San Manuel Casino
'All Thrill'
What does it feel like to lay it all on the line? The sensation of exhilaration. The pounding of your heart. A glance across the table at your competitors. That’s what we envisioned when we dove head first into the “All Thrill” campaign for San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. The first of the series is Anthem. This spot wrestles with that inner anxiety and overwhelming emotion of the thrill of victory. Our mix of design driven live-action, effects heavy environments and surreal transitions and characters brings life to an already intriguing notion of what really goes on inside the mind when we get lost in the moment.
Hold on tight.
- Production Company: Gentleman Scholar
Directors: William Campbell & Will Johnson
Executive Producer: Lindsay Bodanza
Head of Production: Rachel Kaminek
Line Producer: Rich Kaylor
DP: Craig Kief
Production Designer: Carl Swanberg Post Production Company: Gentleman Scholar
Creative Directors: William Campbell & Will Johnson
Art Director: Jordan Lyle
CG Supervisor: Tim Hayward
2D Lead: Tommy Wooh
Producer: Nate Occhipinti
Flame Artist: Paul Heagney, Federico Saccone, Renee Tymn
Additional Flame Artist: Todd Mesher - Title: ‘Slots’
Designer: Sarah Beth Hulver, Paul Kim, James Levy
CG Generalist: Ben Grangereau, Robert Kim, Johnny Lum
FX Artist: Matt Johnson
3D Animation: James Lane, Sarah Wolfe
Lighting: Rafael Protti, Danny Jenson, Chris Barischoff
Compositor: Will Voss Johnson
Storyboard: Eric Yamamoto, Brad Arnold - Title: ‘Anthem’
Designer: Paul Kim
Matte Painting: James Levy
CG Generalist: Ryan Kaplan, Johnny Lum
FX Artist: Kunle Jegede, Yates Holley
3D Animation: James Lane
Modeling & Texture : Andy Kim, Kevin Manning, Robert Kim
Lighting: Erick Schiele
Compositor: JP Rooney, Raul Moreno, Kevin Kim, Michael Tavarez
Storyboard: Bryan Deloach - Editor: Erik Barnes Agency: Pitch
Producer: Julie Salik
Creative Director: Xanthe Wells
Art Director: David Dubois
Copywriter: Jake Matthews - Original Music: ELIAS
Audio Mix: ELIAS
ECD: Vincenzo LoRusso
CD: Michael Goldstein
EP: Vicki Ordeshook
Head of Production: Katie Overcash
“Our combination of design driven live-action, effects heavy environments and surreal transitions and characters breathe life into an already intriguing notion of what goes on inside the mind when we get lost in the moment.”
San Manuel Casino
'Slots'
We jumped at the chance to create a sense of a journey in this spot featuring slots. The result was our very own 30 second version of Alice in Wonderland; all inside a white world of moving marble structures and whirring elements from inside the slot machines themselves. In the hunt for the final cherry and success in an ever-changing, slippery landscape of odds and pitfalls – we pulled out all the stops to create a world that while beautiful, still possesses a sense of danger and mystery. Jump in with us and enjoy the adventure.
Behind the Scenes
The immense nature of this campaign lent itself extremely well to a behind-the-scenes recap of what the heck was going on inside our brains throughout the process. Our ultimate goal was to make surreal and larger than life adrenaline-fueled moments. We pushed the sense of scale, transitioning magically from one scene to another while allowing our camera’s choreography to help add drama to every single second.
The following images and videos are a sliver of what we uncovered throughout the development of this project. The emotion, designs and love that was poured into every frame left us with a vast array of concepts and ideas that fell to the cutting room floor. In the end, we used every turn as a jumping off point for another great idea, and continued to unearth moments that led us to a better overall campaign.
“There are so many components to this campaign.
Liquid, fabric, particles, live-action characters, CG environments, almost every aesthetic
you could combine into a spot.”