A mundane video project for a commercial flooring client led advertising agency Brunner’s Atlanta office to create an award-winning, documentary short. The film’s unlikely subject is a design-focused non-profit program, Publicolor, New York, for at-risk inner city youths.
The original assignment was to create a 3-minute video to explain how client Tandus Centiva’s flooring sales help fund Publicolor. (Other Publicolor funding comes from fiber manufacturer Antron and commercial design firm Suzanne Tick, Inc.) The cause marketing video was intended for internal use only, and was budgeted and executed, by Brunner’s in-house production team, at about $70K.
Once on-site in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Atlanta-based creatives filming the video’s interviews—with Publicolor president Ruth Lande Shuman and with the program’s beneficiaries—were deeply affected.
The summer program uses design as a platform to impart study and life skills to troubled students. That touched home for Brunner creative director Matt Blackburn: “Personally, art saved my life. I was not on a good path as a young man. Hearing [Ruth Lande Shuman] describe how the little, iterative steps involved in making art, and seeing them build, can turn a troubled kid’s self-confidence around, it just rang so true. I knew we had to get this story out in a bigger way.”
The creative team got the agency’s go-ahead to invest about $100K in man-hours—eclipsing what the agency received for the entire paying assignment—to create a 10-minute documentary short, showing the lives touched by this unusual public service program.
The Brief: Create a 3-minute internal video to explain how Tandus Centiva flooring sales help fund charitable effort. Budgeted and executed, by Brunner’s in-house production team, at about $70K.
“Publicolor, A Documentary Film” (9:58)
Winner “Best Documentary Short” at Hollywood Int’l Independent Documentary Awards. Also selected for Marché du Film, Cannes, by New World Cinema; Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards; and The Roma, CinemaDoc (not yet judged).
Creative Credits:
Ad Agency: Brunner, Atlanta brunnerworks.com
Directors: Matt Blackburn, Ehsan Abbasi
Screen writer: Brandon Malcolm
Producer: Sherry Merola
Executive Producer: David Sussan
Creative Director: Matt Blackburn
Cinematographers: Ehsan Abbasi, Jonathan Eller
Art directors: Courtney Stewart, Carly Holtzman
Editor: Ehsan Abbasi
Account Director: Zak Cochran
Account Manager: Jenny Williams
Project Manager: Babette Griffith
Production Assistants: John Suarez, Colin Williams
Set Design Team: Cynthia Alberto, Matt Blackburn, David Sussan, Courtney Stewart, Carly Holtzman, Brandon Malcolm, Ehsan Abbasi, Bill Zeigler, Benjamin Stanfield
Publicolor Founder and President: Ruth Lande Shuman
Suzanne Tick Inc. Founder: Suzanne Tick
Publicolor Director of Summer Design Studio: Melissa Rioux
Publicolor Students: Aaron Lewis, Shane Smith, Roberto Joseph, Kimmar Mightly, Acacis, Christina, Jenelle, Destiney, Octavio Alexpadilla, Jose Figureoa, Natasha Seng, Cara Spitzer
Hand Model: Teresa Evans