Fox recently turned to IKA Collective to produce a multi-spot promo campaign to help launch the new psychological drama The Following, which stars Kevin Bacon.
IKA had previously worked on series launch promo campaigns for several other Fox series, including New Girl, Raising Hope and The Mindy Project. The company also produced a promo for last season’s So You Think You Can Dance premiere.
“We’re proud that Fox again entrusted us with this crucial series launch,” said Ian Karr, founder/director at IKA Collective and executive producer on this project. “Launches are a huge deal – for the networks and for IKA. Whether it’s assembling an A-list team or coming up with creative solutions to logistical and production challenges, we thrive in that high-stakes environment.”
Directed by Kerry Shaw Brown and lensed by Anthony Arendt, production on the two promos, (entitled “Footsteps” and “The Raven”), proved especially challenging because it called for multiple, visually unique promos to be shot in just one day. That meant finding a location that not only captured the sense of urban dystopia that drives the creative, but one that also provided enough space to build a jail cell and an FBI office set.
Karr and his production team used an abandoned grain elevator in Brooklyn as the primary location for the sequence in which series co-star James Purefoy and his many followers walk through a graffiti-filled, decaying building, leaving behind bloody footprints as they walk toward a stone-faced Bacon. The other sets were built in an adjacent structure.
“The Fox team came to us with epic creative concepts and everyone performed at their very highest level,” Karr added. “The spots turned out great and more than 20 million viewers tuned in for the premiere.”
