Stardust's Blockbuster for Southwest Airlines

Stardust, the bicoastal integrated production and design firm, partnered up with GSD&M to create a thrilling promotional film for Southwest Airlines’ new in-flight service of Free Live TV. The film showcases a series of high-octane, title sequences that unfold and transform into a beautiful, polished, metallic type-face straight out of a Summer Blockbuster.

 

“The creative team at GSD&M came to us with the basis of a great idea,” explains Stardust Managing Director/Co-Owner Dexton Deboree. “They wanted to deliver a largely text-based advertisement, and deliver it in the vein of a Summer Blockbuster movie trailer. We took inspiration, of course, from the usual big, explosive, sci-fi action movie trailers. But we also looked in far corners, such as metal welding. Then, we married that with concepts inspired by underwater marine footage; delicate, but transformative origami objects; and space exploration to discover our creative execution. We credit the agency for giving us such a solid foundation, and then just paid tribute to that in the best way we could.”

 

Adds Stardust Creative Director/Co-Owner Seth Epstein: “We embraced the idea of a dimensional fractal, and once we put it into motion, the morphing from one shape into type and back worked in such a visceral and cinematic way,” he says. “That was our challenge; to make something that feels like a Blockbuster that has a visceral quality while maintaining readability. We did not want to do the classic ‘type flies from background’ approach. We really pushed to come up with something innovative; and we did. There is hypnotic quality to this film, which I love. We're very proud of how we took a simple type treatment and turned it into something really special. Ultimately, having a great agency partner was also a big part of this project’s success; and their willingness to take the road less traveled was essential.”

Credits

Client: Southwest Airlines
Spot Title: “Free TV”

Advertising Agency: GSD&M
Senior Writer: Rusty Broome
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Ellen Springer
Producers: Susan Lazarus, Maria Ivicic

Production/Design/Animation Company: Stardust
Managing Director/Co-Owner: Dexton Deboree
Creative Director/Co-Owner: Seth Epstein
Executive Producer: Blythe Dalton Klippsten
Producer: Paul Winze
Art Director: Piero Desopo
Designers: Ling Feng, Karen To, Piero Desopo
Animator/Compositor: Piero Desopo
CG Animator: Kevin Ferrara
Flame Artist: Kevin McDonald

Editorial Company: Stardust
Editors: Ted Neckar, Mike Hackett

Audio:
Mix: John Bolen
Sound Design: John Bolen
Music: Dogwalk, Inc /Matthew Downs