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Being Henry: a choice film for Range Rover
Posted by Creative Review, 6 May 2011, 11:27 Permalink Comments (7)

You want to buy a brand new Range Rover Evoque - but what options are right for you? Do you go for the sporty version or the luxury version? Three door or five door model? A new interactive online film – devised by agency Brooklyn Brothers in collaboration with director Nick Gordon of Somesuch & Co and digital production company Less Rain – helps you make those choices in an engaging way...
Rather than simply being a website that allows users to play around with the paint colour, door configuration choices and different interior options of the new Range Rover Evoque, Being Henry is an interactive film in which viewers get to decide how Henry proceeds through the narrative at various stages. Does he head straight into the restaurant to meet his sisters and grandma, or does he decide to walk around the corner and "forget" about his family reunion?
Each choice viewers make on behalf of the film's lead character, Henry, takes him on a different journey through a multiple strand story, and each choice also dictates a particular set up of a new model of Range Rover's Evoque model – which you find out when the film has played out. You then have the option to play around further with the car's colour, interior etc, or replay the film and try making different choices.
For example, choose to ignore your family re-union to spend time with a young waitress, and the car you end up with will be the two door coupe version, rather than the five door family version... It sounds interestingly lateral yet potentially bland, but high production values, an unfussy, intuitive digital interface created by Less Rain, great performances, and a genuinely engaging set of numerous storylines and even more (over 30) endings, means that actually it's tricky to stop re-playing the film and exploring the different choices / narratives. With various plots that include such characters as a gun-toting grandma, a mafia-linked baker, and an attractive young waitress waiting for Henry in the back room of a diner – it's all rather good fun.
Here's a trailer for the film:
To actually have a go at being Henry - visit the Range Rover Evoque website at helloevoque.com/beinghenry/en-gb/

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7 Comments
Is there an option for a single parent from west london to pick up little Rod & Todd from their playgroup and pop into Sainsbury's on the way back? No? Weird.
2011-05-06 12:46:50
What was a very English brand, now having been sold off as so many others have, has been turned into a lack luster piece of trite-American-low-brow-persiflage for the pseudo-gangsta gold fish brained. Which is of course reflected in the work that's been produced. So much brand heritage thrown down the drain.
An appalling waste of time and money.
2011-05-06 13:15:48
Brutal! Nothing about that film experience had anything to do with the product. And the choices - wow, what a dis-connect. Epic spend for an epic fail!
2011-05-06 18:57:17
Can't even be constructive ... a lot of clichés and cheap laughs later and then, oh! we sell a car as too.
Agree with above. Money wasted on helping people choose what CD player to have ... shame.
2011-05-06 19:03:23
I don't really believe it. Though the idea is good, but there is no wit in connection to the brand and evoque. It's like selling milk chocolate in big bottles of vintage whisky. An enormous investition, though creative, funny and entertaining, turns out to be magician's cheap trick with the trendy and the new interactive media..
2011-05-07 12:00:55
Technically excellent but a bit ponderous. Sorry but didn't have the energy or patience to spend any more of my time on it
2011-05-08 11:32:40
Kind of slow and random although I do love Leo Fitzpatrick
2011-05-09 16:29:57
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