Firstpost celebrates journalists' efforts; says they're wasted in dailies in digital age

Firstpost's maiden television commercial challenged newspapers for the use of paper resulting in felling of trees, and reaching news to people the next morning. The online news and views portal is out with a new commercial created by Contract Advertising, celebrating the newspaper journalist before underlining that all his efforts can only bring the news to readers a day late.

The film noir style (black and white mode with low-key lighting) has been adopted in the commercial to depict a newspaper journalist's life. The film shows a journalist from yesteryears going about his job. He is portrayed as an unsung hero, a source of knowledge, who is 'walking miles, dodging gunfire and battling it out with critics' to get his story right. In the end, the film questions the point of his efforts if the news only reaches readers in the form of a newspaper, and hence a day late.

The film signs off urging viewers to read the day's news as it happens on Firstpost.com.

Durga Raghunath, vice president, Firstpost.com, said, "Our entire positioning is about digital first. With our first commercial we wanted to encourage readers to seek news the day it happens on Firstpost.com and with the second, we want readers to know that our growing team of journalists are and will be focused on digital. We want journalism to be broken and created for the web.”

"The communication strategy is a bit audacious and aims at tickling journalists, but we don't want to seem arrogant. We just want to say that news shouldn't be saved for print;, the reader deserves the right to know the news as it happens. Having said that, we will stick to provocative communication while sending our message across," she affirmed.

Ravi Deshpande, chief creative officer, Contract Advertising, added, "While celebrating serious journalism, the film punctures it to make the point that newspapers bring you all that fiery passionate journalism a day late. Perhaps then, journalists may consider Firstpost to be a better place to work. And not just journalists, Firstpost is designed to be news that people consume while being on the move."

Unplugged moments:
On the execution, Deshpande commented, "We settled upon the idea of shooting the film in 'film noir' style because the black and white treatment offers a way of dramatising the romance of journalism - the shadow world that the journalist lives in, with tips from informers, interacting with various elements of society not all of them savoury, followed by typing it all down on a trusted Remington typewriter that is as tough and hardy as the serious journalist."

Razneesh Ghai, director of the film, added, "The dramatised, one source of lighting used in the films through 1940s and 50s had a special appeal to it. To do justice to the style (and pay our homage), we opted to shoot on film (35 mm) instead of digital. The art direction and lighting was also appropriate to the gritty visuals of the 'film noir' style. The idea was to have an overall, comprehensive approach to the 'period' look of the film."

"A motivational speech and a pompous army brass band playing in the background added to the mix," echoed Ghai and Deshpande.

Credits:

Client: Firstpost.com
Agency: Contract Advertising
Chief creative officer: Ravi Deshpande
Creative director: Ravi Deshpande
Copywriter: Ravi deshpande, Sahar Sehgaal, Soumil Shetty
Art director: Ravi Deshpande, Salil sojwal
Account management: Arjun Sengupta, Anish Kotian, Namrata Baruah
Director: Razneesh Ghai (Razy)
Director of photography: Tasaduq Hussain
Producer: Anju Vaswani
Associate producer: Bhavna Singh
Art: Anita, Donald
First assistant director: Glycen Lewis
Second assistant director: Soumil Shetty
Music: Kartik Shah
Voice-over artist: Jitin Abraham