You must have seen it by now. It has gone around the Internet like a steam-train on steroids. Ms. Dewey is a new kind of search engine that uses a talking video avatar to serve you the results.
Think AskJeeves, but… HOTTTT!
Fun, but it’s not more than a gimmick to me. The search results are simply not usable at all. My guess is that our cute Ms. Dewey will only be the next Subservient Chicken. Good for a couple of chuckles, but even that wore out quite quick, didn’t it?
October 23, 2006 at 9:28 pm
“Hey, Ms. Dewey!”
Directing Duo sausage Finds Perfect Match
Ms. Dewey is dynamic, smart, beautiful, funny and just a touch sassy. And she can find an answer to any question, or at least present a variety of resources for related information. Call her the lovely librarian of the Internet, an intrepid Jill of all trades, or your fact-finding femme fatale, Ms. Dewey is an exceptionally cool new persona who lives online and is waiting for your queries on her just-launched search engine. (www.msdewey.com).
Agencies EVB and MRM, the masterminds behind Ms. Dewey, tapped the directorial talents of kaboom duo sausage to help bring the character to life. Or, more accurately, who would help find the perfect candidate and direct the real-life woman who would ultimately be transformed into the divine digital diva Ms. Dewey.
To create this iconic figure casting was key. sausage and the agency creatives from both EVB and MRM saw over 100 candidates for the Ms. Dewey starring role, meeting with 12 finalists during callbacks. Key to the selection was the actress’ ability to handle a fast and furious shoot and bring flair and originality to over 500 lines of copy.
Janina Gavankar, who would ultimately be cast as Ms. Dewey, had an immediate affinity for the character. “She is versatile and her ability to absorb the tonality of the material and deliver on the spot time after time was impressive,” recalls sausage. “She brought her own sense of comic timing to the character including improved ‘waiting’ moments (the duration during which she is waiting for visitors to type in questions).
sausage directed Ms. Dewey (aka Janina Gavankar) over the four-day, green screen shoot to capture all of the character’s details. This footage was provided to agency EVB who integrated it into the Ms. Dewey search engine.
“This project was a fun departure from the :30 second spot realm, giving us a longer duration to develop the character while keeping in mind that visitors may only spend a short time with Ms. Dewey,” says sausage, who also directed Janina Gavankar in the new music video “Float Away” for their indie rock band Recliner which earned kudos by Rollingstone.com. Following these projects with sausage, Gavankar was discovered by the entertainment community and cast in the Showtime hit series The L Word.
Ms. Dewey is emblematic of kaboom’s working methodology, which offers multi-platform production and creative content. For more information on sausage and kaboom, please visit the company website at http://www.kaboomproductions.com.
October 24, 2006 at 6:40 am
I have to admit, Janina Gavankar fits perfectly in what your trying to do.