Yet again, Revolver Films’ director John Grammatico unleashes his creative power and imagination. Following spots the award-winning director made for brands such as AT&T, McDonald’s, M&Ms, and Ford and this breast cancer PSA, ‘Your Man Reminder‘—which scooped a Webby Award and first place at TED’s Ideas Worth Spreading and also garnered almost 8 million views on YouTube—John Grammatico comes with another interesting piece, again. And not empty-handed.

Grammatico’s latest short music video spins around “The Invisible Me,” or in short TIM. Who is that, you ask? TIM is part of a campaign that puts the spotlight on a student who feels insecure and needs to find the strength to be seen by indifferent classmates.

The haunting film captures the feelings a young insecure teenager can go through when at school. Our main character feels invisible, as no one notices their presence. And that can get quite lonely, even with a strong inner self. As our regular student goes mostly unnoticed at the school, they do get spotted at a painting class. Here, finally, another student seems to take an interest in our overlooked character. Then and only then the protagonist’s body starts to take shape and they are finally able to breathe fully, as our hero feels that they are now part of a community.

To create the three-minute-long video, Grammatico took inspiration from his kids’ life: “As a father, I found myself stepping back again into that strangely complex world of a middle school for my kids and I just couldn’t help but notice things I never saw when I was young. Specifically, how some kids make every effort to stand out and some make every effort to hide. I wanted to just go up to the “hiders” and tell them it’s okay to be seen, as you are. So that became my goal with this story; to take a character from each end of the spectrum and force them to confront each other in a way that brings that out.”

TIM, the story of the insecure teenager, was created in partnership with Shine Box Media Group with support from Little Saint Media and Grammatico’s trusted industry contacts within The Mill, Cutters, and Yessian Music.

To highlight the invisible side of the character, the team asked the actor to wear a green bodysuit. Then, the crew shot TIM’s every move. Afterwards, “the missing pieces of fabric that were previously covered by the actor’s head, hands, ankles, feet, etc. all had to be rebuilt using 2D composited images of fabrics my VFX Supervisor (Jason Bergman) shot with a still camera on set, combined with 3D CG modeling that recreated things from scratch, such as the inside of TIM’s hat, the glasses, and lenses, etc.” Grammatico shared details of the laborious process with Branding.news.

Alison Bloom, the lead artist at The Mill Chicago, was responsible for creating a life-sized dummy of the character in her studio in a bid to discover how the fabrics moved and how the light changed. She is also the mind behind the human appearance of the actor: “She also came up with the idea of how TIM’s flesh would appear by taking inspiration from the water-color painting TIM made in the art room scene. Alison and her team at The Mill are just as much responsible for the creation of this character as I am. They’re rock stars,” the director continued.

When asked about how he can contribute to stopping the phenomenon from spreading, Grammatico simply answered: “Try our best to make sure our children are willing to get to know the children who are “hiding”. The signs are there. Heck, they’re usually obvious. If my sons were to go sit with a child who is alone at a lunch table, that would make me the proudest dad ever. They know that. It’s up to them to take the action.” Yes, it’s time to teach our kids to be kind to each other. That’s the greatest gift we can give to our little ones: kindness!

Credits:

Shine Box Media Group
Little Saint Media
The Mill Chicago
Cutters
Yessian Music
ASG Casting

Cinematographer: Luca Fantini