A Nine-Hour Set Up to Capture 20,000 Dominos in One Take: Behind the Scenes on Telstra’s Latest Spot
Telstra partnered with +61, director Dan Tobin Smith, and art director Rachel Thomas to create a visually striking campaign featuring over 20,000 colourful dominos, showcasing the seamless performance of Telstra’s Home Internet.
The campaign, which utilises a large practical set and expert domino designers, aims to captivate the Australian audience with its elegance and simplicity.
+61 creative directors Mark Tallis and Cam Dowsett spoke to LBB about the campaign’s decision to use real dominoes instead of CGI, adding a tactile authenticity, with natural imperfections enhancing the brand’s message.
They also outlined the spot’s meticulous sound design and careful editing, which prioritised emotional impact over technical complexity, and created a visually and aurally satisfying experience.
LBB> What was the most challenging part of designing and executing the domino runs, and were there any unexpected mishaps during filming?
Mark and Cam> We knew the dominos would be incredibly time-consuming to set up (we weren’t allowed to touch them), so Dan and Rachel were incredibly diligent in the pre-planning. We had a really good idea of what every shot would look like before we started shooting. There were a couple of white knuckle moments during set-up, a few little accidents, but the domino wizards put these little breaks in the dominoes so that the sections were cordoned off. During actual filming everything worked the first time, which was amazing.
LBB> Can you tell us more about the “domino experts” you worked with? What kind of expertise do they bring to a project like this?
Mark and Cam> The experts were fantastic. They worked incredibly fast, and their accuracy was second to none. They’re all guys that have day jobs. Dominos are just their passion project. The domino world doesn’t tend to film things as cinematically as Dan [Tobin Smith, director] does, so they were really excited, too.
LBB> Were there any specific inspirations behind the visual aesthetic of the campaign, particularly in terms of colour choices and set design?
Mark and Cam> We wanted to visualise the transition from white to colour as the dominos fell through the home to show the internet flowing through each room. For this same reason, we decided that a neutral house colour would help us to make more of the moment colour was revealed. To dramatise the reveal even further, we decided to make the tops and sides of the dominoes white, and the faces were Telstra’s brand colours. It made for a more lovely reveal.
LBB> Domino setups require incredible precision – how long did it take to set up each sequence, and how many takes were needed to get the perfect shot?
Mark and Cam> The full sequence took about eight or nine hours to set up, with a couple of minor topples along the way. But, incredibly, everything was captured first take. We reset one little swirl just so we could have it topple at double the speed, but that was it.
LBB> Why did you choose a fully practical, real-world approach rather than relying on CGI for the domino effects?
Mark and Cam> The brand world of Telstra is all about the human hand and tactility, so we try to do things for real as much as we can to showcase a higher level of craft. You can see in the film that there are imperfections in how some of the dominoes fall. You wouldn’t get these perfect imperfections in CGI. We wanted to show people the love and craft that went into it.
LBB> The sound design in the campaign is particularly striking – how did you approach capturing and enhancing the natural sounds of the dominos falling?
Mark and Cam> There was a very noisy motion-capture arm operating during the shoot, so we couldn’t actually record it live. We still wanted authentic SFX, though, so we brought dominos from the set back to Sonar, and Tim recorded smaller runs in their studio to create the foley. Full audio nerd stuff.
LBB> What role did sound play in conveying the theme of seamless internet performance, and were there any unique techniques used in the sound design?
Mark and Cam> We knew sound would play a huge role in elevating the film from both a music and sound design perspective. The guys at Sonar did an incredible job of bringing it to life. We wanted to bring the idea of the human hand into the sound, too, which is why we were drawn to something that felt more warm and classical. Our composer, Jackson, had the idea to add some unusual jangly percussive elements that he actually played on piano strings with a guitar pick. And we mentioned the vast foley job they did already.
LBB> Brent Smart mentioned wanting to avoid “tired rational proof points.” How do you think this campaign emotionally connects with viewers in a way traditional ads don’t?
Mark and Cam> Visual metaphors are always tricky because the instinct is always to overexplain so people really get what you mean. We tried to get out of the way of the visual as much as we could so that people could just enjoy it.
Making sure the edit was satisfying to watch became the focus, so we actually had to drop a lot of amazing technical shots (sorry Dan) because they felt like they were getting in the way of the satisfaction you feel in just letting this beautiful experiment unfold.
