THEE BLOGDaily Design + Advertising + Illustration & Photography Inspiration

We all have dreams, but unfortunately, we only get to see/live very few of them. But this is not a bad thing, this is what keeps us moving and constantly motivates us. Alexander Forbes, a South African Financial Planning company decided to connect with potential clients on a more personal way, through the lost world of Forgotten Dreams. Check out this great ad spot and a little ‘Making Of’ bonus video after the jump…

Check out this great ‘making of’ video explaining the concept and process behind this campaign. It is so nice to work on projects when they are so well organized and done like this one…

ART DIRECTION: The spot collects all manner of images that evoke lost dreams: an old Formula One race car and boxers in a ring (the dream of being a sports champion); Rio Carnival dancers and a hot air balloon (travel and adventure); a half-melted snowman and a girl riding a bicycle (the wonder of childhood); wedding and graduation gowns (milestones in life); a decaying piano and sheet music (artistic ambition). “The images are purposely ambiguous,” says the agency’s executive creative director, Stephen Burke. “Some of them are quite abstract, but hopefully people will read different things into them.” Visually, the spot is ethereal and otherworldly, rooted in reality but fragmented and temporary, like dreams themselves.

FILMING: The spot was shot in South Africa over four days, much of it in the half-light before sunrise and after sunset, which lent a spectral mood. The camera movements suggest the journey of “moving through life, through dreams, finding them, and losing them in the mists of your memory,” says Goodall. Most of the light is natural, but he did hang space lights from a cherry picker which he moved around the fields to give the objects a subtle, haunted glow from above. Much of the footage was captured on 35-millimeter film, adding texture and warmth, mixed with some Canon 1-D and 5-D shots.

EFFECTS: Almost all the backgrounds were replaced by digital stills shot on a foggy day “to have more of a dreamy feeling with not such a clear horizon line,” says Pixomondo executive creative director Jonathan Keeton. The three most challenging shots involved relocating buildings to the dreamscape. In the wide-angle pan of the girls on the steps, with the race car on the right, the building is a projected matte painting dropped into the scene. The bicycle building (above), filmed in Cape Town, was imported digitally, as was the family home toward the end (below). The latter was relocated using “poor man’s motion control”—i.e., filmed in situ, with the camera movements then meticulously recreated in the field (using a rebuilt picket fence as a guide), with the shots then merged together. Extensive post-production work in Los Angeles added further effects and cleaned up the imagery.

Courtesy – AdWeek

June 1st, 2011 / Advertising, Inspiration, Video. / RSS 2.0 / COMMENT /