BBH on Making an Absolut-ley Flawless Ad

BBH Creative Simon Cenamor

What was the brief with which Absolut approached you?

The brief was simple, big, and a dream opportunity: Create a global launch film to explain the concept of ‘Create a Better Tomorrow, Tonight’ – the new brand campaign that positions creativity as the key fuel of progress in the world.

And how did you approach the brief?

We knew this was a chance to make something with scale; something genuinely epic. We wanted it to be a klaxon call for people to use the night as a canvas to ‘create a better tomorrow.’ So, our starting point was the night. We starting digging for examples of nights that created movements, be it in music, art, film, whatever. And then we thought, what about if we frame the void before time, as just a night? That would have been the ultimate night. Then it all started falling into place. The Big Bang, the ultimate act of creativity. Everything that ever followed, the ultimate ‘tomorrow’.

And as I said before, we also wanted an invitation for people to use the night as their opportunity to create. So we knew the end point of the film would be the present. Our ‘tonight’.  So the core idea was essentially the beginning and the end of the film. It’s bookended by two nights: the first night – the void before time – and tonight, our ‘to be continued’ moment. It’s at this point that it’s over to us to keep creating, to keep the universe moving forward.

BBH Creative Raymond Chan

Why was cinematographer Emmanuel ‘Chivo’ Lubezki the right man for the job?

Let’s face it, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the creation of the universe depicted on film. But we wanted to reframe it, and tell it in a (hopefully) fresh way. We knew that an epic story required a director with an eye for stunning visuals but we also wanted to work with someone that would push the visuals in a new and exciting direction. A creative force in their own right. We’re obviously huge fans of Chivo’s cinematography [having worked on The Revenant, Birdman & Gravity to name a few], he’s a genuine artist, the absolute master of his craft.

What we loved about Juliette Lewis was that she just has this natural, laidback character to her voice, with just a hint of rock star, night owl edge.

He approached this film like an art project, and was totally obsessed with getting each and every one of the 100+ shots just right. The thing we loved most in his treatment was the idea of creating a sense of propulsion through the entire film; to give the feeling that the camera is anchored to a piece of debris from the initial Big Bang explosion, hurtling through time at a billion years a second. It was an ambitious, exciting way of approaching the script. Chivo’s history of working with Framestore on the movie Gravity was also a bonus. We knew that this would be a huge mash-up of found footage, shots filmed by Chivo himself and CGI, so his post-production experience proved to be another brilliant string to his bow. He’s also a thoroughly lovely person to work with.

And at what point did you get Juliette Lewis on board with the project?

Again, we wanted something that would jar against the traditional way of telling the story of creation – which we saw as the Morgan Freeman-esque ‘voice of God’ voice. We didn’t want it to feel too worthy. What we loved about Juliette Lewis was that she just has this natural, laidback character to her voice, with just a hint of rock star, night owl edge. And again, she’s a living embodiment of creativity.

BBH Producer Victoria Keenan

What were the biggest challenges in bringing the spot to life? And how did you overcome these?

We were set with the task of documenting the creation of the universe in a fresh way - so the entire production was a challenge! Once we had teamed up with Chivo it took us a couple of months of R&D to settle on our exact approach - that being a film made up of stock footage, CG and live action shot footage. And, all of those elements would need to be affected in post-production to achieve our z-axis technique. We needed a coherent plan to manage the curation of all of these elements.

For stock footage we had researchers in London, LA, NY and Australia sourcing as much stock as we could get our hands on. Simply going to large stock footage libraries was not going to cut it, we needed the best of the best. We were in touch with independent filmmakers and other unusual sources. Framestore came on board from a post-production POV to start work on the CG elements - the big bang, proto earth and cell formation. They also undertook much testing and development on the z-axis technique.

The elements we decided to shoot were constantly changing in regard to what stock footage we sourced and how the CG developed. The entire project had many moving parts, it wasn't until the late stages of post-production that it felt like it all suddenly fitted into place.

How long did production take? And where was it mainly shot?

The entire production process, from sourcing a director to supplying the film, was nine months. We shot in London and Spain. Post production was done in New York. 

The Director Studio MD Jody Winterbottom

What was the research process like? I know there’s over 100 shots included in the piece… 

The research and clearance process was one of the most challenging briefs we’ve worked on in terms of the content and composition of each shot but also in terms of meeting Chivo’s vision and that of BBH’s creatives. Focussing on the minutiae of the actual content as well as the framing, lighting and movement within each shot, whilst also retaining the overview of how the eventual piece would look, was integral to an intense search process. In addition to working within these creatively stringent parameters, we still had to ensure that we could eventually licence and clear the content put forward. We enjoyed working under this strict creative direction though because the end result is an outstanding film and a fantastic example of what can be achieved with sourced content.

How difficult was it to get all footage cleared and were there any clips that were particularly challenging to get hold of? 

In one sense, every shot was a challenge because the creative bar had been set so high! But finding footage that authentically represented the creative development of modern man in the era before cameras were invented also proved difficult.