For half a century, the Sydney Opera House has cut through the city’s skyline, a series of “shells” resembling the white crests of waves or sails thrusting out from the Pacific.
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Looking to celebrate five decades of hosting the arts – from ballet, classical and opera, to rock and comedy – The Monkeys (part of Accenture Song Sydney) was briefed to condense the building's cultural impact into a four-and-a-half-minute film.
The result was an epic musical-style extravaganza co-created by comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin, in which his lyrics act as a counterpoint to the risk-taking, convention-defying heritage of the venue.
The film opens with the inimitable timbral wash of an orchestra tuning. Then silence interrupted by the clack of a piano lid being lifted. We see Minchin, at a piano, literally in the spotlight of the darkened venue.
“You got to keep it simple,” he begins. The camera closes in, while the action is intercut with footage of the Opera House being built in the 1970s. The action intensifies and he is joined by the orchestra, singing lines about playing it safe and how “people like the rules as written, So just give them more of the same…”
The ad visuals build with the music, as he sings of the risks of “sticking your neck out”, how they’ll “rip your head off if you do”. There are images of famous productions, of Nelson Mandela on a podium addressing a crowd, a topless Iggy Pop strutting about, the bottoms of hundreds of naked people outside the venue as part of an artistic installation and a visit by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
As the song and ad ratchets down, Minchin plays pianissimo. “You got to play it safe. Your mind is like a house. If you keep it locked up tight, you just might keep the world out…”
To make the ad, the agency and client recruited a smorgasbord of Australian talent, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Ballet and performers from the worlds of acting and dancing. It was directed by Kim Gehrig through Revolver x Somesuch and created by group chief creative officer Scott Nowell, chief creative officer Tara Ford, executive creative director Barbara Humphries and creatives Jake Ausburn and Alex Polglase.
As well as winning a Grand award at the 2024 Clios, the film has been widely covered in Australian and global media, and has reached about 1.8 billion people, according to the Sydney Opera House.
Juxtaposing Minchin’s rousing song and historic performances at the venue with images of reaction from cultural conservatives (the mid-to-high brow versus the furrowed brow, if you will), “Play it safe” was a call to do anything but.
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