Film service MUBI's new campaign by Jason Evans contains riddles aplenty

Date
13 April 2015

If life were like a happy shiny rom com, we’d all have perfectly coiffed hair most of the time, and be fending off the likes of Richard Gere or Hugh Grant at some point. But it’s not – our hair is messy, our suitors are far more odd and generally less slimy, and there’s tears, fears and anger thrown into the mix. And life’s all the better for it. Cinema, too, isn’t only about things that make you smile, but things that make you feel something distinct, and it’s this capacity for film to evoke something powerful and visceral that online curated film service MUBI explores brilliantly in its new campaign.

It’s been created by ad agency BBH/ZAG, using bold, bright, imagery shot by photographer Jason Evans that looks to encapsulate the slap round the face brilliant cinema delivers. “The genesis of the project was in the idea that films don’t always make you feel good, but the films that make you feel something different, difficult or new, are the ones that stay with you,” says MUBI. “These are the films that are unforgettable.”

MUBI drew up a list of films in their library that fit the bill, including It’s Nice That faves Showgirls, Shame, Oldboy and Gommorah. These were articulated using a single-word reaction, such as “Twisted: Feel it with Donnie Darko,” accompanied by a beautifully shot, sometimes quite abstract image. “ The visual responses to the films are various and not literal, we wanted to credit the audience with more intelligence than that,” Jason explains. “I think a MUBI member is probably an independent thinker quite capable of engaging with a riddle.”

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BBH/ZAG and Jason Evans: Crushed

And what we’ve loved about MUBI over the past couple of years is that it’s not afraid to give us those riddles. Each day a simple missive arrives in your inbox with a new film, some we know – some we don’t – but each one feels so lovingly selected that there’s little question it’ll be something that will do just what they mentioned before – something unforgettable.

Faced with the thousands of choices you get with other streaming services, the selection process can be as stressful as the things you’re trying to escape by pouring your mind into a film, and as such, MUBI’s beauty lies in its curation. Each day, its team chooses a film to be added, usually a cult, classic or award-winning one, often intriguing, more often very beautiful, and always very, very interesting. You’ve got 30 days to watch that film before it falls off the site. The old quality, not quantity adage seems fitting. Even if you hate the film that day, it’ll have almost definitely done what great films serve to do, focus your eyes on something in yourself and in the world you weren’t quite aware of.

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BBH/ZAG and Jason Evans: Aroused

Jason’s imagery in the new campaign is a perfect mirror to this. He says: “Some [of the ads] are more esoteric than others. Some are emotional, some are intuitive others are the nice surprises that turn up along the way when you’re allowed a street-photography approach and have enough time to explore that creative freedom.”

The images were shot using 35mm film mostly around Jason’s home in East Kent, but also in London and Paris. “ I immediately felt [the campaign] needed a documentary style and an analogue texture,” says Jason. “My guess was that MUBI members would respond to something that felt authentic, and drawn from an environment they identified with. They are not complacent. MUBI is not about passive entertainment and ‘switching off’ and neither is this campaign.”

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BBH/ZAG and Jason Evans: Twisted

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BBH/ZAG and Jason Evans: Screwed

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