Euro RSCG Worldwide New York recently returned to the talent at Outside/NY, the SOHO-based creative boutique that collaborated with them on the initial cross-platform package of spots that kicked off Jaguar ‘Gorgeous’ campaign last year.

Outside editor Neil Gust, designer Jaime Lamond and Flame artist/colorist, Steve Mottershead, built upon the signature style they created for those captivating early commercials, bringing the fresh, high-energy, fiery aesthetic of the sporty new 2007 Jaguar XKR to its launch. The campaign recently broke with a 90-second version created for the car unveiling at the highly anticipated London Motorshow, as well as globally on Jaguarusa.com. The trio is also cutting and designing a 30 and 60-second spot, slated to break in the U.S. this fall.

Gust, Lamond and Mottershead are part of the consortium of talent that editor/owner Scott Gaillard is building for Outside, the young, editorial, visual effects and design boutique. In order to facilitate around-the-clock access to Euro creative staff, most of the work was completed out of Berwyn Editorial, Gaillard post facility on Manhattan Lower West side.

‘Creative directors Alicia Johnson and Hal Wolverton wanted the new package to exude the same level of confidences as the ‘Gorgeous’ campaign,’ says Gust. ‘But another layer was needed to convey to attitude of the XKR. This campaign exhibits a more voracious, masculine aesthetic. The car still likes to ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§dance,’s’ he notes. ‘But it a more predatory dance with a lot of muscle behind it.’

Gust, who spent eight years as an editor and visual effects artist at Johnson and Wolverton former Portland, Oregon creative studio, likens the look of the spot to ”s60s European New Wave cinema crossed with a ‘s70s road movie. It gritty with a fast-moving vibe to it.’

The editor biggest challenge was topping his previous Jaguar spots for the creative power team. ‘Hal and Alicia wanted to be even more thrilled with this new spot than they were with the previous campaign, which we collaborated on for the Jaguar XK,’ notes Gust. ‘We knew they were really thrilled with the early spots, so we had to come up with a way to raise the creative bar,’ Gust adds.

Since the inception of the ‘Gorgeous’ campaign, Jaguar spots have drawn their inspiration for its strong, innovative visuals from equally powerful licensed music tracks. Gust, who cut the XKR spot to The Blues Explosion ‘Help These Blues,’ notes, ‘It an awesome, upbeat, fun song driven by sound cues. ‘The track had the dynamism we wanted to capture and it drives the visuals.’

The music track gears up with the band narrative welcome to their audience just as the XKR revs up for a fast start from a fog-shrouded tunnel where the backlit car and silhouetted driver appear in the now-classic black, white and platinum Jaguar color palette.

Working in an Apple Final Cut Pro suite, Gust inter-cut car footage shot by Tangerine Studios Ltd. in the UK with lifestyle footage from director/photographer Michel Comte of Barbara Manfredini Associates, in conjunction with The Box Films, Milan, Italy. Digital SLR stills, many shot by Wolverton, and bold type and elegant graphic treatments by Outside designer Jaime Lamond create a provocative montage.

The XKR races in and out of tunnels, on corniche roads and airport tarmacs, pausing briefly in a colonnade against All New XKR graphics before speeding off again in a blaze of light effects. The spot ends with freeze frames of typography, the car and the road accenting the tag line, Gorgeous Knows A Racing Heart.

‘There was an enormous amount of lifestyle and running footage and some 35,000 digital still photos to distill into the spot,’ Gust points out. ‘It was a massive amount of work and required a lot of head space. Everything had to move along in a natural way; all the elements had to flow.’

Gust rose to the challenge of giving viewers a sense that the XKR was as much a character in the spot as the sexy, beautiful people who surround it. In some sequences he positioned the ‘viewer as voyeur,’ seeking out POV shots, looking over someone shoulder or sharing an out-of-focus glimpse, to convey an aura of mystery.

‘The technique makes it feel that you’sre not just seeing a perfect car on display, but a real vehicle caught up in this New Wave/’s70s road movie,’ Gust explains.

Flame Artist, Steve Mottershead worked closely with Wolverton to develop a distinctive palette for the spot. ‘I used more color variation in this spot than I did in the first package,’ notes Mottershead, ‘The visuals really worked well with shades of pimento and olive.’

‘Steve is a master at maximizing and manipulating Flame color correction features,’ adds Gust. ‘He really pushed thecolors to the point where the car looks like a glossy piece of wet hard candy — it deep, slick and very appealing.’

‘Flame can be extremely precise in applying color to window panes, which allowed me to do a lot of very detailed work on the XKR windows,’ Mottershead explains. ‘I was able to really crank certain areas to the limits: I could isolate the headlights and tint them without altering the color of the car, and separate the background of the scene from the product, so I could fine-tune the hues in the body of the car. Flame even allowed me to tweak the color of the side and the hood of the car independently.’

Steve Mottershead then used Wolverton digital SLR stills of custom stylized calligraphy as the foundation for creating a series of textured, multi-layered images in Jaguar rich signature pallet. He further enhanced the visual interest of the lettering with strategically positioned reflective lighting.

Assistant editor Matt Jacob did the base conform of the spot on Outside Final Cut Pro HD, and then Mottershead performed the final color and composite in Flame.

About Outside Editorial
Outside Editorial is a 4,000 square-foot SOHO-based editorial, design and visual effects boutique dedicated to providing advertising agencies with high-end, innovative solutions to their ever-changing needs for creative content for both traditional and emerging media. Their client roster includes Jaguar, Samsung, Volvo, Yahoo, Lugz, New Balance and Greyhound, to name a few. For additional information contact Executive Producer Sila Soyer at 212.966.3980 or go to www.outsideedit.com .