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Prize for creativity

PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

ON A HIGH Gerald and Preeti

How did a walk down the street end up winning a Bronze at Cannes? It was shot in one day by a young team on a strict budget. So there were no fancy foreign locations. No gorgeous high-profile models. And no high-tech high jinks.

It all just boiled down to one good idea. And clear-sighted, intelligent execution.

Preeti Machat and Gerald Packiasamy, just back after a euphoric win at Cannes, are still on a high when they discuss ‘Stretch Street’ at the Taj Connemara, just a stone’s throw from the JWT offices, where it all began.

The idea originated from Senthil Kumar, India Vice President and Executive Creative Head of JWT. “He said ‘Imagine you step out of your home, and everyone you see is in a yogic pose’ and suggested a traffic policeman to begin with,” says Gerald, “And instantly we were hooked.” The brief was to create a 60-second advertisement to promote the International Yoga Festival, organised by Puducherry Tourism.

Once Senthil explained the concept, Preeti and Gerald — who are producer and director at Still Waters, a company they started just a little more than a year ago — started scouring Chennai and Puducherry for yoga gurus. “We didn’t want regular yoga,” smiles Preeti, “No Padmasanas and Surya namaskars. It had to be really tough poses.” They took two weeks to find the right people. “We would go into vague, dark alleyways and bylanes… anywhere we saw a yoga board.”

Finally, with the help of Asana Andiappan in Chennai and Ananda Balayogi in Puducherry, they were ready to begin. “We wanted a policeman giving directions, in a complicated Ashtanga yoga pose. Children hanging from trees like bats. Teachers taking classes in convoluted positions. Men reading papers with their legs crossed behind their ears,” says Gerald, discussing how they ended up gathering a cast that began with six year olds. “Though it was a 75-year-old man who ended up doing the most complicated position!”

The team chose to do the shooting in Puducherry, thanks to its great atmosphere — especially in the French quarter. “The town looks fantastic,” says Gerald, “The yellow walls, the sea…,” Preeti adds, “We began in the morning and shot till 6.40 p.m… as long as there was daylight.”

A still from "Stretch Street"

Hiring a Jimmy Jib, which is a crane for the camera, was their biggest indulgence. “We wanted the camera to do some yogic stretches too,” says Gerald. Since the central idea was to infuse everyday life with yoga, the team even recruited a couple of stretchy caterpillars. “We also spent one day scouring Mumbai, where we were editing, for a dog or cat that was stretching,” laughs Preeti. “Everything had to be convoluted.”

Even the music. So Chennai composer Paul Jacob introduced folk instruments such as the Vrumi to the score. “We asked him to stretch the music too,” says Gerald.

With the help of this promo, Preeti says the festival, which generally draws about 60,000 people every January, ended up drawing three lakh this year.

‘Stretch Street’ was also nominated at the Clio Awards 2008 in the category of Best Original Music Score and won a silver award at the Goa Fest 2008. “But there’s nothing like Cannes,” smiles Preeti. “It’s like the Oscars of the advertising world.”

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