Cannes Lions

Ares 3: Farewell

3AM, New York / 20TH CENTURY FOX / 2016

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

In their final moments before journeying to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) recorded an intimate tour of the Hermes spaceship and downlinked the video to Earth for broadcast. The tour includes an introduction to each member of the Ares 3 crew and a farewell message from Mark.

From the outset, we were driven by a simple idea: depict the Ares 3 astronauts as celebrities and follow the events of the mission in a way that blurred fiction and reality. We wanted to capture NASA's pop culture appeal during the 1960’s "Space Race" alongside today's hyper-connected social media culture. The result was this film, inspired by the playfulness of Apollo-era documentary videos and more recent recordings from I.S.S, and infused with a Periscope-like social media feed, complete with messages for the crew, trending topics, and individual crew facts.

Execution

The video was captured on set, as The Martian was simultaneously being filmed, providing us direct access to the crew and talent but also creating limitations for the team. It can be incredibly difficult to shoot video alongside the film’s production schedule. We worked on a punchy, agile script, with room for improvisation from the cast and grabbed actors as they were available in between shooting scenes for the film.

The short film was launched across multiple social channels with support from NASA, real-life NASA astronauts (Buzz Aldrin, Michael J. Massimino, etc.), 20th Century Fox, and the cast (Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Aksel Hennie, Kate Mara, etc). It was augmented by a feed of additional character content and mission content.

Outcome

“Ares 3 Farewell” generated over 4 million views.

Audiences and press devoured the content, responding exactly as we intended. The Huffington Post said "Oh, thank god. Finally, a space movie promo that isn't intense, terrifying or overly emotional." WhatCulture called the piece "the best teaser you'll see all year."

This short started a social conversation; tweets and Facebook posts came from all over the world as people came together to rally behind the film’s fictional mission.

And best of all, The Martian went on to become one of the biggest pop culture events of 2015, opening at #1, becoming the second-highest Fall opening of all-time and Ridley Scott’s most successful movie ever.

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