To help promote the new Lloyds Bank brand campaign, adam&eveDDB recruited The Mill’s expert VFX team to create a bold and vivid image of the brand’s iconic black horse, following its return in last year’s 250 anniversary, this time galloping in slow motion through scenes that capture some of life’s most significant moments.

Set across a variety of locations, from a maternity ward, to a proposal on a busy street, and to the moving soundtrack  ‘Mad World;' the 60 second film transports viewers though life’s special moments, which are shot in super slow-motion, allowing the viewer to really connect to the stories being told.

At the end of the film, each of the scenes then returns to real time as we see each step unfold, echoing the strapline ‘For Your Next Step’ showing how Lloyds Bank gives financial confidence to its customers as they approach their next steps in life.

Creative Director and Shoot Supervisor Jonathan ‘Wes’ Westley comments; “The job was very technical in having to calculate what frame rate the horse looked good at versus the speed of travel of the camera. We also had to rebuild elements to go back on over the horse, including rain, glitter and rebuilding foreground people.

To keep the lighting consistent, the horse was also shot in each location separate from the plates that contained the actors. Our job was to then seamlessly composite the horse into the plates featuring the rest of the story.

The end result looks deceptively simple, which is a complement to the work of The Mill’s VFX team. Sam had spoken about us viewing the horse almost subliminally throughout the ad, allowing the viewer to be drawn into the key action of each scene. This was absolutely achieved in a novel way, which conveyed the emotion at the heart of the emotive life-journey spot.”

Head of Colour, Seamus O’Kane comments; “The enjoyable paradox gained studying the slowed motion detail, which is contrasting with the growing sense of pace, allows this spot to fascinate and delight in equal measure. 

The technical challenges of the shoot and post are negated by the stunning images of the result and the naturalness of its presentation.

We used the structured grade sessions to treat the footage with a gentle palette of normality that became more intense as the shots developed. However the intention was always to keep the images firmly rooted in the original photography and allow their spectacle to grip the viewer. The balance was to find these necessary qualities within the technical lighting requirements of such high speed capture. 

Maximising on our developed workflows we were able to grade at any point in the process and thereby keep the Director and Clients fully aware of the progress towards the finished film and the stunning images therein."

Mat Goff, Managing Director at adam&eveDDB, says: “Having taken a look back through history in the 250 campaign, we are now looking forward to showing how Lloyds Bank can help give their customers confidence to take their next step whether that’s a planned, unforseen, happy or a challenging one.”