Sydney Film Festival has just launched a TVC and cinema commercial to promote the 2011 event, forming part of an integrated marketing and advertising campaign co-created by Boccalatte & Photoplay Films.

Exploring the idea of the ingredients for a good festival, each ingredient is represented by costumed characters in a slightly irreverent and surreal representation of the Sydney Film Festival world.

Sydney-based Boccalatte & Production Company Photoplay Films were given a brief to create together a campaign that increased audience numbers and make the festival more accesible. Cultural audience devleopment is a specialty of the agency who boasts an impressive client list including The Biennale of Sydney, The Sydney Opera House, Musica Viva and Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Targets include both people aged 35 and over, including baby boomers, as well as a younger Generation Y demographic. This latter is a particular emphasis for the campaign with research showing 60 per cent of new festival attendees are drawn from  the under 35 age group.

Boccalatte Creative director, Suzanne Boccalatte & Photoplay Film Director, Scott Otto Anderson started out by thinking about the sheer number of films and diverse range of stories.
“Films move, inspire, horrify, sadden, shock, amuse, delight, madden and thrill us. We can all relate, in some way, to the stories, aspirations, emotions and events that occur in film. This inspired us to consider the details and narratives that happen within different films,” Suzanne said.

The resulting Photoplay produced TVC was directed by Scott Otto Anderson. The ad unfolds as a journey in the 'world' of the Sydney Film Festival and uses life-sized characters played by actors clad in stylised costumes, each representing one of the ingredients in a good film festival. The distinctive costumes were designed by Damien Drew (Star Wars, The Matrix) with the final result described by Boccalatte as “a non-linear romp through an Alice in Wonderland type world, highly stylised, surreal, fun and bright”.

The SFF artistic director Clare Stewart said it is one of the great campaigns in the event’s 58-year history.
“I think everyone will feel very proud of what has been achieved”, she said.

Aside from the TVC and cinema commercial component with 15 second, 30 second and 45 second edits, the marketing campaign includes print, outdoor and online advertisements which use stills captured by celebrated photographer Helen White.
In addition Boccalatte created the design of the festival program, all marketing collateral as well as magazine, newspaper, outdoor and online advertisements.

You can see the TVC here.