University of Phoenix was at the front line of the exciting and scary introduction of online education. To educate and delight their audience and at the same time build trust, they created this anthem piece deep diving into the idea of what 'new' is. The goal was to destigmatize new being scary, and instead paint a picture of it being exciting and inspiring. Our role was to help bring that thought to life with a live action and animation hybrid approach.

The challenge and parameter was telling the story of what new is within the context of education without speaking specifically to any one subject. This felt limiting at first, but what we quickly discovered was that the story was much more about emotion and getting the audience excited over fact checking different things they could learn online. That's when the idea came up to cast Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad. 

Throughout the design and production process we always saw this as an editorial story. Wide shots, close ups, & mediums all intercut in a testimonial like way. However, on the 2nd or 3rd day of our shoot with Giancarlo, he was so passionate, and so powerful with his delivery, we discovered it was so much more powerful as a single take. If the animation could work around him in perfect choreography it felt so smart and purposeful and just right for the message was wanted to communicate.

When it came time for editorial & animation, the challenge was visualizing what he was saying in a way the said technology, but that amplified the specific words and meanings at any given time. Again, we couldn't and didn't want to be specific to math, or science, or art, but at the same time speak to education and study in a technologically but classic way.