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In this behind the scenes blog post, the museum’s Creative Director Ned Shaw tells the intriguing tale (…tail?) behind the making of one of our most popular commercials…Geckos!
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"40223","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"commercial"}}]]What was the best way to tell our members and visitors about our cool new exhibit Geckos? We knew that we couldn’t film them in their habitats, because those very habitats had not arrived at the museum in time to get the commercial ready. We had some video clips of geckos, and some sound bites of their songs, and a lot of photos of the slippery little lizards. But somehow that didn’t seem to capture the fascination that we all have for these strange creatures.
It seems we’re in this situation often as we try to come up with fun ways to tell folks what’s coming to the museum. We haven’t finished building an exhibit, but we need to get the advertising ready. This time we decided we’d let the geckos themselves tell their story…with a little help from a writer, some animators, sound engineers, designers, and some funny voices courtesy of our staff. (Bet you didn’t know we had gecko impersonators on our staff, did you?)
Perhaps you remember the old comedy troupe Monty Python and their TV show and films. They had delightful and wacky animations in them, made with a cut paper look. The images were kind of flat, slid in and out of scenes, and when they talked it looked more like a puppet talking instead of the mouths moving in a realistic way.
Using gecko photos, pictures of the museum, and graphic drawings of the forest, we used the Monty Python style and created a world where talking geckos accompanied us as we dropped through the treetops. Speaking in a variety of voices and accents, the geckos tell the viewers “though they aren’t native to Indiana, they could get used to it!” They were happy just to, “hang out at the Children’s Museum!” Their goofy moving mouths and silly sayings let people know, “we sing, we cling…it’s a lizard thing!”
And to make sure people realized that this was a science-based exhibit, a gecko with a European accent informed the public that, “Geckos are verrry scientific!” And adaptable too, demonstrated by one’s tail falling off (much to his chagrin…”I hate it when that happens!”)
This was about the craziest commercial we’ve done yet, and we hope it communicates that you never know what kind of fun and excitement awaits you at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis!
Now that you know the story, relive the Geckos commercial all over again!
Geckos: Tails to Toepads was created by Peeling Productions at Clyde Peeling's Reptiland.
