Microsoft Surface
“We literally had 30 days to complete the project from start to finish. Steve Ballmer was going to reveal the product and launch video at a major press event. So I wrote the creative, submitted it, we won the job, and then I hired a co-director named Caleb Slain. Caleb is also on our roster at Workhouse Creative."
"Caleb worked really heavily on the textures to give the product this bold and ultra aggressive edge, something that felt real, human, yet unobtainable. We worked together with Daniel Kamas to compose the music at Workhouse and tried to make it the most bad ass product reveal video ever."
"When we first submitted the music to Microsoft they came back and said 'No way! This is way too aggressive. It sounds like Soviet prison Russian era!' We tried other versions of the music, but nothing personified the product better. We all knew on the inside that we had something special, but to release something this bold and aggressive is always risky because you don't want to alienate an audience. I felt like we all fought together for the creative and didn’t compromise the vision. And it paid off. The Surface video is up to 9 million views on YouTube."
"We did not want to do any CGI and cross into that uncanny valley! We really wanted to do something practical that you were going to emotionally feel. We used a lot of fishing line and sticky adhesives to prop up the device and make it move on its own. We wanted to give the device a personality and characteristics that people had never seen before, and then parallel the features of the device with elements."
"After completing and launching Surface 1, Microsoft then asked us to do both Surface 2 and 3. On Surface 3 we collaborated with Blk Ops and Panos Panay directly, the creator and inventor of the Surface. Each experience had its own unique reward and it has been such an honor to work with the PR and marketing teams at Microsoft."
