Guinness 'Surfer'

For several long seconds the camera lingers on a man's face. He is waiting. At last we cut to hand held footage following the man and his three companions, all carrying surfboards. They hurl themselves into a heaving ocean. The ultimate wave has arrived. It starts to roll and we see that the men are not alone. The spirit of the wave is physically embodied in enormous white horses which are charging through the water with them. Above, below and inside the wave men and horses surge thrillingly forward.

This astonishing visual effect was created for the latest Guinness television commercial, Surfer, which first aired in the UK on 17th March 1999.

Acclaimed director Jonathan Glazer has collaborated with Framestore before, most recently for his controversial music video for U.N.K.L.E., Rabbit in Your Headlights."It was the painterly quality that Framestore's designers brought to one of the U.N.K.L.E. shots that gave me the confidence I needed that they could handle this work," recalls Glazer."I wanted something that was mythological and yet utterly real. Working with such contrasting elements, one liquid, one muscular and solid, they produced some of the most extraordinary compositing work I've seen."