HP Pictures Of You

Hewlett Packard HP launched the ‘You + hp’ campaign in October 2003 to promote its digital photography product push launched two months earlier. The campaign included an effects-laden television commercial directed by Francois Vogel, outdoor advertising and a public photo gallery blog. As people go about their business in a city, a non bordered outline takes a picture in each vignette while the motion continues. In the background is the music of ” “Pictures of You” performed by The Kinks. Superimposed over each vignette is a statement from HP about ‘You’, obviously referring to amateur photographers/viewers.

Click on the image below to play the video.

“You are a Point and Click Revolutionary.” Pedestrians crossing a city square are frozen in time as they’re seen to be taking photographs of their environment.

“You see photos everywhere you look.” A woman sits reading, back against a pillar outside a public building.

You make a good story.” The camera sweeps around the clients in a busy French cafe/restaurant/bar. The camera then takes us zooming down an empty outside mall.

“You click fearlessly and delete easily“. On a hill overlooking a city a skateboarder walks toward the camera, a runner flexes and a couple canoodle. They all disappear and are replaced by another couple and a businessman, a woman and dog, an older couple, a younger couple, and a sweeper.

“You collect colors“. Down by the beach a pavement artist has his paintings blown away by the wind.

“You are the photographer and the photo lab“. A boy in t-shirt stands by a printer, takes photographs in stand-up frames out of a box and places them on a table. The photos merge together to form the original frame back in the city square. The spot finishes with a voiceover: “Welcome to HP Digital Photography”, and an invitation to the Hewlett Packard web site, www.hp.com/you. At the HP site viewers were encouraged to submit their stories in photography. The best 50 are still on display.

Credits

The Goodby Silverstein & Partners team included producer Josh Reynolds, executive producer Elizabeth O’Toole, copywriter Michael McCommon, associate creative director/art director John Norman, creative directors Rich Silverstein and Steve Simpson.

Director was Francois Vogel from Paranoid Projects, Paris, working with Tool of North America, with producer Caroline Pham and director of Photography Adam Kimmel.

Vogel was previously known for his innovative short films such as Trois Petit Chats and the music video for Peter Gabriel’s Growing Up. He specializes in mixing live action with effects. In HP ‘Pictures of You’, he makes use of a technique he previously used in Live at the End, a video for French deejay Jean-Philippe Verdin (Readymade FC), in which video footage appears chopped, like a cubist painting, into photograph-like planes.

Tool hosts later HP ads by Vogel, one of them featuring the director himself, titled Francois I, which was originally designed as a demonstration of the concept used in Picture Book, with music by The Kinks. Road Trip features a woman being dressed to the Speedies track, ‘Let me take your photo’, with the concept of printing photos anywhere with HP.

Editing and sound design for HP ‘You’ was done by Hank Corwin at Lost Planet, Los Angeles. Telecine was done at Company 3, with colorist Mike Pethel.

Audio post was mixed by Robert Feist at Ravenswork.

Visual Effects were developed and perfected at Method Studios by Lead 2D artists Andrew Eksner and Cedric Nicolas, 2D artist Jean-Luc Azzis, shoot supervisor Andrew Eksner, executive producer Neysa Horsburgh, and producer Rachel Koch.

HP offer their recent ‘You’ ads in WMV and Real formats at their newsroom but not the original 2003 one featured here.

Lyrics for Pictures of You

From The Cure‘s album, Disentegration.

I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

Remembering
You standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering
You running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and wider than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go

Remembering
You fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white
So delicate
Lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark
Remembering
You how you used to be
Slow drowned
You were angels
So much more than everything
Hold for the last time then slip away quietly
Open my eyes
But I never see anything

If only I’d thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I’d thought of the right words
I wouldn’t be breaking apart
All my pictures of you

Looking so long at these pictures of you
But I never hold on to your heart
Looking so long for the words to be true
But always just breaking apart
My pictures of you

There was nothing in the world
That I ever wanted more
Than to feel you deep in my heart
There was nothing in the world
That I ever wanted more
Than to never feel the breaking apart
All my pictures of you