An image from one of the five upcoming short films in Philips "Parallel Lines" series.

Philips and DDB will follow-up its award-winning interactive film "Carousel" by releasing a series of five thematically-linked short films online in April.

The teaser trailer for the campaign, entitled "Parallel Lines" and produced by RSA Films, hit the Phillips Cinema website and Facebook page on Friday, more than a month ahead of the series' April 8 launch date.

The agency is remaining tight-lipped on the campaign's thematic hook, but it's clear from the trailer that this crop of shorts will do away with the clown masks and frozen-moment technique that helped make "Carousel", directed by Stink's Adam Berg, a Film Grand Prix winner at the Cannes Lions and a pop culture phenomenon.

However, Neil Dawson, chief creative officer on the Philips account at DDB Worldwide, says the films will retain its predecessor's cinematic leanings and eye-catching technical bent to showcase the picture and sound quality of the electronics manufacturer's flatscreen Cinema 21:9 TV sets.

"We surprised everyone last year with ‘Carousel' in terms of that visual hook and we needed to do that again," he says. "I had two different offices working on it in terms of coming up with concepts and the need for us to reinvent ourselves was absolutely of paramount importance."

Dawson solicited pitches from creatives in the agency's London and Amsterdam offices and whittled the choices down to five. He ended up selecting an idea by Sam Oliver and Shishir Patel at DDB, London for the unique challenge they posed to potential film directors.

"The first time I saw it I thought, ‘Blimey their idea is going to be difficult to beat,'" he says. "It's a film series, which is not unique, but the big idea that holds them all together - what we're doing filmically in the way we've made these films - is unique."

The agency sent briefs to three production companies and asked that all directors on the respective rosters pitch ideas. RSA Films responded with 45 treatments, from which DDB chose ideas by directors Jake Scott, Carl Erik Rinsch, Johnny Hardstaff, Greg Fay and animation duo Hi-Sim.

Diversity in styles and subject matter was essential to the concept in order to create films that would entertain but also showcase product features. The resulting films run the gamut from hi-octane action to melodrama to animated fantasy.

"We had defined clearly what we thought were the key criteria of an effective film and that helped narrow it down to five," says Gary Raucher, Philips' vice-president and head of integrated marketing communications. "This year we really will be focusing on Ambilight [technology], picture quality and sound quality. So we were looking for films we thought would demonstrate those benefits."

Though Raucher will not reveal how many flatscreen TVs "Carousel" helped sell last year, this is the third consecutive year Philips has made long-form entertainment the centerpiece of a campaign.

"We never talk about specific sales result," he says. "But I can say all of our campaigns have measurable objectives and those objectives are tracked. We were very happy with the impact of last year and we have high expectations for this year as well."

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