Vol. 9

We’re bringing the laughs with this month’s Cut Culture. We’ve got an intro to a Next Gen editor creating mind-melting content from his bedroom, a look at Audi’s efficient take on horror, and a fly-on-the-wall view of Guy Pearce’s morning routine in the latest Radiohead video. Topping it all off, we’ll share some set stories from our latest shoot with the one-and-only, Chabuddy G, who we sent undercover waiting tables at Patty & Bun.

Cut Culture

Droning On.

Allow us to share a little personal anecdote, if you’ll humour us. Cut Culture was born 9 months ago partly due to a now infamous video of a drone flying around a bowling alley. We thought that video was simply too impressive to not be shared, and that kicked off these monthly plaudits we now offer to some of our high-flying (pun intended) industry colleagues. Now, since this will be the last volume of the year, we thought there would be something vaguely poetic in going full circle by taking a look at to Radiohead’s new, drone-recorded music video. While there may be no connection, we noted at the time how that bowling alley video was the first taste of virality for the broader drone revolution currently occurring in cinematography and videography, and this feels like the next development in that revolution. The new wave of cinema-grade, rapid, hyper-manoeuvrable FPV drones have seen significant improvements in speed, power, image stabilisation, signal latency and camera size that have allowed pilots to capture previously unattainable shots. Taking this Radiohead video as our example: the fly-on-the-wall feel they manage to create is pretty remarkable - you genuinely feel a little like you’re intruding on something you shouldn’t be allowed to see. And let’s just not even mention that Radiohead had this song sitting in their back pocket since 1999. Unreal all-round.

Do Not Be Afraid.

Responding to any brief with humour is always going to be a risky game. Humour by its very nature is divisive - you can’t please everyone. And, if you try to make everyone laugh, you often end up making nobody laugh. As such, many quote/unquote ‘funny’ ads end up being more WTF than LOL. However - and I may be about to prove my own point if nobody agrees - Audi’s latest ad, created by Venables Bell, gets the balance right. Appearing more like a trailer for a new horror film than a commercial for a German 4x4, this is the story of the ‘Previous Owner’, which depicts a happy, young couple looking to get on the property ladder. The grinning Nurse Ratchett-esque realtor informs the couple that the previous occupants mysteriously disappeared, so everything remaining is included in the deal - and considering you have to fight tooth and nail with a prospective landlord in London just to get a hoover, that’s nothing to be sniffed at. Just one little problem: it’s a murder house and the previous owners definitely met their untimely demise thanks to whatever dark spirits they were cohabiting with. Dealbreaker, right? Not if there’s a flash new Audi in the garage, apparently. Obviously, this is a bit silly, but it demonstrates a way to have fun with a brief while still championing the virtues of the product in a relevant way. Big props.

BTS

When you’ve got a new menu item to sell, who better to call than the Wolf of Hounslow High Street himself? We put Chabuddy G to work for the day at Patty & Bun to launch MLB’s new Major League Bites series.

We worked with CAKE to help develop their creative, based around the idea of Chabuddy G going undercover as a ‘secret server’. We had about a week’s pre-production - largely consisting of Zoom calls with Asim Chaudhry, which were hilarious in their own right.

Fortunately for us, having now played the character for almost a decade, Asim didn’t exactly require much direction, so we were quite happy just letting Chabuddy loose on some poor, unsuspecting patrons while we watched on pissing ourselves behind a big screen downstairs linked up to our 7 secret cameras. I say a big screen, but this room was basically just a screen, as it was essentially a security cupboard rather than a security office. And based off the number of mops in there, we reckon it’s usually shared by the custodian. We chatted to Asim through what looked like an old-school supermarket tannoy connected to an earpiece, except rather than saying “Clean up on aisle 8”, it was a bit more “Go put mayonnaise on that bloke’s leg.”

Shot on a Thursday, out on the Sunday - job done. Check out the final result below.

Radar

Vidgeo - Next Gen Editor

Usually, we like to use the Radar segment to highlight some of the talent in our immediate network of collaborators, but we’ve taken a slightly different approach for this month. And the reason is simple: the level of editing talent on display in this video is simply unbelievable and we thought it could not be missed. Granted, it’s not quite as, err, ‘polished’ as some of the other work we’ve shared today, but it ain’t half compelling. Even if you will be left sitting there after 2-and-a-half minutes, scratching your head, wondering ‘what on Earth did I just watch?’. However, it’s not just a fun edit, we do actually have a larger point here, which is just to draw attention to the level of Next Gen talent on display in some of the stranger corners of social media. Online tutorials and platforms like YouTube, Instagram and now particularly TikTok are democratising a previously fairly niche, as well as inaccessible (and likely expensive to attain) skill. This particular effort was produced by Vidgeo, and the ridiculous level of talent shines through in this as well as his other videos. We implore you to go down the Vidgeo rabbit hole on his channel.

Head over to Vidgeo’s YouTube to check out more of his work.