MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL - APPLE | MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL / BEHIND THE MAC | 2019
Famous or unknown, everyone was equal in the same frame / APPLE "BEHIND THE MAC"
Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Paul McCartney — all of them shown quietly working away at a Mac. And woven in between them, with just as much weight, is the desk of someone nobody's ever heard of.
The problem
The starting point for this film was the fact that seven in ten people feel they aren't living up to their creative potential, even though today's technology already gives them the means to turn ideas into reality. It premiered at Apple's product launch event in autumn 2018.
The insight
As part of the larger "Behind the Mac" campaign, the brief was to make a film that would encourage the next generation of makers. Rather than singling out celebrities' achievements as something special, it placed activists and artists side by side with ordinary people who sit down at their Mac every day.
The idea
Built from footage gathered from around the world, the film shows well-known creators like Malala Yousafzai and Lin-Manuel Miranda alongside completely unknown people, making the point that anyone making something is doing it behind a Mac. The music is "Shy" by Hauschka. Over its quiet piano, the film cuts between the famous and the unknown, giving each shot exactly the same weight.
What happened
It won a Gold Lion in the Film category at Cannes Lions 2019, a year that saw the highest number of Film category entries ever.
Afterthought
What's amazing is the nerve it took to cut between a famous hand and an unknown hand with equal weight. Normally you'd want to make the celebrities stand out, but by placing everyone on the same level, the message comes through loud and clear: there's no hierarchy when it comes to making something. It's a quiet love letter to everyone out there creating something on a Mac.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2019
