The campaign for Maxis' The Sims expansion pack "Livin' Large!" highlights newly available oddball characters. The Sims allows the player to construct a home and fill it with simulated humans who interact and respond to outside stimulus within the household dynamic (complete with mature themes). "Livin' Large!" introduces characters such as Clown, Death, Psychic and Rockstar.

Moran, of New York's Compass Films directed the campaign for San Fran agency Odiorne Wilde Narraway + Partners (OWN&P), filming eight 30-second spots. Each consisted of a common 10-second intro and outro, and eight varied mid-sections. The ads begin with a '60s--style ranch house and cut to a stock TV-land father who asks, "Hey Sport, what's all the racket?" The question is the segue for a number of bizarre vignettes revolving around the aforementioned "Sport," Timmy, and the new characters.

"This world is Brady Bunch gone awry, complete with pratfalls and llamas," says Moran. The key to this campaign, explains Moran, was suspending reality and stilted acting.

Various scenes had the saddened clown in bed, awash in his own refuse as Timmy looks on, hitting on the foxy Psychic, or with Timmy and company in a hot tub. Moran used elements like canned laughter to heighten the stilted feel, and avoided over-rehearsing the actors.

"We shot multiple takes without cutting, so I could throw them off if they were too plastic," says Moran. DP Eric Schmidt shot on 35mm Fuji film allowing for a different saturation base; rather than shooting an in-camera retro look, the tight grained footage was altered in post. The agency producer on the job was Gale Gourtney, the creative director was Jeff Odiorne and editing was done at Bob 'n Sheila's Edit World, San Francisco.

Moran began shooting on-air promos at MTV before arriving at Compass Films in 1999. "Park," a PSA for Companion Animal Placement shows a deviant man whose dog loves him despite his larcenous ways. Another "Park" is a spot for Crunch Fitness, depicting a penguin and a bunny whose friendship knows no bounds, even after a knee--groin handshake. Finally, the reality-TV spoof "Rescue" has a mullet-headed rescuer pull a woman trapped in a flood to safety as she latches on to his Eggo.

Web.files

OWN&P> www.ownp.com

The Sims> www.thesims.com