As you know, UA has an incredibly diverse client list and I’m always keen to seek out our talent working on the coal face of emerging technology.
Jörg Tittel and Alex Helfrecht with their company Oiffy are a great example. They are not bound by any conventional medium and their aim is purely to create stories.
Being in their presence is often inspirational. The brave new world of digital and transmedia seems simple and it is always hard after a conversation with them to come back down to earth, where broadcasters, brands and agencies are still tied to traditional models and often reluctant to embrace the possibilities put out there by Jörg and Alex.
I’ve written about them before in relation to the work they did for Reckitt Benckiser (I can just imagine what they would have done with that if they had been given a free rein!).
You can explore their world on the Oiffy website. Have a look HERE
Jörg has also just been made a member of BAFTA Games and I have absolutely no doubt that he will be a brilliant contributor.
I’m sure you will agree with me that when I mention the name Reckitt Benckiser, you don’t immediately think of a company at the forefront of the current advertising revolution. After all, they sell products like detergents, stain removers and pain relief tablets.
Middle of the road I hear you thinking, safe, family orientated …
Well I’m afraid you are going to have to think again.
Reckitt Benckiser’s advertising agency, Euro RSCG and digital production house Less Rain, worked with UA client Jörg Tittel and asked him and his partner at Oiffy, Alex Helfrecht, to direct and help produce an interactive film for them.
Here’s the trailer:
Jörg is one of those breathtakingly gifted people who “gets” new technology and is totally unafraid to push boundaries. Like some of our other clients here, he is way ahead in the world of telling stories in new mediums and on developing platforms.
He studied theatre at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and the Stella Adler Conservatory. To finance his degree, Jörg wrote for videogame magazines such as Next Gen Magazine, the Official Dreamcast Magazine and the Japanese Famitsu.
For Jörg, the worlds of theatre, film and games made sense together. On a mission to combine them further, he worked as a writer and game designer at Treyarch/Activision, where he helped adapt Minority Report into a videogame.
As I said, he likes to focus on cross-platform projects and he has also worked with Oscar winning BreakThru Films in partnership with ITV Studios to produce a science fiction TV and videogame series he created called eX.
You can see just a few of Jörg’s and Alex’s other projects on the Oiffy website.
For Reckitt Benckiser, Jörg and Alex directed 35 minutes of interactive film content designed to sit online (insanelydriven.com), as well as being released across iPad and iPhone in April. The viewer enters Insanely Driven, a mad, interactive world where every choice you make says something about you.
The length of an online film is traditionally a couple of minutes, but this is soon going to be a thing of the past as our viewing habits change. And this film is a fine example of that.
I think it is very brave of a company like Reckitt Benckiser to take a risk and embrace the future so positively.
Have a look atINSANELY DRIVEN – I bet, like me, you watch it to the very end!
