BILLUND, DENMARK – What happens if you ask kids to direct an action film? Based on these trailers produced by LEGO and HOBBYFILM, it would be hilarious and out of this world.
These films were created to launch the new LEGO City Police set. Though LEGO has always shown kids catching crooks using the police car, truck or helicopter, some of the new props this time call for a twist.
“This year’s sets came with a skateboard, a slice of pizza, and a lollipop which sounds like the start of a joke. So, we put these elements into kids’ hands and asked them to tell us the story of how they’d use them to catch crooks,” said Debra Gerrad, Creative Director at LEGO.
According to Gerrard, they invited a diverse group of kids from different parts of the world who were natural storytellers and who were not shy to share their ideas with a film crew and the other kids they were playing with.
They gathered these kids in a studio and with the help of a facilitator, had them come up with plots and scenarios while they were playing with the new LEGO City Police Set.
Watch an interview with the kids here:
“It was essential to us that the stories the kids told were completely authentic. We gave the kids a very open scenario to work out through play – tell a cops-and-crooks story that begins in a bank and ends at a police station. Whatever happened in the middle was entirely up to the kids” added Denise Lauritsen, Senior Communications Managerfor LEGO.
Needless to say, the resulting storyline was nothing close to what the team was expecting to hear.
“An action musical was far from any of our imaginations! Other fun surprises were the ‘Fish Person’, the ‘Titanium Exploding Fish’, a diamond worth over 3 billion trillion dollars and a multitude of film titles,” said Gerrard.
The suggested film titles were “Crimes”, “Police Crimes”, “Jewel Robbers”, “The Robbers Try To Steal The Bank… But Do They?”.
Watch the campaign here:
It might seem like a fun and playful project but according to Gerrard, it wasn’t easy.
“You have to relinquish quite a lot of control. We also didn’t start with the idea of kids writing the script, so it meant by the time we were interviewing the kids we should really have started on the production of the final film. This then put A LOT of pressure on the production team who moved the earth to make this happen.”
But the effort was worth it. The ads have been well received by online users and most especially parents.
“By creating an ad that looks just like the next big blockbuster movie trailer, we meet parents right where they are – online, connected, and through references that appear very familiar at first glance,” said Lauritsen.
“The rug-pull moment is the fact that this supposed big-budget action movie trailer, which gets weirder and weirder as we go along, turns out to be a story told by children. And that’s the ultimate point we want to make with this campaign: that kids are both great storytellers and great creative problem solvers.”
The more we watch these trailers, the more we want it to be a full-length movie. Asked if there’s any chance for it happening, Gerrardsaid: “We would love to… but can’t make any promises.”
It’s for us to find out!
