San Miguel 'Una Vida Bien Vivida'

Framestore has just completed some glamorous globetrotting on behalf of Saatchi & Saatchi and Somesuch & Co's Daniel Wolfe. Una Vida Bien Vivida (A Life Well Lived) shows us life from a San Miguel bottle's point of view. And that means travelling far and wide, partying hard, hanging out in bars with stars and 'knowing the lips of many women'.

"Daniel Wolfe and I have a great working relationship, he knows how he wants his films to look, feel and flow and he knows he can trust me to translate that". says Simon Bourne, the film's colourist. "We now have a work flow where he provides me with the treatment and gives me references for the look. I add to this with my own research and we then have a debrief", explains Simon.

On this particular job Simon requested a pre-grade day after reading the script. The commercial was shot in Cadiz, Spain, were each vignette represents a memory in the life of the product, offering a snapshot of life lived through the ages. "To help signify the era's I was tasked to work on multiple formats being 35mm, super 16mm, 16mm Bolex, Super 8mm, VHS, and stock footage. Although a huge majority of the commercial was graded as a normal negative film, during our pre-shoot meeting I suggested that some scenes be shot on Colour Reversal (print, to add another authentic feel). Following a review of the first edit, Daniel and I chose several shots from the neg. to be shot to print and some shots to a cross-reversal neg. some of which worked when grading whilst others didn't", comments Simon.

"During the grade I knew the images had to be strong due to the cut, so the grade involved creating the right feel for each vignette within that era which then also needed to flow throughout. This was a truly challenging commercial to grade, but Daniel knew I would enjoy working on the stunning cinematography and art direction", concludes Simon.

In addition to the grade, Framestore's 2D team seamlessly worked in some stock-footage and composited elements like the truck.