Close-Up: Live issue - Bold TfL holds up mirror to problem passengers

which converted many of these instructions into statements of
chivalry.

However, the apparent increase in antisocial behaviour and general
apathy towards our fellow man means that a bolder, more audacious
approach is needed to change attitudes and behaviour on public transport
- such as a three-minute ad filmed in "beautiful anarchy" in one take on
a modified bus by a Hollywood film director.

The strategy

Last week, London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, launched Transport for
London's latest campaign from M&C Saatchi.

The aim is to counteract anti- social behaviour on buses and trains -
such as the inconsiderate use of multimedia-enabled mobile phones - by
presenting scenes in which one considerate act starts a chain reaction
of others.

The highlight is a three-minute ad directed by Mike Figgis, the
acclaimed director of Leaving Las Vegas.

The work shows how behaviour such as playing music loudly, shouting on
mobile phones or eating smelly food affects the journey of fellow
passengers.

Each problematic situation is addressed through the actions of a
character and the subtle interplay between passengers on a real-time bus
journey.

Finally, through a sequential string of "pledges" - such as keeping the
noise down and taking litter home - the ad tells Londoners just how "a
little thought from each of us" can make "a big difference for
everyone".

Sound a bit Live 8? The makers are unapologetic, insisting that the
general public are having to deal with a new kind of antisocial
behaviour.

"We live in a society where one person's perfectly normal actions are
another's antisocial behaviour," Chris Macleod, the head of group
marketing communications at TfL says.

Figgis puts it more bluntly: "Hitler would look himself in the mirror
and ask, 'Why am I so misunderstood?'."

He adds: "This film was about confronting negative characters that may
not see themselves in that way."

The conception

TfL issued M&C Saatchi with the brief, without media specified, early
last year. "We knew it had to be set on a bus or Tube train, but it was
really important to me that we told lots of different stories," Graham
Fink, the executive creative director at M&C Saatchi, recalls.

"I thought, how can we show the old lady, the kiddie eating chips, some
bloke blathering on the phone? I realised that traditional 30-second
film just wasn't going to do it," he adds.

Fink recalls seeing Figgis' 2000 film Timecode, in which four separate
strands of a story were told simultaneously via split-screen action: "I
thought, wouldn't it be good to do something like that? And what if we
could get Mike to come and direct it?"

The first encounter with Figgis was literally a meeting of minds. "I had
the idea vaguely in my head, and sketched it out - and Mike just jumped
on it really," Fink says.

"We had a series of conversations, and the script just grew
organically."

But the lofty ambitions of an inspired executive creative director were
initially brought down to earth by TfL, a notoriously tough client with
strict bureaucratic procedures in place. Even with Figgis' input, it was
impossible to devise a client-friendly script based on the idea, let
alone counter the cash concerns around an ad brief answered with a
three-minute film.

Macleod recalls the first sell. "It was literally as rough as 'here is a
clip from a film (Timecode) and here is what we're thinking of doing',"
he says. "So I said to them: 'OK guys, now you had better go away and
come back when you can tell me how exactly that is going to work.'"

Which they did. By autumn, Figgis found himself sketching the synopsis
of the TfL film, just as he had on Timecode nearly a decade earlier. By
November, shooting was under way, and a cast of more than 40 actors were
filmed on a modified double-decker bus that looped around Ealing for two
days.

The craft

The logistics of the set-up are staggering. To accommodate the cast and
crew, the bus was stripped of one side of seating on both decks. Four
modified handheld cameras covered a fixed space on both decks (including
one operated by Figgis himself).

Meanwhile, a cast that included several middle-aged adults, a woman in
her eighties and a host of teenagers formed the microcosm of society in
which the action takes place.

With no live feed and the film shot on four cameras in a single
three-minute take, different rules applied. Four massive digital
stopwatches kept the shoot in tempo by giving the actors their cues -
such as when to start speaking, get up or move upstairs.

It was a high-risk strategy. Set up like an intricate onboard CCTV
system, the film is full of moments where actors are crossing cameras
while moving from one filming space to another.

"It was simultaneous or nothing," Fink asserts. "Such an effect would
simply not have been achievable had the film been shot separately and
edited afterwards."

At the end of the first day of filming, those involved would have been
forgiven for wishing that Figgis had opted for the latter choice. "The
first few takes were beautiful anarchy," Figgis recalls. "Everyone was
enjoying themselves, doing what they had been asked, but you got no
sense of what was going on. There was no storyline."

If that wasn't enough to jangle nerves, a moving bus meant no live feed,
production company go-between or monitor to view work in progress, let
alone a crafted script. Luckily, TfL's representatives had been
consigned to a nearby pub, which formed a base where actors and crew
would periodically descend to review work in progress and listen to
Figgis' feedback, before reboarding for another lap of Ealing.

Despite all of this, Macleod insists there was "a lot of trust" between
agency and client, and any nerves were settled by the presence of Figgis
- "a big-time director who's seen it all".

Figgis, however, tells a different story: "What was most nerve-wracking
is that they kept saying they trusted me. But even by the middle of the
second day, we still didn't have a usable take."

Meanwhile, with the actors' early enthusiasm replaced by restlessness
(not to mention motion sickness), the director concedes having to "get
quite brutal". Each playback became fiercer, with on-the-spot acting
lessons given directly by Figgis and roles being chopped and changed for
different effects.

On the 45th and final take, however, it all came together - the timing
of action was synchronised, the acting natural and the assignment of
roles productive. In Macleod's words, "everything worked", and it is
this take that is currently being aired across 700 cinemas nationwide.
The film, which will be supported by an online, print and poster
campaign on London's bus and train network, is unbranded and carries the
endline: "Together for London."

Most interesting has been the early response to the ad by some bloggers
who, rather than criticising the work, have complained that there is a
tendency to assume a defeatist approach to antisocial behaviour by
showing the perpetrators as inherently selfish and not open to
change.

This campaign, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach by
encouraging perpetrators to reflect on their behaviour.

However the ad is received by its audience, Livingstone spoke for the
many when he insisted last week that it would continue to have TfL's
full backing.

"You can't complain that a behaviour is breaking down and then complain
if we try to do something about it," he said.