Manimal Delivers High-Speed Campaign for Louis Vuitton and Formula 1

When Manimal received an urgent request to produce a fast-turnaround campaign for Louis Vuitton and Formula 1, the team knew they were in for a wild ride.

“We’re thrilled to bring this innovative project to life,” said Denzil Heeger, Manimal’s sports-mad editor and colourist, who was bursting with random Grand Prix trivia.

The brief for part one was straightforward – cut, grade, and finish a 15-second teaser featuring drone footage over Melbourne and shots of the iconic Louis Vuitton travel trunk and F1 trophy – all within two days.

The time difference with Paris meant the team had to edit, grade, and online multiple options for Louis Vuitton’s top management to choose the version they wanted to air.

With tasks like signage removal, shot stabilisation, tracking in LV logos, and extra paint-outs, the pressure was particularly felt by online operator Ryan Brett.

Part two of the brief was even more demanding – cut, grade, and finish a high-action 30-second film using footage shot at the F1 on Sunday afternoon, and deliver the finished film by 5am on Monday.

To streamline the process, the team used textural footage shot at the F1 track earlier in the week, combining it with last year’s broadcast footage to get approval on the edit style, music, and pace.

The creatives in Paris were impressed and narrowed down the music to three options for Sunday’s F1 race edit. The Wildfire production crew had the monumental task of capturing as much footage as possible from the pit, the track, and the stands, while also trying to secure emotive close-ups of the drivers, their teams, and supporters.

Ryan and Denzil were involved in discussions with production prior to shooting, suggesting key hero shots to elevate the edit. Luckily, the DP Don Buppapirak had an eye for a winner and captured plenty of shots of Lando Norris.

The Louis Vuitton logo was prominent throughout, and the clients emphasised featuring it wherever possible.

Denzil, with his deep knowledge of F1, knew which corners and straights of the track worked best on camera and which team was most likely to win, making him the perfect person to cut and grade this high-pressure project.

Sweaty bike couriers dropped rushes to the Manimal office on Saturday and returned throughout Sunday, drenched in rain, ready to collect the next batch of footage.

The production team arrived at Manimal by 6:30pm on Sunday for a post-wrap beer, and the additional broadcast footage was received at 7pm.

By midnight, three offline edits with different music tracks were sent up the chain for approval.

Denzil got to work colour-grading while Ryan began shot cleanup and logo enhancements. With final grade and online complete just after 3am, the marathon was almost over.

Resizes were underway while awaiting final version approval, and masters were delivered an hour later. Having the Louis Vuitton producer Cynthia in the suite was crucial to the project’s success.

She slipped between English and French while discussing notes with the Manimal team and pushing her colleagues in Paris for feedback and approval.

In coming to Manimal, the production team and clients not only got 24-hour access to the post house but also used the space as their production hub.

They hosted PPMs with crew, held a late-night stills retouching session, and even celebrated a producer’s birthday.

While the pressure was on to produce high-fashion, brand-worthy films, Manimal was embraced as part of the pit crew.

The team gained a renewed appreciation for well-produced, fast-turnaround jobs, with the final campaign going live on Louis Vuitton’s social media within hours.