Australia’s Cutting Edge reaches stratospheric heights on new Sony China spot via M&C Saatchi

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SONY-STRATOSHPHERE.jpgSony China’s latest TVC, produced by Australia’s Cutting Edge, explores M&C Saatchi Tokyo’s creative idea of floating high in earth’s stratosphere and the near-limitless feeling of witnessing the earth from a new perspective.

 

The 60 and 30 second spots, directed by Cutting Edge’s Jeff Gaunt, show cosmonauts floating in near space, firing away shots on their new A7R cameras, with the imposing far reaches of the world serving as a visual jaw-dropping backdrop.

Cutting Edge’s post team, including Ant Heberl, Compositor; Kerry Farrell, Senior Editor; and Ross Batten, Senior Sound Designer, all added deft touches throughout to add to the spots’ sense of isolation and time.

 

According to Jeff Gaunt, the shoot posed multiple challenges, all of which were met through a combination of meticulous planning, experimentation, experience and teamwork.

 

“Sony wanted something that communicated how their new camera was a world-first,” said Jeff. “So we had to push the boundaries in a number of ways.”

 

Nobu Yamamoto, Creative & Strategic Planner of M&C Saatchi Tokyo, said that the primary focus in creating this campaign – for a rapidly evolving and highly competitive Chinese market – was to unequivocally demonstrate the fundamental difference between Sony Alpha brand’s product philosophy to that of its competitors.

 

“Setting new global standards through innovation sits at the core of Sony’s brand philosophy, and it was with this ethos in mind that we created the idea for this commercial,” he said.

 

“To bring this creative to life, we needed an accomplished partner. And it was the team at Cutting Edge, spearheaded by Jeff Gaunt, who were nothing short of outstanding in making this all a reality. With their considerable expertise, and with great passion and professionalism, they expended all of their efforts to achieve a magnificent end result. We hold Cutting Edge in exceptionally high regard and we are more than grateful to have worked with them on this great opportunity provided by Sony our client.”

 

Said Jeff: “The concept demanded visual authenticity, and shooting from the dizzying heights of 15,000 feet was necessary to fully encapsulate Sony China’s narrative.”

 

“Visually, we focused on showing a world from a different perspective. The A7R is about possibility, and it being a world first, we alluded to what you can do.”

 

To get the required results, Jeff enlisted the help of infamous base jumper, parachuting and skydiving DOP, Shane Sparks, and his camera assistant Rob Douthat.

 

To prepare for the shoot, Jeff, Shane and Rob practiced formations with the skydivers, and went through the shoot on the ground.

 

In order to get the lighting correct, Jeff was only able to shoot twice a day. Each jump, from preparation to reaching jump-ready height and landing, took just under an hour. The result was only having four opportunities a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, to get it right.

 

To comply with Sony China’s needs, the commercial was shot with at 4K (4096 x 2160 pixels) resolution, designed for maximum impact on Sony’s latest 4K TVs that display images natively in 4K.

 

CLIENT: Sony (China) Limited

 

AGENCY: M&C Saatchi, Tokyo

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tamio Koshino

CREATIVE & PLANNING DIRECTOR: Nobu Yamamoto

AGENCY PRODUCER: Susumu Nagano ART DIRECTOR: Tadao Inaba DESIGNER: Chen-Ying Wang COPYWRITERS: Tamio Koshino & Nobu Yamamoto

ACCOUNT: Kazumi Yago & Edward Lapsa

 

PRODUCTION COMPANY: CUTTING EDGE

DIRECTOR: Jeff Gaunt

PRODUCER: Bec Dakin

STUDIO DOP / PHOTOGRAPHER: Simon Hammond

1ST CAMERA ASSISTANT: Jay Topping

GAFFER: Colin Williams

STANDBY PROPS: Chris James

AERIAL DOP: Shane Sparkes

SAFETY/2ND AERIAL DOP/SKYDIVER 4: Rob Douthat

AERIAL CAMERA ASSIST/SKYDIVER 3: Jaak (Shark) Saega

SKYDIVER 1: Adam Long

SKYDIVER 2: Simon Chaberka

2ND SAFETY / SKYDIVER 5: Simon (Sas) Di Sciascio

 

POST PRODUCTION: CUTTING EDGE

VFX DIRECTOR: Jeff Gaunt

VFX PRODUCER: Flavia Riley

EDITOR: Kerry Farrell

GRADE: Justin McDonald

SOUND ENGINEER: Ross Batten

ONLINE / COMPOSITION: Ant Haberl

COMPOSITOR: Steve Leacey

COMPOSITOR: Lars Andersen

COMPOSITOR: Ricky Marks