The initial live action storyboard for the Classroom spot. The core idea of starting wide and getting closer to the maniac professor was a touch that stayed from the beginning. Just how crazy and nonsensical he got really came through on shooting day.

The initial live action storyboard for the Professional spot. We had this packed with so many jokes, there was no way to get it all in during editing. They included the boss having an intimate reaction with fabric swatches, looking at the three watches on his wrist and yelling, “I’m late!”, and a few more presentation boards to flip through at the head of the room. The entering with snow on the shoulder and leaving with a beach towel was one vice that stayed.

We came up with a script and visual style to convey the Pulse’s features, including the infrared camera, microphone, internal computer, and speaker. We then went on to show how the pen interacts with the dot-paper, built-in controls at the bottom of the notebooks, and overall concept of the pen: Record, write and replay—so you never miss a word.

This demo dealt with the docking of the pen to computer and the transferring of files to the Livescribe desktop, which lives on your personal computer. This allows users to search through their notes and listen to the synced audio.

This demo shows how users can share their notes by either emailing them to friends, posting it to their “My Livescribe” page or Facebook page via the internet. This allows for everyone or just selected friends to view users’ notes and recordings.

One of the most challenging aspects of this project was the distillation of the pen’s basic functions into a seven second end tag. After many days of thinking, editing, and trial and error, we succeeded with what you see here.

These are various photos from the two day shoot in Hollywood. Each day we shot at a different location — one in a typical corporate conference room, and the other in Los Angeles City College Lecture Hall 6. We shot 4k, 29.97 on the RED so that we would have more flexibility in post for composition and frame placement.

These are pre-viz boards for the Classroom spot, to help with the initial animatic, camera setup and timings.

These are pre-viz boards for the Professional spot, to help with the initial animatic, camera setup and timings.

One of the initial pitch ideas was to have doodles come to life on the paper, explaining the pen’s features. This one starred the infamous wizard. You’ll see that he made it to the actual spots. Hint: He’s in the page turns of the notebooks.

This initial pitch idea dealt with someone doodling through a lecture, missing all the key points being made by the lecturer. In the end, the Unicorn insults you but tells you it’s all cool since you have the Pulse Smartpen. It has been capturing the entire lecture for you, to replay later at your own pace. Genius.

This pitch for the Demo went through the features of the pen using infographics and animation. We wanted to treat the pen as a precious object that different people, represented by different “hands,” could use to help them. A student’s hand, a lawyer or professional’s hand… all viable users of such a powerful tool.

The teaser portion of this idea spawned from telling data and facts that everyone can relate to. You remember only 23% of what you hear, but with the pen, you would remember and have access to 100% of what you hear. The campaign would live on with strategically released facts related to appropriate target audiences.

What would each direction look and feel like applied to further implementation? This, to name a few, includes bus stop ads, bus banners, and billboards.