Vol. 24
It’s that time again… we’re back with another volume of Cut Culture. And we’re taking a look at some big ads from big brands with big budgets, starting with all the sizzling sibilance of a star-studded circus celebrating sport from Sky. We’ll also take you behind the scenes of our latest campaign for Depop, shooting all the summer fits you didn’t need during the last month of diurnal downpours. And we’ll close things out with an intro to a DOP/mountaineer who you should probably get to know.
Cut Culture
The Greatest Show on Earth.
Sky Sports’ new ad is quite something, ain’t it? And they certainly made the most of their rolodex. The ad was shot by Daniel Kleinman and features some of the biggest names in sport including Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Ella Toone, Lewis Hamilton, Ben Stokes, Emma Raducanu, Jon Rahm, Lauren James and more. And this time Lauren James managed to not stamp on anyone, which is quite the cause for celebration. With Sky Sports having previously had a bit of a stranglehold on sports broadcasting, in the past they arguably had quite a captive audience. Basically, if you wanted to watch football without having to go on r/soccerstreams and infect your laptop with a million viruses, you had to pay for Sky Sports. But with more rivals coming out of the woodwork over the last few years, Sky obviously felt it necessary to flex their muscles a bit. And how better to flex than creating a celebrity circus heightening in intensity before reaching its crescendo in the form of Roy Keane dressed up as a clown?
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Karens.
It must be nice having impossibly deep pockets. There are few brands who could, or for that matter would, create an 8-minute-long crime caper to extol the virtues of a couple product benefits. Apple are one of those few brands. Their latest ad makes a MacGuffin of the MacBook Pro to emphasise the machine’s privacy and security features. Because even if some ne’er-do-well swine does happen to swipe your laptop, you can rest easy in the knowledge that even the most disreputable pawn broker in town won’t touch it with a shitty stick because there will be far too much heat attached to it, and, thanks to the FindMyMac feature, the rightful owner may come crashing through the door at any moment. Plus given how perpetually petrified many of us have become about unwittingly signing away our lives in the form of data, the ad’s focus on security and privacy is one that speaks to the concerns of much of Apple’s target audience. And telling what is ultimately a simple product story through a long-form, narrative-based, brand-led lens is so quintessentially Apple, and is just the latest example of their long-term commitment to building the brand affinity that makes them the only tech brand of choice for anyone with a jot of taste. Does that count as a hot take?
BTS
We’ll be honest with you, when we shot this summer campaign for Depop, we didn’t realise it would then start pissing it down for the next few weeks. In fact, after rescheduling 3 times, we shot this on one of the final days of sun this summer, so we may have jinxed it. Soz about that. But this is Britain. The mere fact that it’s 17 degrees and rainy out should offer absolutely no excuse not to sport that new summer wardrobe like you’re on the Cote d’Azur.
The shoot itself was all about bringing the summer vibes, shooting directly upwards into the long delirious burning blue of the sky. We were looking for someone who could capture expression and energy while keeping it product focused, so we had Annie Reid behind the lens (assisted by our in-house director who was behind the hair-dryer to serve up those wind-swept looks - see BTS video below for proof).
We had a one-day shoot to capture both product and model shots as well as a bit of vibey AV, shooting brands like Stussy, Carhartt, Stone Island, Stussy Hoodie, Arc’teryx, Nike, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, Levi’s - because pre-owned no longer means dodgy, ill-fitting George at Asda hand-me-downs from your older siblings. Despite what your nan may think.
Radar
Conor is part of a new generation of DOPs who can do it all. No offence to any old generations of DOPs who can’t do it all. We worked with him recently on a couple rugby shoots for Canterbury, having seen some of his previous rugby work and known straight away that he was the man for the job. Plus he’s from Dublin, so it just made sense for him to be a part of our launch shoot for Ireland’s new World Cup kit. He’s the furthest thing from a ‘behind-the-monitor’ DOP, happy to take control of the camera and get amongst it. Plus he was able to get a crew together in record time, which we’ve been told not to refer to as ‘The Irish Job’. Look out for his work with us in next month’s Cut Culture. But in the meantime, head over to his Instagram and website to check out more of his stuff.