Alternative Title: Totalitarian Regime
Vodafone Ukraine
Dmitry Chaban — Head of Marketing Communications Department
Victoria Boyanovskaya — Head of Subdepartment Communications and Brand Development Subdepartment
Anna Turchanovich — Marketing Communications Expert
Tabasco Creative Agency
Alexander Smirnov — Creative Director, Partner
Alexander Koptev — Creative Group Head
Kirill Bondarenko — Art Director
Olga Zhegulina — Producer
Victoria Enkina — Client Service Director
Alena Novikova — Group Account Director
Production — Family
Director — Mark Wilkins
Operator — Dmitry Maksimenko
Second Director — Gryts
Executive Producer — Anastasia Bukovskaya
Producers — Tatyana Kurmaz, Dariya Stepanishcheva
Assistant Producer — Ulyana Tkachenko
Set Designer — Olga Zlobina
Costume Designer — Patoka
Stylist — Olesya Utina
Makeup Artist — Svetlana Rymakova
Post production — Wizard
Kirill Martakov — Design Director
Alexandra Barannikova — General Director
Nikolay Kashchenko — Head of Production
Anya Mikhaylenko — Producer
Andrey Stovbun — Supervisor and Leading Compositor
Sound — Propeller
Published: September 2017
Synopsis:
Mark Wilkins, an American film director and winner of the Cannes Film Festival, together with Tabasco creative agency shot a new video for Vodafone Ukraine, so that mobile operator could present a new tariff. The tariff is focused on communication on the Internet via 3G.
The goal of the campaign is to transmit a trend, which is world widespread but new for Ukraine — almost complete transition from voice communication to the Internet.
We noticed that when communicating through messengers and applications, we can do many other things in parallel.
"The end of the era when the voice played the main role in communication", thought the creators of Tabasco agency and referred to the novel "1984" by George Orwell and Strugatsky brothers to get inspiration, and to Mark Wilkins — to make this idea real.
Mark’s quote: "I have the privilege to be directing commercials all over the world for a while now. This gives me the chance to look for the most interesting scripts in countries I love to be at. That’s said: to direct Vodafone-Voice with Onuka in Ukraine was incredibly attractive to me. The script itself, the theme of revolution, the collaboration with the most iconic contemporary artist of Ukraine made me not hesitate for a second.
I am the child of hippies; I was growing up on demonstrations and protest-camps. I was engaged in fighting the “grey”, opposing the “monotony”, questioning “blind obedience” all throughout my life. These elements of my character also connect me so much to Ukraine of today.
The script was just perfect. Also because I like commercials, which are communicating the product by inspiring the mind of the audience. I trust in a smart audience and I strongly believe that a commercial should also have a philosophical or even political element.
I very much respect Vodafone for thinking outside the box and creating with us a commercial, which is unexpected, provoking and new for the local market.
Our timing was quite short and the budget, like so often these days, pretty challenging! But thanks to a respectful collaboration between all players, an inspiring and supportive agency, the powerful production force of FAMILY PRODUCTION and a very talented and unstoppable team, the shoot, with up to 450 people on set, was a great experience”.
The new work refers us to the events described in the novel by Orwell, where the dictatorship of the Voice dominates and dips the viewer into the aesthetics of the gloomy capital Arkanar from the science fiction story by Strugatsky "It's hard to be God". We tried to break the boundaries of voice communication and show users the possibilities of communication on the Internet.