On set at the Pepsi ‘Mirrors’ shoot with director Jake Nava and VFX supervisor Alex Thomas

Interviews with UK director Jake Nava and Aussie expat Alex Thomas, the Santa Monica-based visual effects supervisor at Framestore, captured on set of the Pepsi ‘Mirrors’ TVC.

What was the idea behind this Pepsi spot?

Jake Nava: The idea behind the Pepsi ad is we discover Beyoncé rehearsing the dance choreography for her up-and-coming single in a big warehouse dance rehearsal space. She stops to take a break, she’s in need of refreshment and she drinks a Pepsi. When she drinks that Pepsi, it acts as a catalyst for something really magical to take place. She gets joined in that rehearsal space by previous incarnations of herself from her old videos. They all appear in the mirrors around her. First the girl from Bootylicious turns up in her pink outfit from back in the day, then the girl from Crazy in Love shows up and then the girl from Single Ladies, Sasha Fierce, who is the most powerful of her previous incarnations. They all battle off her and in the end, despite Beyoncé being surrounded by versions of herself from her previous videos, she wins them over and she ends up with them all dancing to her tune, doing her moves and proves that Beyoncé now is more powerful and more important than even her most powerful moments from the past.

What was the creative process between you and Beyoncé for the spot?

Jake: The creative process on this job was quite drawn out and complex to be honest as we were trying to work in lots of versions of herself from the past. There was a moment when we were considering using archive footage as were weren’t sure how much time Beyoncé would be able to give us to dress up as herself from before and do those parts of the shoot. We thought we might have to use actual parts of the rushes of the video to feature in the ad, acting against current Beyoncé. In the end we did that a bit, but luckily Beyoncé understood when I said it would be a better approach for her to actually dress up and do brand new performances for the idea. She made the time and we ended up using some archive, but the majority of the footage is Beyoncé dressed up as herself from the old days.

Did anything surprise you when shooting this Pepsi advert?

Jake: The interesting thing was how much Beyoncé looked like the old characters. I directed Crazy In Love with her and when I saw her dressed in the Crazy In Love outfit, it was uncanny because she really looked very similar with no special effects and she can certainly still pull off the moves, as good if not better.

How long have you been working with Beyoncé?

Jake: I first worked with Beyoncé on Crazy In Love and then subsequently have done quite a lot of videos with her including Naughty Girl, Baby Boy, which was shot by Claudio Miranda who also just shot the Pepsi ad. I did If I Were A Boy, where she’s a cop, Single Ladies and her perfume commercials. In fact I’ve don’t a lot of work with Beyoncé over the years and she’s a great person to work with. She always brings more to the table than you could imagine. Whenever I’ve presented a situation to her, she’s always excelled within that situation in a really gratifying way. This commercial which just we did for Pepsi was no different to any of those other jobs in that she gave as much as she could give within in the limited timeframe that she had and it was a pleasure.

Can you tell us why this ad is significant for Pepsi and Beyoncé?

Jake: It’s exciting to see how different she is now and to be reminded of her history and how we’ve grown up with her, from that cheeky, sassy girl in Bootylicious through the bombshell she was in Crazy in Love to the iconic vampy, Sasha Fierce character, right up to who she is now and who she chooses to be now in the commercial.

Are you using any technical effects in this Pepsi advert that have never been used before?

Jake: There are no special effects in the commercial that have never been done before but we have developed techniques in way that is innovative. This is in the hope we can make it feel effortless and not make you think about how it was done when you watch it. Just accept and enjoy the drama, interaction and energy that is taking place. But it is quite a complicated endeavour; particularly within the parameters of the time we had to achieve it. We did end up experimenting with different approaches and discussing exactly the right way to do it.

Was this advert for Pepsi difficult to create?

Jake: I would say that this is a very challenging job from a very technical point of view, but every film has its challenges.

Is there a difference between directing a music video and a commercial?

Jake: The difference between an ad and music video really depends on the script. Sometimes they can be quite similar. In some ways, this was a bit like a music video because it was all based around Beyoncé and wanting her to come across as entertaining and current. It was set to her new track, so in some ways it was like a video. We wanted the dance and fashion to be relevant, as we would in a video. However, there was also an aspect to this ad, which was about communicating clearly the idea that Pepsi had invested in and was the basis of the collaboration between Beyoncé and Pepsi. So making sure the idea comes across and taking on-board 180 and Pepsi’s sense of what the idea is which meant it was not like when I’m doing a music video, when there are less chefs in the kitchen.

How does this ad reflect the Pepsi “Live for Now” philosophy?

Jake: I think this ad expresses Pepsi’s “Live For Now” philosophy because we present contemporary Beyoncé in a way that makes her feel more relevant, important and powerful than any of her previous selves, so she is living for now.

Why do you like working with Beyoncé?

Jake: I like working with Beyoncé because she’s a world-class artist who takes all her work very serious, wants to be at her best and wants to challenge herself. Despite the fact that I’ve worked quite a lot with her, I don’t feel like the work is ever stagnant or that we’re repeating old ground because I think we both push each other to make sure what we do doesn’t feel like what we’ve done in the past.

What is the advantage of working with Pepsi and Beyoncé?

Jake: One of the great things about doing a job on this level is you get to work with A- List creatives across the board and that was really rewarding. 180 came with a great script, Claudio [Miranda] is an Oscar-winning cameraman who I respect and have enjoyed working with in the past, the choreographers, the stylists, everyone involved was A-game and that’s always a pleasure.

What did you enjoy most about working on this Pepsi advert?

Jake: One of the most pleasurable moments of the making of the ad was watching Crazy In Love for the first time, possibly ever, since we worked on it together and both of us sharing memories of that time: what it was like when I first talked to her mum about the styling, how she felt about working with the English guy who was very new on the block then. I’d done a lot of music videos in England but hadn’t been endorsed or commissioned by any big American artists. She really stuck her neck out and decided to do something that wasn’t what everyone else was doing yet. Since then we’ve done loads of work together and it really worked out, so it was a nice moment.

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Can you describe the technology that was used to create the advert?

Alex Thomas: With a project like this, we’re using a lot of different kinds of technology. It’s an exciting one for us for that reason. The process started with us making the previews, so it was a great way for us to use our London office. Within that office, we have a motion capture studio, so we could get a dancer to go in there and film her with many, many cameras, which gives us a 3D model performing Beyoncé’s dance moves. We could then bring that into the office in LA and arrange our new cameras around that so that we could all see the story before we shot the story. The shoot will be a combination of 2D and 3D because of the limitations on Beyoncé’s time, so we have to shoot a lot of her against blue screen. I’m doing the 2D part of things which is combining that with the 3D which will be the rebuilding of backgrounds.

What is the biggest challenge with this Pepsi project?

Alex: The biggest challenge with a project like this is the limitation of time with Beyoncé. Therefore, we’re shooting
a very ambitious project in a day and a half, which not only presents its own limitations but also influences the way that we do it. So we shoot more against blue screen so we can repurpose shots for other shots and build our edit around that.

Are you using any new technology on this Pepsi project?

Alex: I wouldn’t say there’s new technology that we are using, but we’re embracing all the technology available to us – things we have used before… Perhaps slightly newer versions of those but anything and everything at our disposal we’re grabbing on to in this case.

How involved have you been in the creative process for this Pepsi advert?

Alex: Our involvement in this production began months ago so we feel like we’ve been involved in the process. It’s been a fantastic collaboration for those reasons: we’ve been working very closely with the editor, the agency and with Jake, the director. Our process just continues from here – we’ll stay in close contact with both director and agency but also with the editors because they will be selecting archive footage, selecting takes and communicating with us what will and won’t work. Once we have the edit, all the footage will come to us and we will start compositing all the different elements that we need to in order to make this spot come alive. It’s quite difficult to visualize how it will ultimately look until we’ve cut out all the different blue screen parts, replaced the backgrounds and all that sort of thing.

How difficult is it to combine new and old footage of Beyoncé?

Alex: Combining the archive footage with new footage that we’ve shot specifically for this commercial presents its own challenges. It’s not a new thing from our point of view. It’s something that we have done before, but each project is new in the way that you solve the problems you’re presented with. One great benefit is the fact that Jake is directing this commercial, and he directed a lot of those promos from which we are taking footage, so he’s familiar with the shots and the techniques used to create those images. That’s a huge help in continuity from archive footage through to what we are shooting now, but it is not an easy thing to do. You have to find the line between tailoring your shot footage to the archive footage and vice versa and the combinations of those two being sympathetic to differences in lighting and camera angles and those sorts of things.

How risky is this Pepsi project from a special effects perspective?

Alex: I wouldn’t say that this is a risky project for us. It’s a very exciting project. It’s certainly a challenging project due to time and the technical challenges that we need to solve. I wouldn’t say it’s risky. I would say it’s challenging and exciting.