Art Fails to Melt Bankers’ Cold Hearts in New Ad Directed by Ilya Naishuller

 Renaissance art finds an unsympathetic audience in this inspired new campaign for Russian bank Tochka, directed by Great Guns’ Ilya Naishuller. Creatively devised by agency Voskhod and produced by Daddy’s Film Moscow, the fantastical ad brings iconic artworks to life to epic effect.

 

The 60-second ad, ‘The Wrong Bank’, takes place in an art gallery stalked by stony-faced bankers. The deliciously dark melody of Massive Attack’s ‘Angel’ underpins the ominous scene. Suddenly, as the paintings and sculptures spring to life in live action, the bankers are placed in the midst of compelling scenes of human emotion and suffering. But the artworks are appealing to the wrong audience and the suits treat the spectacle with cold indifference and amusement. A voice over explains that this is because nothing matters to banks except money – not dreams, loyalty, faith, truth, nor love.

Tochka Bank claims to break this tradition by showing love towards its clients at the heart of its business and understanding entrepreneurs’ needs. Its new ad positions it proudly as an outsider; ‘wrong’ in the eyes of traditional banks, but perfect for serving its clients’ businesses.

 

Ilya Naishuller, directed the ambitious and grand-scale ad. He comments: “I immediately fell in love with the concept and was excited to try something new as a director. It was a lot of fun researching Renaissance art to come up with living, breathing versions. Casting was an interesting challenge as finding the types of faces to fit each the story took some time and careful consideration. Ultimately, I think we struck gold with our cast and managed to find the right balance between being interesting-looking people who also fit the era we were trying to recreate.”

 

To capture the otherworldly visuals, Naishuller shot on high-speed Phantom Flex 4K cameras. Commenting on the set-up, he says: “We worked heavily with VR cameras to create previews and pre-shot most of the video, which allowed us to blast through the shoot with an accurate yet fun approach.”

Tochka Bank – ‘The Wrong Bank’ Ad from Ilya Naishuller on Vimeo.

 

Credits:

 

Client: Tochka Bank

Head of Marketing, Tochka Bank co-founder: Yana Gannik

Head of Internet Marketing: Tatyana Kornaushchenko

Designer: Konstantin Baydak

PR manager: Aleksandra Prytkova

Head of Projects: Sofya Maslennikova

Head of Projects: Yana Istomina

 

Creative Agency: Voskhod Agency

Copywriters: Anton Rozhin, Darya Ovechkina

Art Director: Agnieszka Brzezina

Account manager: Irina Shubina

Creative Director: Andrey Gubaydullin

Head of strategy:  Dmitry Donik

 

Production Company: Daddy’s Film Production, Moscow

Director: Ilya Naishuller (represented globally outside Russia by Great Guns)

Cinematography: Vladislav Opelyants

Executive Producer: Egor Solomatin

Head of Production: Dmitry Dimchevskiy

Unit Production Manager: Mikhail Goglov

Casting: Maroussia Sayapina, CastingMoscow

Production Designer: Dmitriy Onishchenko

Tochka Designer | Konstantin Baidak

1AC | Nikolay Shinkarenko

2AC | Andrey Babich, Maxim Timoshenko

Set Decorator | Vyatcheslav Chulikov

Costume designer | Julia Subbotina

Hair and Make-up Artist | Igor Boyko, Anastasiya Ramlya

Property Master | Alexander Kucheriavy (Rastabike)

Assistant Property Master | Xenia Lovina

Gaffer | Aleksandr Egorov

 

Music: «Angel» written & performed by Massive Attack

 

Edit | Vlad Kaptur

 

Post-production: CGF

VFX Supervisor | Alexander Gorokhov

Art-director | Izabela Cichonska

VFX & DI producer | Ekaterina Averina

Head of CG Production | Alena Kucherova

Color | Maxim Mironov (ColorLarek), Alex Zolotarev (CGF)

Production Assistants | Egor Larichkin, Aleksander Zhukov

SFX Supervisor | Maxim Sorokin

Dolly Grip | Alex Panchenko

Backstage operator | Georgiy Tseselchuk (BlackScreen)

 

Cameras and lenses provided by KINOTECHNIKA & Pavel Galin.

 

Special Thanks to Executive Producer and Managing Partner Tanya Lukovnikova & Tim Solo.