East meets West. Music meets film. Maserati meets Zanadu in short film with Cui Jian + Howie B
Maserati China and Zanadu.cn have collaborated on an artistic short film that sends Cui Jian and Howie B on a journey through Italy to create an emotional song and record an intriguing film.
“On the bridge to nothing” is an artistic collaboration between Cui Jian, the iconicgodfather of Chinese rock and Howie B, acclaimed British music producer and artist. They embark on a journey of inspiration through some of Italy’s most stunning locations. Along the route they meet Italian actress and musician Violante Placido (“The American” with George Clooney) to record an inspiring song.
This creative process culminates in a stunning and beautiful 11 minute b&w film directed by Italian fashion photographer Fabio Paleari. A series of 3 short documentaries then show the Journey and the creative process behind this collaboration.
Conceived and produced by ZANADU and jointly promoted with Maserati China, this project is a collaboration between two brands with a vision to create authentic, sophisticated and truly artistic content.
Dirk Eschenbacher, creative director and CMO at ZANADU says: “The idea behind ‘ZANADU Journey’ is to provide a creative platform that allows artists like Cui Jian and Howie B to create original content that is inspired by traveling and exploring. It is about authentic and not overly commercial content. In this case we partnered with Maserati and planned and produced an inspiring journey through Italy that resulted in 5 incredible pieces of content: 4 fantastic films and an inspired song that puts everything into an emotional context.”
To underline the authenticity of this project Howie B adds: “This song has its roots in Jazz and minimalism and a touch of electronics too. Its a live recording with no overdubs, an absolute expression and recording of four musicians meeting for
the first time. The result for me is beautiful musical document of our feelings.”
The films show on a dedicated Youku event page over the period of 4 weeks and are supported by banner advertising and a social media campaign with a competition element. Participants are invited to share the film to win the chance to re-live this amazing trip by their own in an 8 day Italy trip inclusive tickets and accommodation in ZANADU’s prime Italy hotels.
China has claimed the top spot as the biggest travel spending country in the world (102 billion USD in 2012). Zanadu is the leading travel website providing Chinese travelers access to the world’s best boutique and luxury hotels in Chinese language. The Italy journey with Cui Jian and Howie B taps into the insight that Chinese travelers are becoming more and more sophisticated and look for the truly special and memorable experiences that international travel can bring.
Concept and idea: Dirk Eschenbacher, Jan Kern
Executive Producer: Dirk Eschenbacher
Producer: Jan Kern
Line Producer: Luca Legnani
Director: Fabio Paleari
Cinematographer: Zeng Jian, Fabio Paleari
Editor: Claudio Cecconi
Project coordination: Zan Wu
Copy: Andy Hepburn
Production assistant: Lea Chen
Social Media Strategy: Vanessa Na
Social Media Management: Chloe Ni
Designer: Zhang Qian, Nara Zhang, Guo Jingling, Fu Jiajing
Technology: Phil Mak, Tommy Zhang, Jean Marie-Claerebout, Wen Feijin, Neo Liu,
Tomas Dostal, Weixin, Anita Xue
Maserati Marketing: Michael Xu, Susie Lv, Christian Gobber
Website creative director: Simon Tsai
Website project manager: Liz Jiang