Reach for Greatness
Working with the talented creative team from Saatchi & Sattchi London we recently directed this new spot for Guinness. Featuring the slam skills of poetic performer Ainsley Burrows, the spot presents a powerfully narrated first-person story of one man’s journey to greatness. We shot the film on location in a stark New Jersey warehouse. We felt pretty strongly that featuring Ainsley in this type of space would bring in some important texture, personality and grit — and also that it provided an interesting visual metaphor for the “theater of his mind.” We then integrated flourishing elements to illustrate the poems narrative. At first appearing as a flowing atmospheric trail following the artist, shapes organically materialize, symbolizing many different images of time, travel, growth, freedom and more. Ultimately this spot is all about poetry and an abstract feeling and we worked to turn the realism of the shots into a spiritually heightened visual experience.
As reported by Shots
Featuring the slam skills of poetic performer Ainsley Burrows, the spot presents a powerfully narrated first-person story of one man’s journey to greatness. Filmed against the background of a stark warehouse environment with some VFX flourishes to expand the imagery, the spot is a slick exercise in trimmed back visuals and tight copywriting.
Shot over a single day in one of the many vacant lots dotted around the Bayonne Harbour Peninsula in New Jersey, the spot draws attention to Guinness’ ongoing expansion into the Jamaican market. Taking as their starting point the oral tradition in Caribbean culture, creative team Dave Govier and Levi Slavin approached production and directing boutique Shilo with a brief to add some visual flair to their verbal virtuosity.
“Dave and Levi always envisioned this as a spoken word, poetic film,” explains Shilo creative director and co-founder Andre Stringer. “They came to us with a beautiful poem that really rang true with an authentic vibe, and from there we took a stab at putting some thoughts into pictures against the words they had written.”
As Stringer elaborates, authenticity was the key to the piece, so intelligent casting of the male performer was crucial. “We really wanted someone who was the character, rather than someone who was acting the character, and that really limited our search. A few years back we’d worked with HBO on a poetry project so we got in contact with them and they pointed us towards Ainsley.”
After a shoot which Stinger describes as being like working on a music video – “get the performance down and improvise as you go to find the fun stuff” – the team had to find a way to balance the verbal with the visual. “Although we’re really comfortable mixing live action and design, in this film we didn’t want the illustration work to take away from the message of the spot,” says Stringer. “The main challenge for the post team was not overdoing the design. This was all about poetry and an abstract feeling – working to turn the realism of the shots into a spiritually heightened visual experience.”
Credits
Project Name: Guinness “Spoken Word”
Length: :60
Debut Date: TBD
Film Location: The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor – Bayonne, NJ
Market and Media Distribution: Caribbean TV
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
City/State: London, England
Creative Director: Tim Hearn
Creative Team: Dave Govier, Levi Slavin
Executive Broadcast Director: Andy Gulliman
Regional Planning Director: Karen Johnstone
Account Director: Frederic Roger
Account Manager: Victoria Reiz
TV Producer: Laura Mueller
TV Production Assistant: Emma Wolanski
Production Company: Shilo at Hanrahan
City/State: Bicoastal, USA
Director: Shilo
Creative Director: Andre Stringer
Director of Photography: Martin Ahlgren
Associate Creative Director: Evan Dennis
Lead Artist: Tamir Sapir
Editors: Josh Bodnar, Andre Stringer, Galen Summer
Designer: Evan Dennis
Illustrator: Zach Johnsen
Animators: Henning Koczy, Craig Kohlmeyer, Stieg Retlin, Warren Heimall
Compositors: Bashir Hamid, Tamir Sapir, Andre Stringer
3D Artists: Warren Heimall, Craig Kohlmeyer, Christina Ku, Youngmin Kim, Chris Fung, Joji Tsuruga
Rotoscopers: Constance Conrad, Joel Voelker, Chris West, Stieg Retlin
Trackers: Chris West, Joel Voelker
Producer: Lindsay Bodanza
Line Producer: Nina Goldberg
Executive Producer: Tracy Chandler
Executive Producer for Hanrahan: Mark Hanrahan
Music and Sound Design : Human
Principal Talent: Ainsley Burrows