Capturing Canada’s Kaleidoscope of Colour: How Revolver Films Shone a New Light on Ontario

Travelling to Canada is a uniquely different experience for each of those who visit – it all depends when and where they travel to. Due to the sheer size of the country, a wide variety of seasonal changes can be expected across all ten provinces. Coastal provinces, like Ontario, experience the full spectrum of weather conditions: the intense summer heat can soar to temperatures above 30°C (86°F), while the winter months see epic snowfall and lows of -40°C (-40°F). But regardless of the season, the North American behemoth is a wonder to behold. 

For their latest promotional film, Destination Ontario, the official tourism body of the province, were keen to focus specifically on the most temperate - and most underrated - times of year: Fall. 

The resulting spot is a marvel of colour. With just 50 seconds at his disposal, Revolver Films director Scott Cudmore expertly portrays the child-like curiosity that overcomes newcomers to Canada as soon as they step off the plane. Concentrating on the array of hues that constitute Ontario’s Fall colour palette, Cudmore found ways to shoot the most well known landmarks in unique and captivating ways - Niagara Falls lit up azure-blue, at night - enticing audiences to the province. 

Joined by his collaborator, Broken Hearts Love Affair creative director, Jordan Hamer, Scott lifts the lid on the creative process of crafting this exciting promotional film. 

LBB> Congratulations on a wonderfully inventive tourism film. What was the initial brief and how did you find ways to inject fresh energy into a relatively traditional genre of promotional filmmaking? 

Scott Cudmore> I liked the idea that a spot about travel or tourism could feel sort of magical and not just idyllic, or postcard perfect, or whatever we normally see in ads like this. So I was excited about doing a travel spot that captured the feeling of exploring a new place - something more expressionistic and not just “here’s a beautiful location and people looking at it”. I wanted it to be visceral. I often find that seeing new places makes me feel like a child again, I feel a sense of child-like wonder, and I wanted to try to make the spot feel a bit like that. 

Jordan Hamer> On our side, the initial brief was to capture the feeling of Ontario being at its peak in the fall. And we translated that into the overwhelming visual stimulus of vibrant colours everywhere you turn.

LBB> Why did Scott feel like the right filmmaker to take on this project?

Jordan> Scott's name instantly came to mind due to his incredible eye for art direction, and the intentional use of colour and light in his work. We also knew his music video experience and sensibility for choreography would make the scenes in the spot connect seamlessly.

LBB> Scott, the spot is full of vivid colours and textures which are cleverly used as a method of transitioning from one scene to another. How important is the role of colour and grade in the overall look and feel of this film? 

Scott> Well, colour was the core concept from the beginning, so from the moment I received the brief, I decided to use colour as the main element for all the transitions. It was actually a lot more prominent in the brief, it got scaled back a bit in terms of each of the transitions from scene to scene, but colour remained one of the most important parts of the spot. Obviously it ties into the “fall colour” messaging, but for me it was also just a key part of expressionism. It’s not exactly a realistic spot - the matching wardrobes, flooding of colourful light into a scene -  but that’s where the magical element comes from.

LBB> How did you decide which colours would accentuate your vision for each scene?

Scott> Choosing each colour for the scene was specified in the brief, but we didn’t stay completely married to any of those ideas as we got into production: we wanted to let the locations dictate a lot of that because the characters needed to be in contrast to the environments etc. So the choices were largely just instinctual beyond where they were outlined in the brief, such as the restaurant being red or Niagara Falls being blue. For the rest of the scenes it was just like, “What would look good in here?”

LBB> There is an amazing night time shot of Niagara Falls lit up at night, showing the world famous tourist attraction in an alluring new light. Why did you choose to shoot the falls this way? 

Scott> Niagara Falls is usually always filmed from above, in a big aerial shot, so you can see the whole scale of the falls from a birds-eye view. I didn’t want to do that because we’ve all seen that image, hundreds of times, and I wanted to film the falls in a new way while still capturing the scale and physical power of them. So we put a really wide lens on the drone and filmed them from the surface of the water in front of the falls. It felt more immediate and personal to shoot the falls like that whereas the more traditional aerial image - besides being one that we’ve seen so often - feels a little more distant. I wanted that cut to the waterfall to make viewers go, “Oh, that looks crazy.”

Jordan> We also wanted to balance the number of day and night scenes, so using blue for a waterfall seemed like a natural fit and would keep it in the evening colour palette. In the end it gave the rushing water and clouds of mist a very subtle, dreamy effect that plays into the emotion of the spot.

LBB> The film ends with a surreal kaleidoscopic shot that encapsulates the classic colour scheme of Ontario in Fall. Why was it important to end with this shot?

Scott> The kaleidoscopic colour at the end came in the edit – it was an idea that came from BHLA creative directors Jordan and Spencer Ryan. I loved it, it was a great way of tying it all back into the overall “colour” concept. 

Jordan> The intention for the entire spot was to convey the sort of romantic "swept away" feeling of a memorable trip. And we couldn't let that feeling end with the call to action, we wanted to dial it up as much as possible, letting colour and music drive the viewer towards that emotion.

LBB> Finally, do you have a favourite moment from the film that you’d like to share? 

Jordan> Everyone really loved the wardrobe choices. Everything felt so considered and special for each shot, which definitely elevated the piece.

Scott> I think my favourite footage is what we shot in the Art Gallery of Ontario. I don’t know why, I just really like that sequence. It reminds me of Godard and I admit that I was inspired by Band of Outsiders with her pulling him by the arm and running through the gallery, and the extreme close ups on the Group of 7 paintings. Also getting to have the Lawren Harris paintings in the spot meant a lot to me because those paintings have had such an impact and influence on me, ever since I was a teenager.