This centerpiece campaign film opens on a white bird fluttering around a cage. We then cut abruptly to a Formula E motosport driver sitting and waiting patiently on a bench with focus and determination in his eyes. The driver moves with a cool conviction to the driver’s seat of his GEN3 car as we start to see his surroundings revealing themselves as the inside of a plane. As the huge cargo doors open, the piercing light of the sky pours in, leaving the audience with one question–is he really going to do what we think he is?
The driver accelerates out of the back of the plane with fierce determination. We see the driver pushing himself, his car and the sport to the limit as the car plummets towards the earth with conviction and grace; an image of extraordinary power against a backdrop of blue skies.
As the action builds with the velocity of the car reaching its peak, our driver ejects himself to parachute to safety. We follow the car as it continues to cut through the air, the camera focusing on the technical and artistic engineering as it accelerates faster and faster, closer and closer to the ground before, at the last moment we cut back to our caged birds set free and the title “Progress is unstoppable.”
Sam Walker directed this hero film, titled “Progress is Unstoppable,” via London-based Uncommon Creative Studio, promoting Formula E, the electric motosport independently ranked as the most sustainable sport in the world by the Global sustainability Benchmark in Sports.
Nils Leonard, co-founder at Uncommon Creative Studio, said, “This film is the story of Formula E’s journey and unrelenting progress forward told through the Gen3 car and its fearless drivers. The story of an ambition to progress completely set free. We wanted to make something unlike anything made in racing before. The goal was something that would move you whether you were into motorsports or not. Something dangerous and beautiful. A kind of dance you can’t take your eyes off.”
“Progress is Unstoppable” is part of a series of films that will run across multiple media touchpoints including digital, social and BVOD channels in the U,K., India and other markets.
Credits
Client Formula E Production/Creative Agency Uncommon Creative Studio Sam Walker, director; Ewen Brown, producer; Joost Van Gelder, DP. Service Company Patriot Films Nick Laurentz, 1st AD; Leander Lacey, stunt coordinator; Skip Margetts, helicopter pilot; Kobus Verhoef, special effects supervisor. Postproduction Rascal Post Andrew “Barnsley” Wood, VFX supervisor & 2D lead; James Beck, head of production and VFX producer; Adam Ahlgren, 3D lead; James Bamford, colorist; Jai Durban, color producer. Editorial Trim Paul Hardcastle, editor; Josh Mannox, assist; Polly Kemp, producer; Joe Henshaw, socials. Sound King Lear Jack Sedgwick, sound designer; Dugal Macdiarmid, Ned Sisson, sound engineers; Suzy Macgregor, producer
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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