Full of Stars

Broken Heart Love Affair Debuts Eerie New Cinema Spot for Royal Ontario Museum

February 23, 2022

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The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a cherished cultural institution beloved by everyone to youngsters who spent an hour on a bus from the burbs to see dinosaurs, to those with tales of the pre-Libeskind era. To celebrate the launch of the ROM’s first new gallery in more than ten years, the ROM commissioned a spot from agency partner Broken Heart Love Affair that questions the nature of life itself. 

The new gallery, Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, is a state-of-the-art 10,000 square-foot gallery that houses a collection of nearly 1,000 fossil specimens drawn from the museum’s palaeontology collections. It is home to some of the oldest objects on Earth, including one dozen “evolutionary gamechangers” that speak to key moments in the evolution of life as it exists today.

“Our goal with any of our work is to get people to stop and think, and maybe change some people’s perspectives,” says Spencer Ryan of the creative approach that he and Jordan Hamer took to the campaign.

And stop and think you will when you watch the evocative and eerie campaign that feels as if you just bumped into an infinitely black monotlith. The team had nearly unfettered access to the ROM thanks to COVID-19 closures, which makes the spots release just as restrictions are being lifted, all the more timely.

CREDITS
 
Title: Dawn of Life 
Client: Royal Ontario Museum 
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer: Lori Davison 
VP, Brand and Marketing: Kathryn Brownlie 
Marketing Specialist: Kaitlyn Olo 
 
Creative Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair 
Chief Creative Officer: Carlos Moreno, Denise Rosetto, Todd Mackie 
Chief Strategy Officer: Jay Chaney 
Chief Business Officer: Bev Hammond 
Creative Director: Jordan Hamer, Spencer Ryan 
Writer: Jordan Hamer 
Art Director: Spencer Ryan 
Agency Producer: Erica Metcalfe 
VP, Client Success: Joline Matika 
  
Production Company: Undefined / Radke Films
Director: Spencer and Jordan 
Executive Producer: Dan Ford 
Producer: Julian Weiman 
Director of Photography: Shady Hanna 
Assistant Director: Keith Giesbrecht 
Production Manager: Erwin Abesamis 
Coordinator: David Benchitrit 
Covid Screener: Chelsea Maiato, Lucas Bender 
 
Editing House: Saints  
Editor: Chris Chang 
Executive Producers: Michelle Rich, Mackenzie Goodwin  
 
Post-Production House: Darling  
Colourist: Kassi Bellamy 
Colour Assistant: Will Culverwell, Eric Kingsbury 
Executive Producer: Kristen Van Fleet 
Producer: Morgan Campbell 
 
Visual Effects: Fort York VFX
Flame Artist: Melissa Vasiliev 
Producer: Valerie Moss 
 
Audio House: OSO 
Creative Director: Daenen Bramberger 
Executive Producer: Hannah Graham 

Media Agency: OMD
 
TALENT 
Curious Child: Arjen Liu-Ernsting 
Mom: Jessie Liu-Ernsting 
Curious Child Stand In: Isaac Ng 

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