A commercial jam-packed with pretty girls exploding into even prettier girls can only be advertising one product ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® Axe deodorant. The new spot called ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Crashes’s was directed by Lynn Fox for Argentinian agency Vega Olmos Ponce through BlinkInk.
Throughout this humorous commercial we see a suitably handsome man driving through the streets of Budapest on a scooter. WHen two lovely and explode in a magical puff of smoke and glitter to reveal an even more beautiful woman. This illustrates the new concept from Axe of applying two different fragrances together to create an even more alluring scent.
Chris Knight went to Budapest as the Shoot Supervisor and also took the position of Lead Flame on the spot. Many of the shots proved complicated and often involved many complex passes. Each shot involved shooting many different layers; stunt girls on wires, extra actors in the background, explosions, girls emerging from smoke and further layers were needed for the more complicated shots.
Lynn Fox were very specific about the look of the explosions. It was important to create a fantastical looking explosion and move away from anything that looked distressing. They did not want it to look like two women exploding but two women crashing into each other to produce a hybrid. Chris quickly realised that the quicker the two girls disappeared into the explosion, the more effective the impact of the ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§better model’s looked. This strategy was applied to all the explosions and enhanced by Chris adding camera shake, smoke and glitter.
The most challenging shot was the street scene where multiple explosions occur. There was no motion control used just a low loader (a truck with a camera on the back). The driver had to ensure he drove at the same speed and in the same place on every pass. Again this shot included many different layers. Chris had to stabilize and re-track most of the passes as they were slightly out as motion control wasn’st used. Due to the fact the shot took over 5 hours to film the light changed and Chris had to ensure the lighting was consistent throughout. In total there are about 20 passes in this shot.
Chris was assisted by Mark Payne, Gary Brown and Dave Birkill, plus the Support Room. Sky replacements, beauty work, mattes and general clean up work were all essential to the final polished piece. The grade was completed by Paul Harrison who enhanced the summery, fresh feel to the spot.
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