Director Davis Silis Goes on a Journey of Wonder for FedEx

In the latest work for FedEx directed by Bullion’s Davis Silis, we follow the journey of one woman from small business owner to badass boss. With Redwood BBDO helming the creative, we empower our leading lady to take her next step. The spot was filmed in Lithuania, with an impressive custom set build that pushes the boundaries of the world beyond the frame. Bullion MD Jack Newman commented:

“We are really proud of Davis and the entire team behind this production. The amount of work that went into this production with crazy in camera trickery and post production work is extraordinary. The behind-the-scenes photos really paint the picture.” (see our Instagram @bullionproductions).

Bright and playful visuals provide the backdrop for a dreamlike aesthetic that flows effortlessly through each transition. This spot is as fun as it is uplifting. With impressive visual transitions and carefully curated VFX, Davis creates a cinematic fantasy. The unstoppable pace of life is reflected in the momentum of the film, with joy and opportunity to be found in every frame. This spot elevates Davis’ use of in camera techniques, truly showing off his skill and knowledge of VFX and seamless camera trickery. Here is Davis to explain more:

“There comes a point, on some film sets — for example when you’ve constructed what essentially amounts to a catapult and you’re about to launch your lead actor in a gravity-defying stunt that synchronises with a camera rigged to a pendulum — that really makes you wish you’d paid attention to your trigonometry lessons in school.

Because I didn’t.

But I’m sure glad my crew did.

And that’s very much the story of this shoot.

I wanted to make something with spectacle. That blurred the line of reality. And made for a fun adventure through the world of high-stakes global logistics with FedEx.

They wanted to tell a simple story. About a small business owner. And how the huge FedEx network can help expand the reach of that business. To grow and evolve.

So we got to work, creating a weird and wonderful journey through an imagined world that would let us bend both space and time. But it had to feel tangible. It had to feel real and human, no matter how far we pushed the fantasy of our art direction and constructed sets.

(And push we did. Several tons of sand, to be exact. Because how else do you create a desert inside a Lithuanian studio.)

Which created a lot of fun challenges.

Like, how do you send someone down a chute of balloons into a boundless ball pit? (As it turns out, you need a homemade skateboard, a complicated pulley system, and a DIT assistant with roughly the same shoe size as your lead actor to hold the camera.)

Or what does it take to make someone fall through a door in the desert yet stay on her feet as you rotate gravity by 90º so she can emerge into a cosmic abyss?

(Lights. A catapult. And lots of trigonometry while the director shakes his head for coming up with such a complicated shot.)

And what about creating a field of flowers with forced perspective, so they appear to tower over your actor until she reaches close to the lens to pick one up, revealing their true size?

(You’d need a super super wide lens, tons and tons of light for infinite focus, and a really great production designer to create rolling hills of miniature grass.)

But really, you just need an excellent crew. A crew that helps you figure out how to make all sorts of in-camera tricks work. 

Not to mention a really terrific agency and client who are up for the adventure. 

(Oh and a crew that knows trigonometry. Because the director has no clue.)”