Escape to Wellington

Visual: The video begins with a person pressing a very large yellow button. The button is around 1.5 metres tall, square, WellingtonNZ yellow, and shaped exactly like the ESC key on a keyboard. With Wellington branding on it, the button implies ‘escaping’ to Wellington. 

Audio:

• Interviewer: Give it a nice push
• Person 1: Wow

[Music]

Visual:

The busy streets of New York are shown through a series of clips:

• Looking between large buildings at cars and people walking the streets.
• Pedestrians crossing a crosswalk, as a bus waits for them.
• Close-up of a street sign reading ‘Avenue of the Americas 6 av’.
• Crew members taking a black frame out of a truck (part of the button).

Text on the screen reads ‘Wellington, New Zealand placed a giant Esc key in the middle of Manhattan’.

• A sheet is quickly pulled off the button, to reveal it on the sidewalk of a busy Manhattan street.
• Confused people walking by stop to look at the button.
• Two members of the crew are wiping down the button as people watch on.
• A person walking past points at the button and smiles at their friends.
• Another person takes a photo on their phone.
• Two people knock on the button.

The text on the screen reads ‘And asked New Yorkers to press it’.

• A large billboard installed on a building above the button with a keyboard Esc key, and the text ‘Please press Esc’, alluding to people walking by to press the large button.
• A shot shows the button from another angle with a person with headphones sitting looking at it.
• Our interviewer, wearing a full yellow suit, sunglasses, and a fanny pack, walks toward the button

The interviewer smiles at a person walking past and greets them. As the interviewer talks to each person, it quickly cuts between clips of interactions with different people.

• A person, Jeff, walks toward our interviewer and the button.
• In a separate clip another person, Julia, walks toward the button.
• Another person, Carlos, and their dog, Benjamin walk to greet the interviewer.
• The camera cuts between different angles of the conversations between each person and the interviewer.

Audio:

Interviewer: Hi. Kia ora! What’s your name?
Jeff: Jeff.
Interviewer: Hi, Jeff.
Julia: I’m Julia.
Interviewer: Hey.

Carlos: Carlos.
Interviewer: Hi Carlos.
Carlos: This is Benjamin.
Interviewer: Hi Benjamin.

Interviewer: What do you do here for work?
Jeff: I’m a recruiter.
Person 2: I’m a cook.
Person 3: I’m a senior marketing specialist.
Person 4: I work in data analytics.

Interviewer: How’s your commute to work?
Jeff: About an hour to get to work if traffic isn’t bad.

Interviewer: Do you find that you have a good work-life balance?
Person 2: The city is pretty fast-paced. I find myself being stressed out sometimes.
Person 5: I wish I had more time for nature, especially living and working around New York City.

Interviewer: Would you like to press the key now?
Person 2: I’d love to.
Interviewer: Strong push

Visual:

• Back-to-back clips of the people pressing the button. Because of the size of the button, the people need to use both hands and their body force to push it down.
• The camera cuts to the billboard that is placed on a building above the park where the button is, which after being pushed, reveals a message to the person who has pressed the button.

Jeff is the first to press the button, and the billboard above reads ‘Hey Jeff, here’s your escape to a better life-work balance’

• Jeff reads the billboard aloud as he looks up.
• The other people each react to seeing the billboard. 

Julia reads the second part of their billboard, which says ‘A commute you love. A great job in art curation. Nature on your doorstep.’

• More surprised and excited faces from the interviewees, as they all press the button and look up to see their personalised billboards, each with their reasons for life in Wellington.

Audio:

Interviewer: Nice and strong. Yep. Give it a go.
Person 3: Oh hey!
Carlos: That is so cool.

Person 3: Find a new life in Wellington, New Zealand.
Person 5: Wow. That looks beautiful. And definitely more nature than New York City.
Julia: It looks incredible.

Visual:

As the interviewer talks about Wellington, the billboard reads ‘Dream job? How about a dream life?’

• The next clip of the billboard shows a job listing, which has been specifically matched to the job that each person has given.

This billboard says ‘Principal Advisor, Comms and Engagement’ and includes the benefits of this job being located in Wellington.

The next billboard reads ‘VFX Art Director’, followed by ‘Contemporary Art Curator’.

• The camera then cuts between each person being excited and happy, as they tell the interviewer their opinions on Wellington.

Audio:

Interviewer: Wellington’s the capital of New Zealand. It’s a beautiful place. And this is a real job listing in your field in Wellington right now.
Person 5: Wow.
Julia: Sounds incredible.

Interviewer: What do you think about escaping to a new life?
Person 2: Definitely. I have to check it out. Yeah.
Person 3: Sounds great.

Person 1: I should be living in Wellington. Thank you so much.

Interviewer: Go for it. There you go.

Person 6: Yeah.

[Music]

Visual:

The billboard changes to yellow with the words ‘Escape to Wellington, New Zealand’ with the yellow Esc key. It then changes to say ‘Escape to a better life-work balance’, and a finger reaches in to press the Esc key.

As the video comes to a close, the screen goes yellow, and the text ‘Find out more at WellingtonNZ.com/ESC’ plays in black font.