This year, the shots Awards is laying down a challenge to the advertising industry, asking it to prove that AI pales in comparison to the ingenuity, inventiveness and wit of the human brain.
The spot looks at whether humankind should fear the onset of the bots and asks, "Who's thinking? Who's creating? Who's making things better?".
Is it us? Or is it them?
Mill+ Director Gareth Brannan explains, '‘This was a brilliant brief, essentially telling the industry to pull their socks up and rise to the challenge of ‘beating the bot’ to create the best, bravest creative work.
We had to be clever about how we told the story though. We had limited time to really set the scene and get this bold message across.
Inspired by classic dystopian films such as ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Children of Men’, I wanted to create a futuristic set, a sort of speakeasy for Spoken Word in a world where literature was so rare it could be used as a commodity.
It was also important to create a sense of tension and apprehension from the lead actress to allow the exchange between bot and human to inspire people to challenge this futuristic force.
In terms of designing the bot itself, it was important that we didn’t just go off older references of square robots or Darlic inspired shapes and sounds. We wanted this bot to feel almost organic, metamorphic and captivating.
In the end we decided to go for a ball shaped organism which was highly responsive and driven by a human voice.
We’re all really pleased with the outcome and we had a great team behind it. Will Baldy, the DOP was brilliant and really helped to drive the final look and mood of the set . It was a great project to work on!’
Mill+ Producer Lucy Hawes explains, 'This was such a pleasure of a job. We were so lucky the shots gang blessed us and 18 Feet with such creative freedom from the outset to really push the narrative and aesthetic in whichever direction took our fancy.
With director Gaz’s infectious energy and strong concept we managed to gather a fantastic crew and cast. Massive thanks to DOP Will Baldy and his team who transformed our crazy set into a thing of wonder, and sticking to such a mad schedule. Also shout out to Emma Lipop and her lovely stylists for exploiting all their Blade Runner wardrobe dreams and not holding back.
The cast looked absolutely fantastic. Additional thanks to Alfie Johnson and Robyn Goncalves-Borrageiro from The Mill, Joelle Cochrane for the casting and the boys from Take2 and Panalux.'