“Pizza de Los Lagos” is a nine second ad for Signore, a Chilean pizzeria, that is anchored by gentle acoustic guitar music and a simple but familiar color palette. Out of a background of a dusty pink cement color, an image appears from the center. The background is lightly streaked, as if to resemble a smudged piece of paper — but it is actually scratchy film. The emerging image is a color illustration in shades of green, gray, and red.
The bottom of the image is a white-flecked green in the shape of a bowl, out of which arise a gray mountain with a snow cap, some dark green earth, and a rising red sun among green-grey clouds. A few trees sprout from the earth. Then each shape transforms. The red sun detaches from the rest of the picture, which fades away. Puffy white objects approach. The sun begins to twirl, releasing matching rays, the white objects develop points on their tops. The sun turns into a tomato, basil leaves overtake the red rays, and the white objects are starting to look like balls of mozzarella.
The tomato separates into chunky slices and the basil spins around with the tomato to resolve into nice round pizza. The pizza flattens out and flips up to reveal a red and green logo sign.
It is difficult to create lasting visual images in nine seconds, but the director of this video has managed to do so with constant motion; a familiar red, green, and white theme against an unexpected smudged putty background; and a pleasant and evocative spot of music. The visual transformation works successfully to create a tiny narrative about fresh ingredients from the countryside becoming a delicious pizza. And the video ends on an image of the brand. The director used the nine seconds well.
Pizza de Los Lagos is a creative animation and commercial video.
