Look Into My Eyes: Hypnotic South African Ads

Director Dean Blumberg and Bouffant have createdan ambitious project for Santam Insurance with agency King James. Volunteers were hypnotised in real world scenarios by internationally renowned hypnotist Keith Barry. It was an unprecdented commercial shoot  - well it's not every day your stars are men who truly believe they're pregnant. The experiment was carried out on the streets of Joburg in a carefully controlled manner, ensuring the safety of all consenting adults. Dean and the creative teams dealt with innumerable obstacles due to the unpredictable nature of hypnosis and its effects on people. LBB's Laura Swinton spoke to director Dean Blumberg to find out more.

 

LBB> What were your initial thoughts when you you saw what the team at King James had come up with?

DB> The agency had always envisioned a social experiment in some form. Our opinion was that the only option was to bring in a world renowned hypnotist with instant induction experience and achieve the commercial without any of the normal aids. There was a need for the premium aesthetic of Santam to be present, so the quality of their advertising legacy had to be infused into the execution whilst really dealing with something that is usually quite funny to watch and very candid camera. This was the challenge, to pin the correct tone, give it a quality look, be true to the serious nature of the message, still make it entertaining, abide by all the safety requirements and still leave some room for magic!

 

LBB>  What sort of precautions did you have to take with the volunteers and the location to keep things safe?

DB> All subjects were volunteers and we made sure they understood that we would keep them safe and not ridicule them. Within the live scene we had placed safety people placed who we could trust to react if a problem arose. We obviously had secured locations with traffic control and security as such, but we did not impede any form of public interaction. A major factor was obviously the hypnotist - Keith Barry was chosen for his credibility and integrity as well as his absolutely fabulous talent. Keith was very diligent along with his assistant Jose who kept a careful eye out for potential issues.

 

LBB>  Where did you recruit your volunteers from?

 

DB> A combination of street casting and through agents all specifically focused on non-actors.

LBB> What was Keith Barry the hypnotist like to work with?

DB> Brilliant. We could not have done this without him. We felt totally safe in Keith's hands, he understood our early call times and parameters.  Willing to explore but always so in charge of the situation and the safety of the subjects.  He has a "street" quality to him, rather than a stage Hypnotist that worked really well for the campaign.

 

LBB>  In terms of planning shots it must have been pretty tricky given the unpredictable nature of hypnosis - how did you accommodate that?

 

DB> We worked with three cameras to optimize the coverage of each take and tried to contain the action area of each location as much as possible. We enlisted a few talented stage actors to mingle with crowds and help traffic participants into camera view.

 

LBB> What were the most surprising reactions and hypnotised behaviours you saw on the day?

DB>The most surprising reactions were from subjects literally collapsing into Keith's arms,  with absolutely no strength in their legs, arms hanging heavy…  and this from strong, young, energetic body language