Have you experienced the Secret Cinema? Walked with Lord Vader? Laughed at the Smoking Caterpillar? If not, why not? In 2019 creative immersion was eyeball to eyeball with VR and AR. As always, don’t believe me, check out The Immersive Design summit and The VR Awards for a view of this year’s winners.

But what exactly is an immersive experience?

Similar to VR, but without the headset, immersion uses all four senses to create an emotive experience. Also known as 4D, with roots in the theatre, this emerging genre is rapidly becoming a serious alternative for advertisers and their brands, especially in the land of Pharma’ where pushing boundaries for non-branded and branded is a must.

My 2019 involvement with immersion came with See Below and judging by it’s global list of awards, it’s already a big hit. So exactly how do you make a multi-award winning 4D gem?

First: the brief.

The idea was to create a film for congress, challenging dermatologists to change the way they treated the highly emotive subject of atopic dermatitis. The brief was finding a way to bring the subject to life in an informative but entertaining format. To get the audience involved.

Second: The Team.

Continuing my relationship with an award winning healthcare agency Havas Lynx, creative Director Phil Howells, partner Jamie Axford and Maker we produced a believable patient film based around great casting and an engaging human performance. But here’s the twist…

Third: Technical challenges.

The wrap around screen was in fact a number of screens, all needing to be synced to play simultaneously to produce the desired immersive effect. The floor and ceiling were also screens. Content needed to be shot under and over water with multiply performers, a central protagonist and children. At one stage in pre-production there was a joke about adding an animal, just to complete the technical difficulties. Hell, we’d swam with sharks, why not!

Shot in a single day at an outside location in the UK we combined underwater specialists such as Mark Silk - who’s been trapped 47 meters down for as long as I’ve known him (we first met on a beach in Cornwall during the filming of Blue Juice) - with the production skills of James Wilson and Luke Toyne from Maker.

Fourth: The environment.

The final live action film was artfully combined with two other animations (not produced by us) to form the centrepiece of a booth, styled as a wood panelled Manhattan apartment elevator, inside which were seven 98” screens, Sound design, scene triggered temperature and aroma changes created an immersive experience - and even had a bellhop on hand to usher delegates in.

Fifth: An award winning effect.

The Communiqué judges commented: “In a sea of ordinary conference stands, the See Below campaign really stands out. It was able to grab people from the minute they walked out of the Metro to the congress. It felt different, new and fresh and it also succeeded in achieving long term engagement, an outstanding project.

And if you fancy something a little more festive why not check out an immersive Christmas show. Then, although I’m very excited by the BBC’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol, I’m not sure I want to have dinner with Scrooge… Have a great Festive Season and see you all in 2020.

Not so long ago, in a land far far away, screens were square. Only the richest and wisest could afford glorious widescreen. Now, with the flick of a switch, the world can be transformed into 2:3! But is all content truly cinematic?

It’s a word used a lot in treatments. Guarantees from writers and directors of epic visions, full of scope and drama.  Even inanimate pack shots are often labelled “cinematic”. But for those of us behind the lenses we know, not all content is born in ratio. Despite the fashion for slapping bars top and bottom of a 16:9 frame, shooting truly widescreen films needs serious consideration.

So what does it take to make your content truly cinematic?

START WITH THE SCRIPT

Watch the creative team behind JOKER and you’ll hear words such as “mood”, “tone” and “isolation”. Creating a truly cinematic style starts with emotion, atmosphere and visceral impact. It’s also not all about the look, often more the feel – the sound of tricycle wheels leaving carpet to impact on the hard wood of the Overlook’s legendary floor is the perfect description of cinematic.

KNOW YOUR WORKFLOW

Looks often go beyond sensor size. Cinema look-up tables created for cameras such as the Canon 5D have proved premium images at affordable prices. Used underwater for The Attack it proves you don’t have to have anamorphic lens and endless out of focus lights to produce a stunning moving image.  

Thanks to digital development, cinematic looks can be created well before you shoot with a great grader and a well planned workflow.  My friend and colleague - Basil Stephens at Annex Films created a beautiful film for Lush using a Sony A7s MkII with cine adapted Leica R series lenses and the talent of Tim Smith at Cheat who created a bespoke LUT before a single pixel was captured. (Cheat also graded The Attack and The Engine. Just saying)

CHOOSE YOUR CREW

As we’ve already established, your crew is your lifeblood and not just the DOP. Art department, costume, and sound can all make a big difference in the way a shot, a scene and a film comes across. Where would “A Quiet Place” be without sound design, “Edward Scissor Hands” without costume and “The Great Beauty” without Rome. Our very talented crew, lead my long time collaborator Cliff Evans, prove what can be created on non-Hollywood budgets.

FORGET THE BOKEH

In recent years cinematic has come to mean short depth of field, out of focus highlights and background sparkle. Often it’s not a decision, more the result of a technological byproduct of using certain equipment. The hardest look to achieve, is comedy. Films with wide-open brightly lit scenes are harder to achieve than shooting a night scene. (Maybe not) Of course the mastery of Roger Deakins can make even “clean simple” reverse shots amazing and let’s not forget the performance driven style of Jean Yves Escoffier with his passion for Kino Flows. 

IF THE BUDGET ALLOWS GO ANAMORPHIC

Ok, hand up, nothing replaces an anamorphic lens, don’t take my word, listen to Mrs Richardson + Tarrantino.  From the soft caress of old school Panavision to the newer sharper Hawk, anamorphics have a unique look and feel. They make you shoot wide, deal in the moment and focuses the eye on the very part of the image the audience should be watching, and there in, lies the rub – anamorphic lenses need your full attention. If there’s something not quite right at the edge, the lens will see it. Not enough light, the lens knows. They’re the all-seeing-eye and, if you fail, Sauron knows.

Which is not the reason we didn’t use them on this latest film we just (don’t tell anyone) couldn’t afford them. But I think the team did a pretty good job of making this latest piece of digital content look pretty, cinematic. Oh and streak filters, they’re pretty effective.

No, this is not a personal training blog. We are not about to join the leather-skinned octogenarians jogging along the Croisette. But it seems 2019 could be a stellar year for health and wellbeing - over 60% of the Innovations + Glass Lions shortlists targeting healthcare issues:  

Pr week Shortlist

As a director, I’m relatively new to H+W, having hit the jackpot in 2018 with Havas Lynx’s The Attack. Hailed as a ‘new cinematic genre in pharma comms” the film went on to win numerous awards including Clio Health. Will this year’s entrant - The Engine – be victorious and who are the front runners for the 2019 Cannes Lions?

Even though, back in 2018 I said “be afraid, be very afraid”, I just can’t keep away from La Mer. So when my colleagues at Maker and Cannes Healthcare agency of the year came calling I forgot the tears and heartbreak of life on the open ocean and started singing…  “Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so never more shall we see you again.”

Unlike Quinn, this time, we had a bigger boat. The bad news, it was a Trawler. For you who’ve never set foot on Brixham’s most famous export imagine the bastard child of Water World and Mad Max Beyond the Thunder Dome. Only Master Blaster would love this beast. There are more lethal weapons in the hold of this ship than the basement of John Wick’s house.

Th Engine made The Attack look like a rehearsal: we had to be at sea, at night, in bad weather, with a limited crew, and a drone. Just pick any of the words in that last sentence and you’ve got a disaster waiting to happen. But that’s the thing about shooting for the world of Health and Wellbeing - the shoot is the easy part. Here’s my guide to winning in a world of rules and regulations:

No1: Listen, listen and then listen again

Not all briefs are created equal. If you thought scripts take time to approve, you’ve ain’t seen nothing yet. In the health industry, before you see a single word, there’s been A LOT of conversations. As a director you have to listen to everybody. There’s a lot of detail. For those directors who work on the auteur rule of a “single vision”, health is not for you.

N2: Learn to be patient.

As a surfer I know the meaning of patience. I’ve sat in cold grey car parks for days waiting for a few lines of corduroy. Working in health and wellbeing needs patience and you need to be ready to accept changes because, like the ocean, it’s going to go off!

N3: Work within the budget.

In 2019 there are no reshoots. Whether swimming with sharks or mounting killer cranes it’s all about bringing home the catch on time and on budget. Plan, plan and plan again.

N4: Be Brave  

Committees don’t rally the troops. Sometimes you have to ignore the detail and look at the bigger picture. You need to listen, but also learn the difference between politics and detail. If you follow the shoal you could end up in the shallows, or worst still, in a Brexit style deadlock.

N5: Remember your crew

As the mighty Quinn found out, you need a crew. A good production company, a great agency and a strong thoughtful creative director. If everyone isn’t working together the doubts will set in and you’re be walking the auteur gangplank with not even a parrot for support.

So who will win? Check out some of this year’s great entrants to see what’s blowing in the breeze:

Impossible Operation

See Sound

The Overdose Stopper

The Puck

Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) -  "The Gun Violence History Book’: 

And if you’re in town next week give me a shout – I’ll be the one jogging with the octogenarians or swimming with sharks, depending on the weather or the Lion’s roar…