ARMOURED TRUCK

Silver Spike
TitleARMOURED TRUCK
BrandLOTTO NEW ZEALAND
Product / ServiceLOTTO POWERBALL
CategoryA01. Direction
EntrantSCOUNDREL Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation DDB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production SCOUNDREL Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Damon Stapleton DDB Group New Zealand Chief Creative Officer
Shane Bradnick DDB Group New Zealand Executive Creative Director
Brett Colliver DDB Group New Zealand Creative Director
Mike Felix DDB Group New Zealand Creative Director
Tim Bullock Scoundrel Films Director/Co-Founder
Adrian Shapiro Scoundrel Films Executive Producer/Co-Founder
Alice Grant n/a Producer
John Toon n/a Director of Photography
Guy Treadgold n/a Production Designer
Adam Wills Adam Wills Founder
Blockhead Blockhead Post Production
Shane Taipari Franklin Road Sound Design

Brief Explanation

Two armoured truck drivers, who are good friends, go about their daily routine of transporting bags full of cash. On the way to the bank they fantasise about what they’d do if the money in the truck belonged to them. Given they spend every day next to a dream fortune, it’s a conversation they often have. But today’s different, because when they pull up to the bank the driver proposes that they actually run away with the cash. The passenger thinks he’s joking, but as they drive further away from the bank, panic sets in as he realises his friend is serious. As the tension reaches a crescendo, the driver pulls out a piece of paper and hands it to his confused partner. It’s a winning lottery ticket. The whole thing has been a ruse to reveal to his friend that he’s giving him half the money.

Execution

The challenge of directing this piece was that, within a condensed timeframe, we needed to establish a strong bond between our two characters and endear them to our audience, while building an escalating sense of intrigue, jeopardy and unease, so that the final twist and resolution was exuberant and satisfying. Above all, we wanted the story to have heart. Key to all this was to make this story absolutely believable and to tell it as truthfully as possible. The cinematography and the styling needed to exude verisimilitude and the music needed to subtly yet unobtrusively guide the emotional arc of the story. We also needed to find the perfect cast – an odd couple that you really cared about and above all, believed.