Breaking Bad
After the golden globe success of Mad Men, AMC ventured out to produce a new series
titled Breaking Bad. They produced a beautiful pilot for the series,
starring Bryan Cranston and directed by Vince Gilligan.
So far so good. The problem is just that AMC is naturally regarded as a family channel
while Breaking Bad revolves around a
meth cooking high-school teacher. Therefore AMC didn't want to advertise this pilot largely –
regardless, they needed the required quotes to get the series rolling. The talented advertising
agency Mono contacted us through Unit9
and together we created a concept to solve the situation.
Our solution was to create an interactive trailer, a website which would trigger curiosity, while not
giving too much of the plot away. It had to be mystical and chaotic, as was the life of the protagonist
of the series. We achieved this through narrating a random story, by fusing together clips from the pilot
and interactive objects, which reflect breaking points in the protagonist's life.
We decided to shoot everything on camera and avoid slick computer graphics to keep the visual sensation rough and realistic.
Part of this was also to build a four meter wide desert model where we used to shoot the outside scenes.
The whole production was finalised within only eight weeks and the result topped all expectations. The buzz around
the series spread thanks to hundreds of blogs mentioning the site and the pilot reached the needed quotes.
Since then, two following seasons have been produced; Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim,
particularly for its writing as well as Bryan Cranston's and Aaron Paul's performances. Breaking Bad has won
four Emmy Awards in addition to numerous other awards.
Details
ROLE
Strategy, Direction
BRAND
Breaking Bad
CHANNEL
AMC, USA
AGENCY
Mono, Minneapolis
PRODUCTION
Unit9, London
PUBLISHED
December 2007
AWARDS
Communication Arts
FWA
FWA
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