelman (Associate Creative Director/Art Director) and Jay Manheimer (Associate Creative Director/Copywriter) in an effort to capture the feel of a foreign film in a truly Chicago setting and promote the film fest throughout Chicagoland.

Since 1993 the Chicago International Film Festival has asked DDB Worldwide to create a commercial to be broadcast across Chicagoland via Comcast. In past years DDB would come up with an idea and then either ask production companies to donate their time, or tag the spot on to another project that a production company was doing for the agency.

This year DDB asked the creative team to become even more involved, with Ziegelman stepping behind the camera to direct his first commercial. His short film, “Coffee Break,” screened earlier this year at the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. “It was twice as much work,” says Ziegelman. “Usually you pass it off to a production company and they take it from there, but we had to play production company, director, and all that.”

The decision also allowed the production to stay under budget. “It was a good opportunity and a financially sound one to have him (Ziegelman) direct it,” says Manheimer. “It was a good opportunity for everybody.” Joe Otting of Avenue Edit cut the spot and Tom Schultz served as composer.

One of the goals of the spot, according to Ziegelman, “was to take some things that were seen as purely Chicago and then merge them with an element that screamed foreign film.”

To capture the notion of foreign films coming to Chicago, Ziegelman and Manheimer came up with the idea of a woman waiting for the L. As the commercial begins, a train speeds by revealing a young woman sitting at an empty station. As she tries to read a magazine, it falls out of her lap. When she reaches to recover her magazine her movement is in sync with the music of a violin in the distance. As she turns her head a violinist appears at the end of the platform and stops playing. The spot ends with the tagline, “For two weeks foreign films come to you.”

Composer Tom Schultz collaborated with producer Nathan Brown on the original score for the commercial. He says the intention of the music was to make the commercial feel like a sad film in the beginning. As the scene progressed, the music had to be in sync with the actions of the actress. “The trick was to make it sound musical and still work out perfectly,” says Schultz. “They had a great idea in mind.”

The 60-second version of the commercial was shown on opening night of the film festival and a 30-second version has aired in subsequent weeks.

The commercial was shot on September 1, from 8:00 p.m. till 4:30 a.m. at the UIC/Halsted Blue Line stop. CTA workers and a few police officers helped the crew keep people and trains out of their shots, but at 2:00 a.m. a large crowd surrounded the filmmakers. “When the bars closed it got crazy,” says Ziegelman. “All of the sudden there was a mad rush of people and you are like, where are they coming from? Half of them were drunk and wanted to get into the shot.”

//www.ddbchi.com