Client: Fox Searchlight
In addition to being on of my favorite movies, the Birdman official site is likely my favorite project of all time. The film is meta on so many levels and being able to make something high concept to promote something else high concept was extremely fulfilling.
Functionally, the site is a means of exploring clips and profound quotes from the movie. Conceptually, the site is a deep dive into the mind of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), complete with his nagging, hilarious subconscious adding commentary at every turn.
We drew inspiration from the film’s opening montage of a meteor plummeting toward earth. The true sign of a falling star, this was the perfect representation of Riggan’s character.
Creating a Web-GL version of the meteor gave us a central navigation mechanic and by clicking on different fragments (intended to represent Riggan’s psyche), users could explore various clips representing vignettes of Riggan’s experiences. The film’s percussive jazz score was also a huge source of inspiration and led us to develop an additional interactive component where users could use their keyboard to type and reveal different quotes from the movie.
It’s not often that we get to make something abstract for marketing purposes and usually it’s bogus to classify marketing as art. I feel strongly that this site is an exception and am very proud to have been a part of the production.
Awards:
Credits
Agency: Watson DG
Creative Director: Hleb Marholin
Art Director: Hleb Marholin
Front End Developers: John Iacoviello, Kaiyi Wong
Web-GL Developer: John Iacoviello
Copywriter: Arin Delaney
Animator: Jamie Green
Sound Designer: David Robbins
Editor: Ryan Shelton
Producer: Greg Meltzer