Press release from Cutting Edge
Weeks, days, hours, minutes all compressed down into this finite window to design a unique architectural environment from first pen on paper sketch to concept approval.
The Smirnoff Pure challenge, featuring iconic music producer, artist Pharrell Williams via Leo Burnett Sydney. The schedule was tight, to say the least. Something simple yet original. Grand, yet not too in your face. Cavernous but not cathedral. Industrial but not too bullish. Elegant, three weeks. Go!
Director Darryl Ward of Curious Films lead the charge with some refs from artist Richard Serra's steel assembly projects and some Spanish beauty from Satiago Calatrava.
With a gnashing of teeth and a chattering of pens we hit the paper with gusto. Lines, angles, symmetry and distortion. Babylonian shapes with Frank Gehry weirdness, we threw it all out there and ended up with a buttress that did it all.
Cutting Edge Design and VFX teams defined a 'Pure' space that won over Pharrell's creative control of the project and formalised the agency’s conceptual development of the campaign they had been developing for months. Stage One…tick!
Darryl Ward pulled three days pre-production and a one day shoot in L.A. From receiving rushes, to first 60second output, turnaround was just three weeks.
The ease and simplicity of the 'Pure' creative process within Pharrell's mind comes to light in this stripped back place. A click of the fingers, and it's modelled in Maya, lit with Houdini, roto'd in Nuke and designed in After Effects.
Water symed in RealFlo and comped in Flame. Knackered we stumble, to the door, feeling like nothing else but a long cool Gin.
Credits
Agency: Leo Burnett Sydney
Executive Creative Director: Andy DiLallo
Creative Director: Tim Green
Art Director: Chris Moreira
Copywriter: Mark Schoeller
Head of Client Services: Peter Bosilkovski
Agency Producers: Rita Gagliardi & Tim Denton
Production Company: Curious Film
Director: Darryl Ward
DOP: Christophe Lanzenberg
Producer: Tara Riddell
Executive Producer: Peter Grasse
Editor: Patrick Fileti
Post Production: Cutting Edge
Producer: Abby Buick
VFX Supervisor: Ron Roberts
VFX Producers: Flavia Dias Riley & Katherine Webb
Creative Director: Brent Grayburn
Lead Compositor: Scott Geersen
Compositors: Jeff Gaunt, Tim Walker & Lars Andersen
3D Artist Fluid Simulation: Phil Jackson
3D Artists: Tom King, Dave Brown, Lyle Carroll, Rob Conn, Jostein Finnekaasa
Nuke Artists: Daniel Loui, Genevieve Serna, Adam Jones and Sandeep Vengsarkar