Thursday, May 02, 2013

The Quest [Update]


Ok. Update time…
  
The Mario Bava, Black Sabbath stock footage used in that Nokia commercial quest is moving forth…

I’ve sent emails to various marketing departments of Nokia, but still haven’t received any replies… (Surprised?)

But through a few links I got from Joachim over at RubberMonsterFetischism  I’ve ended up with these small pieces of info.

The webpage Busses on Screen has the following information on the commercial:

Nokia -  
In a glimpse of the future, a young woman scares herself silly watching a horror film on her mobile 'phone sitting on a Parisian Saviem single-decker, fleet number 5833. The film is 'Black Sabbath', made by cult Italian horror director Mario Bava in 1963.

I’ve been to this site before, and it kind of confirms that there was such a promo, but I’d still want to find some hard facts in the shape of stills, frame grabs or moving images that the commercial existed.

An article dated February 2002 on the RealScreen site, discusses the hidden treasures of stock footage houses, and amongst the participants in this piece we find Maria Marin, owner of Third Millennium Films. Later in the same piece, her managing director William Morrow talks about their biggest sale…

Managing director William Morrow points to a $15,000 sale to Nokia of a clip from Black Sabbath, a 1963 horror flick from Italian filmmaker Mario Bava, for use in a European commercial. Morrow describes the clip: "The shot is of a woman holding a candle. She pushes a door open and then [the camera] zooms in on this hideous looking dead woman rising up, with big bulging eyes."

Well, that kind of confirms that there was a sale, and that there really was such a commercial. But still I want hard proof. I've obviously already written an email to Marin and Morrow to see out what they could tell me about this decade old top seller.

I’ll keep you posted.

No comments:

Disney Star Wars and the Kiss of Life Trope... (Spoilers!)

Here’s a first… a Star Wars post here.  So, really should be doing something much more important, but whist watching my daily dose of t...