Upstarts
The Institute of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD) Upstarts is a short intensive course in which participants answer six briefs in six weeks. The programme culminates in an exhibition to showcase work and to network.
Throughout Upstarts I was resident in The Tara Building on their Social Impact Scholarship︎︎︎ so was able to create promotional work and manage the social media account. With no budget or time we had to get creative in our promotion of the show. We decided to do what digital natives do best - take to Instagram.
We worked on an identity for the exhibition and decided that we were so fresh and hot that you could just eat us up. To promote the show we created menus featuring our tasty thirteen Upstarts and delivered ourselves to various creative agencies across Dublin. We were ready for delivery to the industry. This was recorded on phones and posted live as an Instagram takeover on ICAD’s︎︎︎ account:
Words: Ben Razey︎︎︎
Promotional GIFs created by me
Week 1
Client: Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail)
Brief: Get more students to use Irish Rail train services.
Idea: The Love Train
2 for 1 “Fun Fare” offer on Friday evenings if students book together. Book a date with Iarnród Éireann.
Get the train with someone you love - or someone you’d like to know better. Get comfortable, together.
30” Radio Script
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︎Love Train” The O’Jays ︎︎︎
SFX: Classroom noises, books closing, people packing up.
Nervous Boy: Uh, h-hey are you heading for the train?
Girl: Yeah I am... do you want to go together?
Boy: Yeah I’d like that
VO: Need an excuse to get comfortable? Book a date this Friday evening with someone special. With Iarnród Éireann’s new “Date Night” special you can get 2 for 1 “Fun Fare” student tickets. Relax as you sit back and take in the passing views. Enjoy refreshments and food to calm your nerves. Huddle in and watch a movie with free WiFi. Get comfortable, together.
TV & Pre-Roll Ad Script
Story of a nervous boy/girl trying to get closer to someone they like in their class. The boy/girl uses the train as an opportunity to get know their crush better - some casual one-on-one time.
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1. Open on a crowded lecture hall. It’s the end of the day and students are miserable. A boy/girl looks around at someone cute. The lecture ends.
2. The crowd of students are leaving the college. It’s getting dark. Our boy/girl spots their crush at heads towards them. They’re awkward and nervous.
3. They stand for a second, nervous.
Boy/Girl: “Uh, hey are you heading for the train?”
The crush looks to a bus stop nearby. The bus pulls away.
Crush: “Yeah sure I can get the train,”
The two smile and head off.
4. It’s off to an awkard start as the two sit down together. They have their bags with them. One puts the bags overhead for the other. They sit and make comically bad small talk.
5. The train departs. Awkward smiles. Then the trolley comes through. The boy/girl buys tea and biscuits for their crush and they start chatting more naturally. They laugh. The sound fades out.
6. Music fades in. Montage: They are now laughing and chatting animatedly. Looking out the window, drinking tea. Watching a video close togther. Fades out.
VO: Get comfortable together with Iarnród Éireann.
Week 3
Client: Irish Heart Foundation
Brief: Raise awarness that heart disease is Ireland’s biggest killer.
Idea: Take inspiration from real life Zodiac killer to create The Heart, a secretive serial killer who taunts the press.
TV Script
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First Scene: Open on a parked car overlooking the sea and Dublin at night. The car is on and it’s clear that there’s a couple inside. Old jazz music is playing and you can hear muffled giggling from the inside. The car is moving rocking slightly but suddenly stops. We hear a piercing scream coming from the car.
Cuts to a girl, Bridget Barry, being interviewed by the gardaí. Blue lights flashing. The guards are in brown trench coats and hats, looking like film noir detectives but with the standard garda hat on. The girl looks like a glamorous 1950s pin-up, dressed up for the debs.
“And howdje know the victim there, Michael Murphy?” Officer O’Reilly asks in a thick country accent.
“He was my debs date! He-he said he was finally going to ask me to be his girlfriend,” Bridget says, full of self pity.
“Didja see anything?” Officer O’Brien asks.
The girl looks at him, a perfectly placed tear on her cheek. Everything is very camp and overacted. “No, I couldn’t... I didn’t see it coming,” she says and sobs, throwing herself dramatically into the arms of one of the gardaí. One looks to the other and asks “Any sign of the killer?” O’Reilly, holding the sobbing young woman, nods and points back to the car.
The camera creeps up the side of the car and stops on the bright red symbol of a heart with a cross through it on the passenger side door.
...
Second Scene: The garda commissioner, Commissioner Carrol, is addressing a crowd of reporters at a press conference. There is uproar and constant camera flashes. The crowd go quiet when she speaks.
“People are dying. The death of Michael Murphy was preventable. This killer who calls himself The Heart must be stopped. The gardaí are currently relying on donations from the public to investigate and catch this killer. For further information and to donate to the investigation please visit irishheart.ie. Thank you. No more questions” She steps down and the crowd of reporters go wild.
On screen of Bridget Barry being interviewed by reporter Deirdre Delaney.
“It could’ve been me! It could’ve been anyone! The people need to know what’s going on!” She fake sobs. She’s loving the attention.
The reporter thanks the girl and turns to camera, she has that typical nasal news reader voice
“The search for Ireland biggest killer continues. The public have been urged to donate to-” Deirdre Delaney, stops suddenly and puts her finger to her ear. “Breaking news. I’ve just received word that the Irish Times have received… a letter from the Heart. In it the killer says that he has no intention of stopping and is taunting police. He has attached a puzzle that he says if solved will help catch him. I’m being told that the paper will be publishing the letter and that they are asking the public to help find this killer.”
Fake News Radio Script
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SFX: Fake news intro song
Deirdre Delaney: Hello I’m Deirdre Delaney and this is Irish News. Gardaí are on the hunt for Ireland’s biggest killer after the murder of young rugby star Michael Murphy. Murphy aged 18 died on Friday night following his school’s debs. The sudden death was witnessed by the boy’s on again off again girlfriend Bridget Barry. Bridget had this to say:
Bridget (hysterical): It could’ve been me! It could’ve been anyone!
Deirdre: Gardaí Commissioner Carrol has urged the public to donate to the investigation on irishheart.ie, which will help the gardaí to unmask this vicious killer. The killer known as The Heart has been taunting the press by sending in letters and puzzles. After Murphy’s murder the Irish Times received a letter from The Heart. In it he stated that he had no intention of stopping and dared anyone to try and solve his puzzle. He claims that deciphering the puzzle with help uncover his identity. The newspaper has indeed published the letter and puzzle and are asking for the public’s help. Ireland’s biggest killer must be found. Thank you I’m Deirdre Delaney and we’ll be back with the weather after this.
SFX: Fake news outro song
Jessie de Boe 2022 ©