Moon Enchantment
Mankind has observed the Moon with fascination since the dawn of time. Astronomical calendars of carved notches on sticks, reindeer bones, and mammoth tusks, by Ice Age hunters, depicting the days between each phase of the Moon, have been dated by scientists to be 32,000 years old.
For our ancient ancestor’s time was measured by the number of Moons that had passed from a certain period, and by the shadows cast by the Sun and Moon, and the the first to observe how the eight phases of the Moon affect ocean tides, were the astronomers of Ancient Greece.
The allure of the Moon enviably gave rise to folkloric tales, and storyteller yarns such as ‘the Moon is made of cheese’, and inspired writers of science fiction, to enthral readers globally with their inventive Moon-adventure phantasies.
The science fiction novels of Jules Vernes and H.G. Wells, captured the imagination of French illusionist, actor, and film director, Georges Méliès’s, to produce one the most famous and influential films in the history of cinema, his 1902 silent movie, Le voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).
1. Georges Méliès, A Trip To The Moon
Méliès led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema and pioneered the burgeoning science fiction genre of movie making. His satirical ‘A trip to Moon’, with its iconic scene of a spaceship landing in the right eye of the ‘moons face’, took the world by storm.
For a soundtrack to the painstakingly restored, hand-coloured, original version of the 1902 Georges Méliès ‘A Trip to the Moon’, record producer and Hollywood film-scorer Kayla Schmah, added Canadian singer, songwriter Allison Crowe’s voice and piano composition of “Going Home Tonight” as a fitting musical accompaniment.
Before colour film stock was invented In 1935 by American Eastman Kodak, and made commercially available as Kodachrome, to achieve the desired effect of motion pictures in colour, film frames had to be individually hand-tinted with coloured inks to transform them from monochrome to colour, which accounts for the artisanal quaintness of the uneven colour saturation as seen in this movie-clip.
2. Volkswagen, A New Mission
Advertising Agency: Johannes Leonardo, New York, USA
Science fiction became a reality in 1969 when Apollo 11 touched down on the moon.
A remarkable achievement by Nasa, Commander Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, who at the time, had less computing power than a modern-day cellphone to aid them.
A live transmission of the historic moon-landing 384,400 km away, was watched by a spellbound 650 million viewers worldwide.
On the Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary, Volkswagen USA and Johannes Leonardo, released their ‘New Mission’ commercial featuring the song “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, and recalling how the world on 24 July 1969, gazed in wonder at the momentous events of that extraordinary day.
3. JFK Presidential Library and Museum, Moonshot
Advertising Agency: Digitas, Boston, USA
Production Company: Interactive, Virtual Reality and Digital Technology, UNIT9
Amber Harris, Digitas VP Executive Producer, described the Cannes Gold Lion ‘Moonshot’ campaign, created on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, as follows;
“We found original and inventive ways to use today’s media and technology to help a new generation understand this unprecedented feat of ingenuity, teamwork, and perseverance”.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon-landing, an Augmented Reality app, enabled users globally to re-live the breathtaking events of Apollo 11’s historic five-day journey from the Earth to the Moon, in a unique immersive experience of space travel, scientific innovation, human endeavour and courage, ever imagined.
4. Audi Lunar Quattro, Alien Covenant
Advertising Agency; 3AM, Los Angeles, California, USA
3AM, a division of entertainment marketing agency ‘Wild Card Creative’, was founded by Ridley Scott in 2014.
VFX Company: Atomic Arts, London, UK
The Audi Lunar Quattro is a small, e-tron, lunar rover, created by a team of engineers from Germany and Planetary Transportation System Scientists, for a flight to the moon onboard a SpaceX, Falcon 9, two-stage rocket, planned for October 2021.
The exploration rover, with intelligent Quattro drive technology, tilt-able solar panels, and science-grade high definition cameras, is designed to perform a series of scientific and technological tasks.
The Audi Lunar Quattro commercial was directed by filmmaker Matthew Thorne, in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox Studios, and will feature prominently in “Alien Covenant”, Ridley Scott’s new chapter of his famous science fiction horror movie franchise.
5. Sony Bravia OLED TV, Earth Rising
The acronym ‘OLED’ stands for ‘Organic Light-Emitting Diode’. A technology that uses LEDs in which the light is produced by organic molecules, and considered to be the world’s best for display panels.
Advertising Agency: DDB, Berlin, Germany
Directed by filmmaker Ben Tricklebank, the scenario features a Dad and his young son in spacesuits, driving in what looks like a ‘moon-buggy’, to view the dawn of a metaphoric ‘whole new world of the Earth Rising’, as envisioned from the surface of the moon.
The cinematic ‘moonscape’, filmed in Chile’s Atacama Desert, and the spectacular, hyper- real images, on a giant installation in the heart of the barren terrain, are brilliantly produced by a large number of Bravia OLED screens.
The soundtrack features the song “Heart As a River” by vocalist Delhia de France, Los Angeles based, German composer, Robot Koch, and Australian born violinist and strings arranger, Savannah Jo Lack.
6. Sega, The Moon Landing
Advertising Agency: BETC, Paris, France
The Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game developer and publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
Sega’s ‘Humankind’, developed by French video game studio, Amplitude, invites gamers to have rip-roaring fun recreating history.
‘The Moon Landing’ commercial, directed by filmmaker Edouard Salier, is a hilarious scenario of a no holds barred, epic battle, between astronauts that reimagines the events of man’s first steps on the moon.
The soundtrack features a playful rendition of the Blue Danube Waltz by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II.