Shooting Day for Night: A Blend of Photorealism and Fantasy on Mercedes-Benz
Having partnered with Mercedes-Benz on several campaigns before, creative studio The-Artery continued their long standing relationship on latest spot, “New Light”. Using live-action production, editorial, post, VFX, colour grading and finishing, the team transformed daytime film into cinematic nighttime scenes.
To find out how this was achieved, LBB speaks with director Vico Sharabani who reveals the inspirations, technical challenges and production insights behind the work.
LBB> What was Mercedes keen to showcase in this campaign? What was their vision, and how did you translate it into the spot?
Vico> At its heart, this campaign is a ‘product reveal.’ The SL has been a true icon since the 1950s, a vehicle of a calibre by which all other cars in the category are held up to, now also customised by AMG to promote it further up the ladder to a high-performance vehicle.
I wanted to expand on the tagline: “The icon. In a whole new light” in a visual way, and my interpretation was: “A classic film-look (the icon) with a modern twist (a new light)”. Essentially approaching the spot like a product-demo disguised as a feature film. A contemporary James Bond-like nightride or to evoke Grace Kelly and Cary Grant level panache in ‘To Catch a Thief’.
LBB> As the director, what were your initial creative ideas and how did you develop those into the final concept?
Vico> My creative approach was to emphasise polarity across all of the car’s touchpoints: tech and humanity, glamour and adrenaline, epic and detailed, nature and machinery, sun and moon, and it was essential to figure out how to connect those polarities within the frame or juxtaposition through edit:
- Sunflowers affected by the driving car
- Sundial gracefully metamorphosing into the tachometer
- A full shot of a car ultimately framing a beautifully epic vista by using a drone…
When looking at the creative concept for the spot, we need to applaud the agency creatives at Merkley+Partners. They came with a great foundation, so our collaboration was aimed to amplify the initial ideas, as opposed to reinventing the wheel.
Of utmost importance both to me and to the client was to ensure that we were aligning with all the essential brand messaging, resulting in a highly streamlined collaboration, allowing me to have greater freedom around the creative execution.
LBB> You recently worked with Mercedes for the brand’s stunning EQS campaign. What did you learn from that experience that you took forward to this campaign?
Vico> For the previous EQS campaign that The-Artery shot, we used virtual production on a 360 LED XR stage. That successful experience naturally built the appetite to revisit that technology, but after carefully considering the creative goal, capabilities, budget and schedule, I decided to take a different route, and shoot Day for Night - meaning that we shot the spot during daylight and transformed it into a night scene in post-production.
I love acquiring capabilities, and virtual production is no exception, but it’s very important to use capabilities and techniques properly, in context of the project goals and limitations.
LBB> When it comes to the look and feel or the campaign, what were your main aims and ambitions and how did you achieve them through the day/night elements?
Vico> Objectively, I sought to create a mature, gorgeous and cinematic film (I’m told it sounds like the campaign has a Tinder profile - lol). I really wanted to marry photorealism with a sense of fantasy. A perfect night that looks photorealistic, epic and cinematic, without falling into childlike fantasy territory.
Shooting day for night gave me both creative and production benefits. From a creative perspective, the control we had over the exposure, visibility of detail, depth of field, camera position, and how we could deploy the drones was enormous. Such control is critical for me when I direct, resulting in shots that are perfectly exposed, consistent and feel effortlessly cohesive. Not to overlook that practically, from a production perspective, a night shoot would be significantly more complex, slower, and more costly. Add to that a car on the road in a remote location and liability kicks up.
On the other hand, a day shoot allowed us to capture all the running footage with minimal crew on the road, in just a few hours while our studio/stage was being set up and lit, and such efficiency is a leading principle when we produce.
All of these factors occupy my mind during planning, are given due weight and consideration, so that when we come to roll all the stakeholders are confident of the outcome, one that meets the myriad needs, hitting the creative, the budget and accommodating all the needs of the various factions involved in the marketing of such a notable brand.
LBB> The background environments for this spot change seamlessly. How did you utilise the team and technology to achieve this?
Vico> The-Artery is a creative entity. Not only do we do creative work, but we do it in a creative way, this highly considered approach to creative problem solving is apparent across our entire portfolio. We have a deep VFX background in both film and advertising and this heightened level of visual effects is a dominant feature in everything we do.
Our VFX team is a tight group. Every individual that touched this spot is a star, and five of the team members have been working with me for 20 years or more, so it’s like a Ninja squad that can achieve the unimaginable when harnessed to one another. Their collective experience, combined with the deep personal relationships, is a unique power that goes beyond any other structure I’ve ever seen.
LBB> What interesting production insights can you share from the shoot?
Vico> Our shoot day was another example of our efficiency and planning. Oren Soffer, our DP (Who also shot the upcoming Sci-Fi film ‘The Creator’), was instrumental for moving the crew at lightning speed, whilst not missing a creative beat in the process.
The fastest shot we captured was the poster shot of the Bay Vista. We rolled on the first rehearsal, and I said ‘we have it’! (Well, once playback confirmed we did actually have it, before moving on…).
The virtual components we created while preparing the shoot were the super aspirational house in the opening shot, the sunflowers that seem to be a crowd favourite, and the sundial. The environment itself was built as a master matte painting, lastly, a generic 3D water surface that we were ready to pepper through the shots as soon as we came back to our studio.
LBB> This was a technically complex spot to achieve. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced and how did you come up with solutions?
Vico> We are well versed in all aspects of production and VFX and CG cars are a particular strength of ours, we also boast well developed compositing, and design chops, so the craft is rarely a challenge for us, realistically, the biggest challenge was the schedule. Having one shoot day and 3.5 weeks from shoot to delivery is an aggressive timeline for this level of work.
I compressed the schedule by editing before the shoot. I wanted the agency and clients to know every detail as I envisioned it, so there is little to no debate during the execution.
For example, accommodating 21 shots in a 25 second spot is no mean feat. To ensure we hit the music cues alone called for meticulous planning, granular to the point where negotiated for single frames per shot.
Articulating to the clients in advance the essence of each shot was also incredibly important, what was driving it. That way, changing location, camera, or framing on the shoot day, was easily agreed upon as long as we preserved the intention and role of the shot within the spot.
CG components like the sunflower, sundial, etc were built during the pre-pro, so we were quite buttoned up from the get-go and there were no surprises, clarity abound.
LBB> What was your personal favourite moment from this project or favourite scene in the final spot and why?
Vico> I find it hard to pick a favourite moment. Many shots are ‘poster worthy’, to have accumulated such an array of great images in such a short piece is a personal point of pride.
LBB> What was your reaction to the finished work?
Vico> While I had a very clear idea of where I was aiming, it’s fair to say we exceeded everyone’s expectations and that’s genuinely a great feeling. The spot was so well received that Mercedes-Benz Global picked it up for other markets.
This is the same thing that happened on a previous spot I directed for Mercedes-Benz “Invisible Car”, so this time around I came in with that as my target, my measure of success.
