Screen Scene and AIB Journey Through Complicated Mortgage Reality to Financial Utopia

Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive and AIB have partnered with post production company, Screen Scene, for the visual effects and sound design for Allied Irish Banks' most recent campaign ‘Ireland's First Online Mortgage Tool’. 

The film directed by Conkerco (AKA Chris Rule and Ben White from Academy films), reflects  the seamless process of the new tool. The story of a young couple of first-time buyers is presented through a series of vignettes that begins with them literally in the dark about their future home and propels them into a bright, and optimistic future.

The 40-second TVC is artfully composed to move effortlessly from scene to scene, paying a subtle nod to the ease of the new tool. The lighting in the film evolves delicately  with the emotional journey of the story. The uncertainty of the old and lagged process, gives room to new prospects and possibilities, replacing the dusky mood with growing positive energy and optimism for the future. The new brighter and clearer path unfolds in front of the characters as they navigate through the app. 

Allen Sillery, VFX supervisor at Screen Scene comments: “The ad was shot in both Dublin and Bulgaria. In order to move between the different locations of each vignette, we had to build areas that would transition the shots smoothly. For example the tunnel the couple drive through was built entirely in post in order to move us through and into the new scene. However it was the lighting that was essential to the narrative of this story. It had to follow the couple on their journey and evolve with them. The brief for the lighting was theatrical in style, with very bright spotlights and dark shadows that gradually get brighter like a lightbox. Almost every shot in the ad needed work to ensure the lights aligned with each other perfectly in terms of brightness, style and timing as well as with the crescendo of the music.”

The ad is set to Jamie XX’s popular track Loud Places (feat. Romy). Award-winning Screen Scene sound designer Will Farrell also worked on the spot describes the importance of the way the sound design and track work together. He adds: “The soundtrack is integral to this ad, so I didn’t want to overpower it in sound. It was important the sound design highlighted subtle moments. From the initial ambiguity of the film the track helps to build emotion to a peak at the end but there were little points of quiet, like the park, in which I built in subtle warmth and emotion with the sound design.”