Australia’s Cutting Edge reaches stratospheric heights on new Sony China spot via M&C Saatchi
Sony 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
6 Comments
So Cutting Edge is a production co now as well as a post house? Does that mean they pitch against the production companies they are wanting to do post for?
Dear Confused
Where have you been? It’s 2014, not 1980.
We’re all friends, or should be.
Yes, and some production companies have their own post production and vfx gear. And some agencies have their own internal production companies. I know right? Amazing! Welcome to the future.
Based on this I don’t think the production companies have much to worry about.
It’s nice and all, but I think it’s a but similar to what Betty Wants Inn did here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVAkDRV-m84
Hey this is great even the sky divers get a credit… they’re the ones that jumped after all!