Jai Moseley (who’s repped by production house division7) directs this latest work for Google for South Africa, a beautifully intimate film with poetic, stylistic flourishes on love and connection. Shot in Cape Town and produced by Gatehouse Commercials, the film strings together a series of heartwarming vignettes to highlight the beauty in the ordinary.
Moseley shared, “We had five days to prep and conceptualize Google. In circumstances like this, where you really want to get it right but the cards just feel so stacked — it almost creates a really deep therapeutic experience of sorts. It’s one of those rare moments, where you don’t have time to listen to the default inner narrative almost all of us have. The ingrained judgment side of us that we use as a block against ourselves and others. Instead you have to be open hearted and listen to your intuition as a filmmaker, and to the intuition of the filmmakers you are collaborating with. I don’t know what it is. I’m not necessarily someone with beliefs. But I do know if you do this, and create from a pure place, it always works out. You find incredible locations through street casts, cast through locations, so many ideas and relatable and unique details and truths you could never make up on paper. You find inspiration in that chance half a second you looked out the window and just happened to see the light gracing a passerby’s face at the perfect moment. I really hope this comes across in what we made. This is what I learned making this. The answers came from everyone involved and it was a real pleasure dreaming this up on the go with them.”
CreditsClient Google for South Africa Agency Google, Matt Barwell, Bakery Diarrassouba, Donica Ida, Ari Melenciano, creative team; Lydia Holmes, executive producer. Production Gatehouse Commercials Jai Moseley, director (division7); Deon van Zyl, DP; Michael Linders, production designer; Laila Shrand, producer; Melissa Volpe, production manager; Ansaar Baderoen, unit manager; Mihlali Mali, location liaison. Editorial Exile Travis Moore, editor. Casting Amin Arnold Gray Cast Siphokazi Masiza, Mrs Fassie, Khayone Fassie, Shaqeel Tofar, Yaseen Valentine, Taariq Fisher, Ebrahim Rahim, Yonsa Bakana, Rafla Davids, Theo Sebego, Dene Vissier; Tatum Daniels, voiceover talent. Color Color Collective Mike Howell, colorist. Sound Design/Mix One Thousand Birds Alex Berner-Coe, sound designer/mixer; Theuns van Dyk, sound recordist.
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
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