How HORNBACH Made the Most Out of Each Square Metre
Homes are getting smaller and spaces are getting tighter in each big city around the world. As populations grow, each square metre in a home becomes more and more precious, creating the need for creative uses of space. To explore this idea further DIY store HORNBACH has pushed the limits of what’s possible in tiny spaces.
Squeezing big ideas into small rooms, the tiny house concept reflects not only in the ingenious design of each space, but the camera perspective in the spot also leans into a square-space concept for design. With tall ladders reaching indoor greenhouses, tiny attic rooms with pottery wheels and compact showers to get squeaky clean, creativity was certainly at the forefront of the DIY store’s minds when creating this one.
Working alongside HeimatTBWA\ and director Steve Rogers, with production by TPF Berlin, each shot pans seamlessly from one tiny room to the next, showing how a man not just lives, but thrives in a house made up of square-metre rooms. The endless possibilities for creativity make for a cheery twist to the overcrowding situations and make the audience reach farther with what they believe is possible within their own homes.
Steve and HeimatTBWA\’s co-founder and chief creative Guido Heffels talk LBB’s Nisna Mahtani through the process of creating the square spot.
LBB> Talk to us about the ‘Every square metre deserves to be the best in the world’ concept and the first set of discussions you had surrounding it.
Steve> Guido’s original idea was very simple: How would someone live in a world that was restricted to one square metre?
Guido> A large part of our thought process involves striving for a meaningful connection with the times we live in. This is part of the HORNBACH gene code. But finding such a theme is one thing. Then we look for the best possible way to translate the theme in a maximally euphoric and encouraging way. This, too, is part of the HORNBACH brand. Finding the right language of revelation.
LBB> What was HORNBACH keen to emphasise with this piece of communication and how were you mindful to incorporate it?
Steve> HORNBACH are aware that we live in a world with increasingly limited space and resources, and that people are going to have to reconsider how they live. The script was really a challenge to see how people can rethink their homes and how they live within them.
Guido> The focus is always on HORNBACH's role in the lives of its customers, i.e. on the contribution that the store can make on account of its size, its know-how and the diversity of its product range. All our actions pay off on this.
LBB> How did you ideate to figure out which scenarios and activities would be best to showcase? What were some of the priorities for scenes?
Steve> Guido and I really wanted to watch how an ordinary person would go through an ordinary day within a world that was designed around one square metre. It didn’t seem right to make scenes that were not only unusual in dimension, but exceptional in the action. The more ordinary the better. Take a shower, eat some breakfast, water the garden, etc. Guido had some scenes that he loved and I brought in others. It was one of the more enjoyable productions in terms of how everyone involved was able to contribute in a fairly democratic fashion.
Guido> The customers' real-life worlds always form the basis. This already roughly specifies which rooms form the framework. Then we played email ping-pong and allowed ourselves the greatest possible nonsense. In the end, however, Steve usually had the surprising ace up his sleeve as far as the rooms were concerned. Personally, I don't want a director to implement something that he himself is not convinced of.
LBB> From a production perspective, how did each square metre set come about and can you share some of the process behind creating them?
Steve> Once Guido and I had established the nature of each room, I worked with Steven Jones-Evans, a Sydney-based production designer who I have worked with for over 20 years, as well as Daniel Landin who photographed the project, to try and find ways to combine ‘rooms’ together, to find ways to move from one space to another without necessarily having to cut.
Guido’s original script dispensed with logic in the sense of how this particular world functioned and we retained that and it became easier as a result of not having to have things play out rationally. The entire process was one of gentle, good-humoured collaboration. A rarity I would say.
Guido> I think Steven Jones-Evans, who was in charge of set design and art, had a lot of fun designing the spaces beyond the normal. He certainly didn't make it easy for himself. There is a tremendous amount of love in the rooms. Things you can see and things you cannot see, but you can feel them.
LBB> Of course, the ad had to be shot in a square frame. What equipment did you shoot on to achieve this aesthetic?
Steve> We framed within a square format, but the project was shot on an Alexa LF using wider angled lenses.
LBB> Which was the trickiest set to create and how did it all come together in the end?
Steve> The single shot transition from bedroom to bathroom was the most arduous, given that there were so many moving parts. Not only did the entire set have to be rotated through 90 degrees, but the shower had to be rotated into position, with steam effects, lighting changes, etc. The project was shot in Bucharest and we didn’t have access to hydraulics or machinery to move the very heavy sets, so everything was done ‘by hand’, which at times felt precarious, to say the least. Still, the actor survived and we were able to keep shooting.
Guido> Each set had its individual challenges. We usually spend a long time making sure that everyone involved has a common, clearly defined goal in mind. From then on, we virtually hand over the baby. How that comes together in the end is always a real miracle for me. That's probably why I still enjoy the job so much.
LBB> In terms of camera angles and perspectives, what considerations did you have to take into account?
Steve> I really tried to shoot the story in a conventional way, although we had to use wider lenses than I usually like and a few of the sets, like the dining room, required much wider lenses as well as some digital set extension. The square frame helped with the wider lenses though and most of the sets were constructed with moveable walls and ceilings, so we could get the camera where we wanted. We moved the camera very simply, to get from one space to another. Given the complexity of the sets, the actual making of things from a camera point of view was quite simple.
Guido> It is the perspective of a small child that inevitably runs through the film. The rest of the possibilities are dictated by the lack of space in the rooms.
LBB> How did you convey the story without any narration, so that the audience understood what was happening in each frame?
Steve> I think the fact that the story follows a pretty ordinary day in a life, means that audiences could follow his journey without too much trouble. His day is actually pretty ordinary. It just happens in an extraordinary world.
Guido> For me, the real challenge is to keep the tension through the spot and to value the viewer's time. It's about interestingness, confusion, and integrating the viewer into the structure. The final score is made when the spot ends. Who wants to know how a story will end in chapter one?
LBB> Each shot seamlessly integrates from one room into another. Can you tell us how you achieved this through the filmmaking and editing process?
Steve> The hardest part of the filmmaking was trying to work out how to link one room to another without cutting. I wanted one room to become another without the conventions of exiting one and entering another. By rotating sets, and extending rooms vertically, we could let the actor move from room to room in unconventional ways. Most of the sets were constructed separately and we linked them together through cutting. Jonnie Scarlet at The Quarry did a great job of stitching it all together to appear as one odd home. The end shot into the theatre was really done just using a cut. It continues to amaze me what cutting allows you to get away with.
Guido> Sometimes I ask myself the same thing, that is, how the team created this magic. I think the answer lies in giving the people involved as much space as possible. Based on an equally great trust.
LBB> This campaign tackles the very real challenge of overcrowding and people having smaller spaces to work with. Why were you determined to put a positive spin on things with this spot?
Steve> The challenge was to make living in a small room seem intriguing, to have an audience reconsider their own homes and how they live within them and do something about it. I hope we managed to get that point across.
Guido> It can't be in the sense of any brand to spread bad mood and despair. I'm not a big proponent of the trend toward ‘crybaby marketing’. That is communication that wants to tell me in your face how bad things are for all of us and our world. As I said, I'm not a big fan of that. For me, my job is about offering solutions, ways of looking at things, or at least about the necessary courage to bring about change.
LBB> In its entirety, how long did the planning, filming and editing process of this campaign take?
Steve> This one took a lot longer than normal, but that was primarily due to my schedule, although the delay allowed Steven, the production designer, to spend two weeks or so overseeing construction in Bucharest which made all the difference in terms of finishes and detailing, the things that are often compromised in shorter time frames.
Guido> Our reservoir of ideas has been well filled over the years. We had the core of the idea many years ago. And then suddenly we knew how exactly, how much better to stage the idea. From production go until release it may have been around six months.
LBB> How has the audience reacted to the spot so far?
Steve> I’m not really sure how audiences have responded. I hope they like it. I do.
Guido> The response that reached me personally ranged from consistently positive to euphoric. Equally important to us, however, are the reactions of the HORNBACH community, i.e. our customers. And lo and behold, we didn't disappoint here either. God, that would be the worst.
LBB> What’s your advice to people struggling to come up with a creative design in a small space?
Guido> It is not a work of art that you live in. It is a space in which you should live, and in the best possible way.
