Comedian Hannibal Buress and director Kristian Mercado Figueroa aka Kris Merc set out to make a weird, charming, and surprising piece of content for car sharing marketplace, Turo. Building on a relationship that began as a podcast sponsorship jingle, Turo hit up Buress, to expand the partnership into larger format content.
“The beauty of this collaboration is that Hannibal is a genuine Turo enthusiast. We kicked off our relationship when he organically mentioned the “buttery” Tesla he booked on Turo during his podcast,” said Turo CMO, Andrew Mok. “The videos we created with Hannibal and his team represent the Turo story – we have the perfect car for every occasion, even if that occasion is getting a burrito at a drive-thru”.
Buress brought on Merc along with writer Haji Outlaw (The Eric Andre Show) to develop the concept, giving viewers a glimpse into a big night out for the star (trip to the burrito drive-in) and how Turo makes the journey possible.
Go behind the scenes on the shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Zb5sOVhdM
“When I started discussions with Turo about potentially doing videos for them I immediately brought up Kris Merc,” said Buress. “He has the ability to make anything pop visually. I've worked with him on a handful of things before and he brings lots of fresh ideas and elevates whatever project he's working on.”
Along the way, Buress and Merc plotted a surprise for the crew - and ultimately for the client. With fifteen minutes left in the shoot day, the crew was surprised with an on-the-fly music video shoot for “Turooooooo.” Merc started screaming get that hot pink, and neon blue on set, let’s do this. As he blasted music from a speaker, flipping the script in an instant. Check out the resulting music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYWEX0FyApo
“This wasn’t something they had requested. It was something fun and spontaneous that came out of working on this concept with Hannibal. Me and Hannibal kept talking about making something with the song, and the idea of the music vid at the end of the day kind of happened naturally. It just left everyone smiling,” said Merc. “It’s making me wonder how to end shoots with surprising finales or unexpected pieces of branded content that feels fresh and cool…”
Merc brought his creative partners, EDITBAR owner/editor Michael Reuter and Nice Shoes colorist Phil Choe to handle post production. Reuter cut part of the project while working out of Nice Shoes’ NYC studio, where he’s represented in the New York market making it a LA, Boston, and NY production. Choe than did the final color, creating a strong contrast between the everyday world of Buress and the neon soaked fantasy world he enters once he secures the burritos, possibly through time travel. It’s not 100% clear if the DeLorean he rents from Turo transports him through time as well as space.
The Turo team was blown away by the spots and incorporated the music video it into their landing page for the campaign as an Easter Egg for fans. The infamous Konami code even works as another way of unlocking the video.
“At a time where there is a constant demand for more content, it was great to be able to surprise, and surpass a client’s expectations with an additional piece of content completely outside of what they asked for,” concluded Reuter. “It’s a testament to the Turo team - their creativity, the confidence in their brand - that they embraced what we made and extended the campaign with it.”
Credits:
TALENT:
Hannibal Buress
Tony Trimm
Byron Bowers
CLIENT: TURO
Content Marketing Specialist & Copywriter: Kamala Puligandala
Chief Marketing Officer: Andrew Mok
Director of Strategic Partnership: Justin Esch
Sr. Visual Design Manager & Art Director: Eicka Ames
CREW:
Executive Producer: Avtar Khalsa
Executive Producer: Andrew Nisinson
Director: Kristian Mercado
Producer: Dustin Highbridge
Production Manager: Deryck Highbridge
Production Coordinator: Ivette Anthony
1st AD: Jesse Hays
CAMERA DEPARTMENT
DP: Matthew Chavez
1st AC: Elizabeth Hodgeman
2nd AC: Edgar Gonzales
DIT: Michael Reuter
ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT
Gaffer: Brian Redmann
BB Electric: Adam Flores
Electric: Dean Peluso
Electric: Fritz Marx
Electric Driver: Daniel Carrillo
GRIP DEPARTMENT
Key Grip: Jimmy Viera
ART DEPARTMENT G&E
Production Designer: Miles Mullin
Art Director: Jena Serbu
Lead Man: Scott Schefier
On Set Dresser: Hannah Olsen
SOUND/VTR Vehicles
Sound: Moore Huffman
VTR: Jarrod Butler
VANITIES
Hair/Makeup: Golden
Wardrobe Stylist: Shelley Caudill
LOCATIONS
Loc Manager: Travis Beck
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Production Assistant Office: Ashley Lynch
Production Assistant: Sam Schneider
Production Assistant: Richard Monteiro
Production Assistant: Chris Sinclair
Production Assistant: David Tanner
Production Assistant: Fabian Larrera
EQUIPMENT VENDOR:
Camera: Tim Hanaseth
Music Video VFX
VFX Artists: Rafatoon, German Camilo Leal
3D VFX: Fustic Studio
3D Artists: Trung Bao, Hai Doan, Nam Le
EDITORIAL: EDITBAR / Nice Shoes
Editor - Michael Reuter
Assistant - Danny Weeks
Producers - Maggie Flatley and Phoebe Cole Dubay (Editbar), Jason Farber (Nice Shoes)
COLOR GRADING: NICE SHOES
Colorist: Phil Choe
Producer: Liz Mitchell
