TOYMAIL “PANCAKES” COMMERCIAL
A genius child uses his cutting edge stuffed animal to respectfully tell his father once and for all how to make a better breakfast.
As Writer-Director, with the brilliant Michael Axtell as Producer, I won the Best Commercial Award for Toymail “Pancakes” at the HollyShorts Film Festival “The Cannes of Short Films!” (at Harmony Gold Theater, Hollywood). “Pancakes” had its World Premiere with other Oscar winning and Palm d’Or winning films at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres August 16th. Congratulations to Cast and Crew!
Toymail Co., creator of the famous tech alarm Clocky, came to me at AboveGrey Pictures for our award winning talents: writing and directing a successful cinematic commercial. Toymail is in no way a simple toy, but a programmable stuffed animal equipped with wifi, voice modulator, talk-to-talk, and accelerometer. Without putting a phone in their hands, kids of all ages can send voice messages, helping them stay securely connected to loved ones, those who do have mobile devices.
Toymail's yet to be released updated plush version had already won developer support from Y-Combinator, what Fast Company calls "the world's most powerful startup incubator." A lot was riding on the successful release of the gadget, and an AboveGrey Pictures' commercial would not fail to match the genius of the product, if not guarantee a brilliant narrative to match brilliant technology. I wrote an actual film screenplay to adventurously show the capabilities of this new technology in the mind of a brilliant child while debuting the products features. Utilizing AboveGrey Pictures' production connections in the SF Bay Area, we cast the finest actors with our in-house casting team headed by our producer Michael Axtell, and vetted the best SF Bay Area commercial and movie crew to create the cinematic ad. As a film company connected to Hollywood, we aligned ourselves with film festivals, and marketed the product in tandem with Toymail Co, ultimately wining the Best Commercial Award at HollyShorts 2016! That's right, we brought the client's product all the way to the red carpet and big screen in Hollywood premiering with Oscar winning and Palm D' Or winning films. Toymail is now also covered in Forbes Magazine as "The Best Connected Toys" and trending big for 2017, called "genius" by Parents Magazine and "one of this year's top tech toys!" by USAToday.
Production Company: AboveGrey Pictures
Writer, Director: Ezra J. Stanley
Cinematographer: Joe Rivera
Executive Producers: Gauri Nanda, Audry Hill
Producer: Michael Axtell, Ezra J. Stanley
Production Designer: Azalea Stanley
Editor: Ezra J. Stanley
"Munchkin": Ryder Lee, Father: Philippe Lee, Aunt Barbara: Joanne Streit,
Jonathan: Ty Blair, Manicurist: Alice Arikawa, Hairstylist: Angela Hernandez
Lady 2: Mari Kearney, Girl: Kylee Gutierrez
Writer, Director: Ezra J. Stanley
Cinematographer: Joe Rivera
Executive Producers: Gauri Nanda, Audry Hill
Producer: Michael Axtell, Ezra J. Stanley
Production Designer: Azalea Stanley
Editor: Ezra J. Stanley
"Munchkin": Ryder Lee, Father: Philippe Lee, Aunt Barbara: Joanne Streit,
Jonathan: Ty Blair, Manicurist: Alice Arikawa, Hairstylist: Angela Hernandez
Lady 2: Mari Kearney, Girl: Kylee Gutierrez
