Directed by Daniel Wolfe from Somesuch & Co, Saatchi & Saatchi’s new worldwide Guinness campaign sees a town literally painted, not red, but black. Framestore was initially asked to help enhance some in-camera painted houses and any of the houses that were difficult to paint for real, but in the end replaced entire buildings, made the town square smaller, removed trees and replicated crowds.
The surreal shoot took place in a remote Romanian village with over 300 extras daubing everything from the buildings to the fountain with black paint in honour of Arthur Guinness Day on 27 September. The grade is by Simon Bourne, making the spot the latest in a long line of collaborations between him and Daniel Wolfe that includes San Miguel Una Vida Bien Vivida. The spot was post-produced by Andrew McLintock, with Tim Osborne leading on Flame.
"It's another collaboration with Daniel from SomeSuch & Co, and this time he shot some amazing footage on location in Romania by Andre Chemetoff. Shot on 35mm film with anamorphic lenses it shows that all though film is a fading format of choice nothing can replace the beautiful images film can capture" said Simon Bourne.
"This commercial was truly a challenge to grade and at times difficult due to having to show dawn, day, dusk and night while maintaining and enhancing the soft colour palette and natural light. The excellent street casting and natural the rustic environment captured on film made it a real pleasure to grade, enabling me to bring out textures and tones setting a mood for a very up lifting commercial."
The commercial came third in Televisual's Top Five Best Graded Productuons list in the magazine's 2013 survey of colourists, producers and award judges.
