Facebook 'The Things That Connect Us'

New York/Portland, OR-based Search Party Music partnered with the much-admired masters of atmosphere, Texas-based band Explosions In the Sky, to produce music for Facebook’s first-ever commercial, the :90 “The Things That Connect Us,” for web and broadcast out of Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, OR.  Directed by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros, Babel), the spot debuts as Facebook reaches a milestone: an active user base of one billion.     

 

Click HERE to view the spot.

 

To compliment Iñárritu’s highly cinematic approach to the project, Wieden + Kennedy brought Search Party Music onboard to leverage their extensive music supervision experience, bringing an equally vivid sonic element to the spot.  Search Party Music Executive Producer Sara Matarazzo worked closely with Iñárritu and the agency to select a band that would deliver something more modern than the traditional orchestral score.  Explosions In the Sky was a natural fit, well known for their guitar-based harmonics and textured soundscapes.  Notes Matarazzo, “It was an amazing experience working on a project with incredibly smooth collaboration among this group of highly talented and seasoned individuals.” 

 

“The Things That Connect Us” opens on a solitary red chair floating in a forest.  Next we see a series of seated individuals: an old man, a young man, kids playing with a chair in the middle of the neighborhood street.  The music begins, accompanied by a deliberate, female voiceover, “Chairs.  Chairs are made so that people can sit down and take a break.  Anyone can sit on a chair.  Anyone can sit in a chair and if the chair’s large enough, they can sit down together.  And tell jokes or make up stories or just listen.”  We see interpretive dancers, children, people across the globe settled in seats.  The voiceover continues, “Chairs are for people and that is why chairs are like Facebook.”  Next we see other inanimate objects: doorbells, airplanes, bridges.  “These are things people use to get together so they can open up and connect about ideas and music and other things that people share,” she says.  Then we see other artfully depicted things and activities: dance floors, basketball, a great nation.  She continues, “A great nation is something that people build so they can have a place where they belong.  The universe: it is vast and dark and makes us wonder if we are alone.  So maybe the reason we make all of these things is to remind ourselves that we are not.”  We see a couple delicately holding one another’s hand and we cut to the Facebook logo, closing out the spot.   

 

 

Client: Facebook

 

Title: “The Things That Connect Us” :90

 

Post date: currently online

 

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, OR

 

Creative Directors: Karl Lieberman, Danielle Flagg, Eric Baldwin

 

Copywriter: Eric Swanson

 

Art Director: Brad Trost

 

Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt

 

Account Team: John Rowe, Leah Bone, Maggie Entwistle

 

Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman

 

Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

 

Interactive Creative Director: Dan Hon

 

Business Manager: Amber Lavender

 

Project Manager: Lauren Walker

 

Production Company: Anonymous Content

 

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

 

Executive Producer: Eric Stern

 

Line Producer: John Benet

 

Director of Photography: Greig Fraser

 

First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn

 

Production Designer: Jeremy Hindle

 

Costume Designer: Erin Benach

 

Production Supervisor: Laura Miller

 

Editorial: Joint

 

Lead Editor: Peter Wiedensmith

 

Co-Editor: Kelly Brickner

 

Assistant Editor: Alyssa Coates

 

Sound Assistant Editors: J.B.Jacobs, Eric Hill

 

Audio Engineer, Mixer: Charlie Keating

 

Post Producer: Shelli Jury

 

Associate Post Producer: Lauren Pullano

 

Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

 

Research: Catherine Liu, Zoe Hoeltzel, Matt Hayes, Montea Robinson

 

Finish Mastering: David Jahns

 

VFX: The Mill

 

VFX Shoot Supervisors: Phil Crowe, Hitesh Patel

 

Lead Flame Artists: Phil Crowe, Glyn Tebbutt

 

Flame Artists: Robert Murdoch, Steve Cokonis

 

Nuke Artists: Becky Porter, Jake Maymudes

 

Computer Graphics Lead: Matt Longwell

 

Digital Matte Painter: Andy Wheater

 

Lead Telecine Artist: Adam Scott

 

VFX Producer: Christina Thompson

 

VFX Executive Producer: Sue Troyan

 

Telecine Producer: LaRue Anderson

 

VFX Coordinator Radiance: Salem

 

Music Company: Search Party Music, Portland/New York

 

Music: Explosions in the Sky

 

Music Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo