Vol. 15

Can you feel that? In this month's Cut Culture, we’re highlighting some automotive ASMR and a music video that traverses the full duration of cinematic history. We’ll also take you on a quick trip around the world for a look behind the scenes of our most recent shoots for PUMA, and finally we’ll wrap things up with an introduction to the photographer who joined us on that voyage.

Cut Culture

Time Hopping.

Stick Pharrell and Tyler the Creator in a room together and you’re bound to wind up with something both creatively dazzling as well as a little bit confusing. Pharrell’s new video is that aforemnetioned dazzling and confusing thing. On first impressions, the video is a bit of a sensory overload, but unpacking it slightly reveals it to be a very unlikely fusion of various cinematic techniques from different points throughout history. In fact, I say cinematic but some of the techniques pre-date cinema. A zoetrope is a pre-film device invented in 1834, resembling a large cylindrical spinning top lined with sequential images that appear to move when spun - thus making this one of the earliest forms of animation. And, as you can see after about 15 seconds, this is one of the techniques employed in the video. We’re also then taken forward a century or so with some stop-motion animation, which has itself been transported further forward in time to the present day (and arguably beyond, in terms of feels) with some VFX psychedelics. The video was the brainchild of London-based visual effects company Electric Theatre Collective (ETC) and director François Rousselet, both of whom deserve a pat on the back and a long lie down for creating this masterpiece. And if you don’t like the song, fair enough - but maybe just watch the video muted.

All Torque.

Sometimes a simple idea well executed can be a far more effective way of telling a brand story than an idea requiring elaborate (and expensive…) production. If that sounds even the slightest bit backhandedly pejorative, allow us to assure you that it is anything but. As the world moves decidedly and understandably away from fossil fuels, the aggressive growl of a petrol engine will soon be a lost relic of the past replaced by the gentle humming of a lithium battery. However, and this may not be terribly in-vogue to say, there is something about a roaring V8 engine that’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. This ad from Toyota plays on that visceral reaction and dials it up to 11 courtesy of some positively penetrating sound design. And, as the ad shows, perhaps you don’t need a roaring V8 to get that thrill - perhaps all you need is a shopping trolley and relatively empty Costco. The choreography of the trolley interspersed with the new GR86 hurtling around hairpin bends makes for an original and clever piece of film that succinctly and simply expresses and extolls the selling points of the product and the brand’s ethos. And that’s particularly welcome considering that a lot of car adverts tend to be nebulous, overly-arty and expensive. This certainly beats some bloke with his shirt off riding a white horse in the desert (hypothetical example, but don’t tell us you can’t imagine that being a car ad).

BTS

You may remember last month’s Cut Culture went behind the scenes of our shoot in La Marea Roja. This time, we’re in Barcelona. We promise these shoots aren’t planned to give us a few days Spanish sunshine. That’s just a bonus.

We recently launched the CA Pro for PUMA and JD Sports, featuring Tion Wayne, RVFV, and Kingsley Coman. The former two we both shot in Barca with a 2-day shoot, but we flew out to LA to meet Kingsley and steal him away from his holiday for just a couple hours. Efficiency was the name of the game there. Given the difficulties of air travel at the minute, we felt like we were able to see the world from behind a computer screen after that particular shoot changed locations about 6 times. Best laid plans, and all that.

The Barca leg was also shot right in the middle of Primavera Festival and at the height of summer, which naturally brings its own challenges. We feel compelled to mention that RVFV, as a Spaniard, was an utter man of the people. Word got out about where we were shooting and all of a sudden an underpass was flooded with a small army of his fans, all of whom he took photos with.

The result: PUMA’s largest campaign of the year, with hero AV, stills and BTS content running online and in over 400 stores across Europe. And breathe…

Radar

Will Douglas - Photographer

If you recognise the name Will Douglas, that’s likely because we’ve mentioned him on more than one occasion in previous Cut Cultures in reference to our BTS features. Or, of course, you may be one of the fortunate people privy to his work and his reputation as one of the best photographers around for capturing emotive and positive human moments, having perfected the craft of putting people at ease and making it feel as if there isn’t a camera present. We’ve been working with Will for years now, and he was also the man behind the lens for our CA Pro shoot, so it felt like the right time to finally give him a proper shout out. In the interest of time and space, we’re not going to name drop all of the people he has worked with - but a 30 second scroll through his Instagram will tell you everything you need to know.

Head over to Will’s Instagram to check out more of his work.