The Mill, in collaboration with Tribal Worldwide London, adam&eveDDB and Director Saam Farahmand out of Rogue films created this stunning spot for the T.O by Lipton tea machine, entitled ‘The Revolution in Tea.’
As well as the machine’s technical innovations, the way it looks and the aromas it creates are a vital part of the product design, creating a multisensory experience. The film continues the emphasis on these qualities by heightening the visual drama: the performers’ colourful costumes had rigging inside them, which released dye and streams of bubbles in the water, effects that were captured in-camera.
The cutting edge filming techniques perfectly align with the product – fast moving cameras and live underwater filming help produce a captivating and dynamic film.
A thirty-five strong team at The Mill worked to give the greatest clarity to Farahmand’s vision in this otherworldly spot, ensuring that the look was entirely seamless from start to finish. Producer Justin Stiebel describes how, “The VFX team modelled each of the 8 actors in CG so that the underwater performances could be accurately recreated in every shot. Sixty-two unique fluid simulations were created during the project, the largest of which contained over 1.5 billion particles.”
Creative Director Wes comments on the process of creating the spot, “There were a number of challenges to address in this project, from the surreal upside down opening shot to the body of the commercial requiring the performers to be shot underwater (a challenge both for production and for post). By shooting as much as possible in camera enabled everyone to come away from the shoot with a clear idea as to what the end result would be. Saam shot some of the scenes with coloured fluids in the water and these make up the opening underwater shots. Tom Raynor and the 3D team then referenced these when building the particle simulations for the other more complex shots. This is a time consuming process and it is a credit to Saam, the creative team at Tribal Worldwide London and the Lipton’s client that they allowed us the time to craft the look for each of the flavours before we presented anything to them. Thankfully they were blown away by what they saw.”