The Catch, a 90-second video ad for Bluefly.com that is running online and on TV is R-rated, with shots of a man undressing a woman and a naked woman walking out of a shower. “Part of their challenge to us is to keep pushing the envelope, the idea is to be as provocative as we can be,” said Bill Lane, creative director of McCaffery Gottlieb Lane/New York, which worked with Independent Media/Santa Monica, Calif., the production company.
Bluefly.com is a high fashion online retailer that targets upscale women 28-32, Lane said. A woman from that group is the hero of the spot, who spends the night with a man she dates and has a package from Bluefly delivered to his apartment the next morning so she has something new to wear to work. “She sets out to catch him and does, he’s been had,” Lane said.
The spot was shot in Los Angeles in three locations–an office, a sushi bar (with an alcove for the lovemaking session) and a loft apartment. The cast featured two attractive models who had never done video ads before. The director was Tony Goldwyn, the actor/director who has directed The Last Kiss and Someone Like You.
“They wanted something that told a really specific story without product in your face, so we shot it very dynamic and loose, like a feature film,” Goldwyn said. “The product drops in at the end of the piece to give it a product placement feel.”
He shot the romantic scene carefully. “It’s not just an erotic encounter, they really connect,” he said. “We wanted a lot of energy and detail, so there was a lot of close stuff and we had to keep the camera moving.”
He said the camera moved in a fluid way through the physical images and there was also a sense of “disorientation, of not being where we are to give it energy and keep it interesting and abstract.”
The sexuality was also communicated in the settings, from the shiny elements and shadowy environment of the sushi bar to the bright, pristine setting in the loft apartment. “It was all art direction,” Goldwyn said, complimenting the DP, Janusz Kaminski, the cinematographer of Schindler’s List, who oversaw the lighting.
“It was an incredible opportunity to tell a story that happens to ulitmately be about a product,” Goldwyn said. “There’s an increasingly common trend in advertising not to put the product in your face. It’s like making a movie, it sets the bar higher.”
The Catch is another great example of a long-form video ad that comes across as a film.
The spot is running at Bluefly.com and YouTube.
Director Hans Emanuel Joins Caviar For Commercials and Music Videos
Production company Caviar has signed director Hans Emanuel for U.S. commercial and music video representation. The film and advertising director fuses his keen--and Berlinale Film Festival Award-winning--eye for cinematic storytelling with a commercial background across multiple genres including beauty, automotive, dance, and visual effects-heavy projects, to produce creative for clients like Kia, Nivea, Nissan, L’Oreal, BMW and more.
Caviar executive producer Salim El Arja noted, “Hans has a unique ability to blend stunning visuals with heart and humor, rooted in his confidence as a craftsman. This allows him to focus on drawing exceptional performances from actors--including celebrities--and crafting films that are not only visually striking but also deeply engaging and often hilariously comedic. His sensibilities align perfectly with Caviar’s vision, and we’re excited to collaborate with him on work that pushes creative boundaries.”
Emanuel added, “Caviar is a renowned name, certainly since I began my career. They have a solid reputation for quality work, and I’ve always respected them as a company. Life is about where destiny makes you flow with the people you need; thanks to a series of projects, I was introduced to Florence Jacob with Caviar Paris first, and the rest is history. I feel they can support my career growth with their comedic expertise and filmmaking prowess.”
Prior to joining Caviar, Emanuel had been repped by production house Stadium. He was born and raised in Santa Monica, Calif., to a Mexican-German mother, benefiting from a culturally diversified upbringing that carried through his education interests. Knowing he wanted to be a filmmaker from the start, he began his career in the luxury and beauty field,... Read More