A Short Film For H&M: Come Together
How and Why H&M created a holiday short film with Wes Anderson
The Short Film Come Together is a branded short film/fashion film directed by Wes Anderson for H&M.
Come Together utilizes the idea that the holidays are meant to bring together people of every age, race, ethnicity, and class. The short film associates the H&M brand with this idea, while simultaneously suggesting that H&M is a good place to purchase gifts as people “come together” during the holiday season and evoking nostalgia. Let’s look at how it does this.
The film opens on a train, the H&M Winter Express, traveling through a snowstorm. The train’s conductor, Ralph (played by Adrian Brody), opens a curtain and stares out at the passing landscape before sitting at his desk. He tears a sheet from his calendar revealing that the date is December 25th. He marks something on a map and begins writing. His assistant porter Fritz (played by Garth Jennings) tries to speak to him before being shooed away. Ralph speaks to passengers over an intercom system announcing that the train will be 11 ½ hours late, and invites passengers to a complimentary Christmas brunch. After getting the materials for the brunch, Ralph and Fritz set it up. 19 minutes later they are joined by the passengers, last of all a little boy, who places a star on top of a Christmas tree. This is a relatively simple story that still does a lot in its three-minute and fifty-two-second run time.
The film has a fantastical, otherworldly aesthetic to it like something out of a picture book. The production design is composed of simple shapes, Art Deco decor. The colors selected are a combination of pastels and highly saturated. The lighting is soft and shadowy.
Then there’s the limited depth cues of the film, which give the shots a flat look. Again, this makes Come Together feel like a classic picture book. There are even moments in the film where frost on windows is used to create an effect similar to the soft vignette edges frequently used in children's books.
Given that picture books are a prominent part of the average person’s childhood, the visual connections to picture books give the film a nostalgic tone, likely meant to connect the viewer with the feelings they had towards Christmas as a child and, as a result, project these feelings onto the H&M brand. This nostalgic feeling is furthered particularly by the music used at the end, “Happy Xmas (War Is over)”, a John Lennon/Yoko Ono song released in 1971.
Unlike many other Christmas songs which are frequently covered in the modern day, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” rarely is which makes it feel more dated (and thus more nostalgic) than other Christmas songs. This song also speaks to many themes regarding different people of different backgrounds coming together for Christmas. The music in combination with the visuals are used to tap into nostalgia and bring out the joy of Christmas most viscerally experienced in our youth.
In Come Together isolation is contrasted with being together. When we are first introduced to the passengers of the film they are all presented in isolation. All the characters have expressions indicating sadness, annoyance, or despondency. It is not until towards the conclusion of the film when all of the characters have gathered together, that we see characters who are happy. As a result, the film via contrast equates happiness with togetherness and sadness with isolation. Through this joy and togetherness are connected to the H&M brand.
The short film contains many thematic and narrative tropes used in Christmas stories and films. It follows characters who are not going to be able to have the Christmas they want and instead must make the best of what they have. It also deals with themes of coming together despite obstacles and differences. These tropes are found frequently in films such as Home Alone, I’ll be Home for Christmas, and The Christmas Carol. This would help connect Come Together to Christmas even if that were not the time of year when the film takes place and is another instance of nostalgia being used.
While the film is meant to function as a narrative it must also serve the brand as all branded content must, by speaking to the brand’s target audience. In this case, the audience is broad. The film is meant to speak to anyone who could be a potential customer of H&M. It targets pretty much every demographic. A general representation of every race is shown, and every age. This makes the film relatable to everyone and allows any viewer to easily see themselves or someone they know as one of the characters in the film.
In order to be good branded content, Come Together must also carry the sound of two voices: one being the director of this short, Wes Anderson (or the creatives behind the piece), and the other being H&M (the brand behind the piece). A balance must be struck. Looking at the filmmaking style of Wes Anderson, Come Together is very much in line with the work he typically does. The camera movements and lighting are very consistent in terms of his style, as is the fact that the color palette is made up of pastels and highly saturated colors. The old-fashioned design of the set is also frequently a facet of his work and trains have in the past made appearances in many of his projects (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Darjeeling Limited).
H&M’s ads/short films often feature well-structured images with bright colors and soft lighting much like Wes Anderson, though not to the same extreme. In terms of visual composition, similarities are seen more easily in the social media content of H&M
The collaboration between H&M and Wes Anderson is most clearly summed up in the images below. These images were made in conjunction with the film and take features of both H&M’s Instagram photography and the stylistic taste of Wes Anderson’s films, mashing them together to create something that fits both.
H&M created a website (link no longer active) to allow further interaction with the film and to tout the fact that it was directed by Wes Anderson on all of its social media. This was to allow the audience to dive deeper into the world of the film and by doing so, get the audience to gain interest in purchasing clothing from H&M. In a way, this is how a viewer could get closest to the film. On the site, when specific clothing was selected the viewer would be directed to a page where the item could be purchased.
What I have always found intriguing about narrative fashion films is that by wearing the clothes the characters wear, the audience in a way becomes part of the world and story of the film. The product that the film is attempting to sell becomes a way in which the world of the film becomes real and tangible. The branded film, in this case H&M’s Come Together, acts as an invitation to join an imaginary world.
