A NOTE FROM THE CRAFT CO-CHAIRS

Jealous rage is always the truest measure of great work. As creatives, whenever we see someone else produce something beautiful, smart, disruptive, surprisingly delightful, shockingly original and nearly perfect, we get insanely jealous that we didn’t think of it or make it first. There was a lot of jealousy in the jury room this year. The work being produced in Canada doesn’t feel like work that needs a disclaimer, excusing it as work produced in a smaller market with smaller budgets for smaller brands. A lot of the work that won this year will go on to win at the international shows. When we were asked to co-chair the Marketing Craft jury, we looked back at the past year’s winners. The calibre of Canadian talent is getting stronger every year, and this year continued that trend. Of the work submitted, we saw a lot of great cinematography, direction, sound design, music, editing, copywriting and art direction. In this virtual jury room, no award came easy. There was a lot of great debate. The big questions for all the work was, “How did this great execution serve the idea? Was it relevant? Was it meaningful? Was it great craft, except for that one thing that kinda let it down? Was it great craft, except that Droga5 did something like it in 2005…?” et cetera, et cetera. Knowing the best work was going on to win on the biggest stages for advertising was the bar. So, if you won Gold, congratulations, your work made us insanely jealous. And you held the bar high for our industry.

Vapor Music

Outsider Editorial

Spears & Arrows

Creative/Art Director

CRAFT BEST OF SHOW

GOLD: Art Direction

GOLD: Direction

GOLD: Editing

SILVER: Copywriting

SILVER: Editing “Immortal 90”

In the Royal Ontario Museum’s “Immortal” video, by Broken Heart Love Affair, key moments and milestones in human history – both as a collective and as individuals – are depicted through a series of eerie, slow-motion set pieces that appear to take place underwater and are lit by a single source of natural light. The film begins with a big bang, a burst of light and a baby splashing into water before floating peacefully. “My mother is 4 billion, 600 million-years-old. She is the mother of the seas, the land, life itself,” says the voiceover. Humans appear to be standing on the bottom of the ocean, their hair floating the way it would in water, as the voiceover talks about the range of human emotions. It continues: “I will paddle the rivers of Turtle Island,” as an Indigenous man rows a canoe while seemingly suspended in the water. Battles are depicted by individual men wearing uniforms from different eras fighting each other, including one between a Black man and a police officer in riot gear. Skillful editing and direction build tension and drama throughout the six-minute film, which evokes both the beauty and awfulness of the human experience. The video ends with the words “I will give birth and I will die. But I will live on in what I leave behind,” as a series of artifacts from the ROM are shown in quick succession.

CCOs: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd Mackie Director (Scouts Honour): Mark Zibert

Copywriter: Denise Rossetto Editor (Nimiopere Editorial): Graham Chisholm

VFX Artist (Motif Studios): Craig Parker