WITH THIS NOS I WILL
D I R E C T O R S T R E AT M E N T B Y R YA N H O P E
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INTRODUCTION Our last commercial was all about creating a kick ass visual with a message. Go out and live it to the max, don’t hold back because you only live once. This time round we have the same epic core message but we’re not restricted to one main visual idea. It’s a whole feast visually and that’s fully what I intend this film to be. When I was first sent this script I had to read it twice. Seriously. Not because I didn’t understand what was going on but because I wanted to enjoy it again. …and that’s exactly the feeling we need to be leaving people with when they watch it. Blisteringly impactful and with true film craft unheard of in the energy drinks market, here is my cinematic take on this incredible script.
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CONCEPT The concept of this film is simple. It’s a 30’ piece where we see as many people as we can, who embody the brand manifesto in different ways. As with all good ideas – it’s about being simple. Where it’s complex is in its execution (grins / NOS). I just need to guide you guys through a things before we go into the ‘what happens’ in to explain why I’ve designed it in the way that I
pops open a few technical the film. Just have.
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MOTION CONTROL In our last film together we spoke a lot about brand positioning and the voice of the brand, so I clearly know the direction you guys were and now have headed. That’s why I feel using a motion control camera is so impor tant. Shooting motion control is the only way you guys are going to achieve the truly cinematic effect I know you are looking for. To have your glitch edit, epic post, cinematic feel and to make this a unique piece of work that is like no other, then it has to be motion control. Doing it any other way is going to compromise one of those elements for sure.
It’s a very sophisticated technique that will give a slick, solid, fluid yet dynamic camera move that can be repeated many times to give our post team (MPC) the per fect elements to knit this together. As if our character was actually glitching to different characters, there and then right in the same moment, in a single take. The effect will be incredible and this is what will make this script truly special.
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THE CAST Why do we want them to all appear in the same moment though you ask? Well I just think this script deserves to feel very por trait driven. Ever since it came my way it was my feeling. It’s the characters that are going to represent the brand not their locations. So I’d much rather have a volume of characters than I would have less characters but see their locations – as this just won’t give us the supreme edit we need. We wanna really feel the determination / focus / grit / beauty / coolness of our amazing cast. If we have a changing background or feel like we’re in a different place at the pace we’re talking about, glitching will just feel messy to me and take the power out of the idea.
What will feel 100% more wow visually is if our glitched characters and their action is happening in the same moment as we move around them.
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This film will live or die on its casting; each of our actors should look visually stunning but also have their own unique style and character. We’re not just talking your average acting Joe here, we’re talking piercings, tattoos, muscles, scars, super chiselled features, striking dudes, hot girls - people who generally live it to the max. Despite screen time each character needs to properly matter, no fillers here. Just super cinematic, stand out people aged 14 – 50. I’d recommend a street cast for sure along with normal routes to ensure we find some absolutely KILLER guys and girls. There’s always something pretty special about finding the real life people.
In my experience it adds those extra authentic touches to a per formance and pushes a film out of “Ad land” into something that feels way more memorable/hard hitting. That said this is by NO means documentary. As a whole our cast should feel like an elevated version of reality - slick, considered, cool and definitely pretty nuts. This guy could be great for our boxer. This to me is tonally right as a NOS cast member.
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THE FILM
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I have to say that I really want to stay quite close to the script in terms of what happens. I just really dig it as it is! I have a few changes in there but it was more the technique I really felt strongly about. Anyway – here is how I see it. VO : “With This Nos I Will” The film star ts super tight on our can of NOS. It stays in exactly the same position as we see the hands begin to glitch, immediately we quickly pull out revealing 7 or 8 characters at rapid pace – moving up to the face area where we’re greeted with our first ‘pause’ of glitching. VO: “Wake up and tear today to shreds”
It’s a hot young, skinny, tough looking 20’something year old with tattoos and an attitude. He looks into the camera as he turns and runs for the door but in a power ful glitch someone runs through him - it’s our next character who takes a leap towards the swirling camera, where BOOM we glitch to a sky diver hovering in mid air. His face pummelled by the roaring wind. The scene looks amazing as all this has happened while still in our original location!
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VO: “Focused, fired up and fearless – I am ready” All of a sudden we glitch and our guy crashes into the concrete as a stunt man, he rolls to the left, the camera whip pans with him. As soon as we’ve turned it’s a glitch again as an MMA tussle has reached its climax, one guy is slammed into the floor. We hear the crunch – its fierce! As the winner rises up above the guy on the floor the camera punches in the shape of the two fighters, then ZAP they glitch per fectly into a motorcycle driver, as he swirls his dir t bike back wheel towards the encroaching lens on a slightly low angle (this has to be slow a second it’ll look incredible). Soon he’s riding towards us as we glitch to a few rapid characters, who we hardly make out before landing onto a concrete statue. VO: “Ready to smash the world with a sledgehammer” We see a sledgehammer come crashing through the concrete figure, dust flying everywhere as a dockyard worker is glitched in sweating profusely as he rises for another swing, then glitching to a golfer taking a swing then a baseball player, all in the same rapid motion.
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VO: “No looking back. No holding back. And absolutely no regrets. Just me and the open earth.” We move rapidly into the final par t of film now, where the camera has stopped moving so dynamically and slowly moves in as the glitch is going hyper speed and getting a little trippier. Different textures, grades and post touches are now evident in our flash frames as the whole thing looks like its gonna explode, the music crescendos too. We can only just make things out like the rocker crashing his guitar into the floor, a boxer punching a punch bag, a man skipping, a dancer dancing, a skeleton that looks like an X-Ray, a pitcher pitching, a basketball player leaping, a pilot with goggles and mask, a swat team member getting ready – all of these pulsing as we move in close…. VO: “And a 16OZ can of kick ass”. …We’re full circle back at our original guy now who looked at the camera in the beginning. He stares into the lens and takes a swig. TITLE: YOU ONLY LIVE NOS. (When I say rapid edit for the end – check out the cut in this clip from 45 – 60 – but in our cinematic environment with our characters).
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L O C AT I O N I think finding an actual location and moving this out of a studio environment is absolutely key. It’s just gonna feel so much more unexpected and trippy with all this going on somewhere authentic rather than somewhere ar tificial. People will instantly lock in to our world and be in awe of how we executed it. In a studio it will feel more like a special FX test and we’ll definitely lose our shock factor/ visual impact.
neutral, ex industrial space that’s got a bit of a derelict vibe. Like it had been left untouched for years. Dusty, weathered and real – it should feel a bit menacing, a bit hostile. I love the idea of wonky vents hanging from the ceiling with a couple of flickering old broken lights in the background. Shooting in this kind of environment will add a real filmic edge to the spot and in turn some context.
I feel for the location itself, the basement in Fight Club is an awesome reference. Essentially we should be looking for a
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STYLING The styling in the film needs to be truly cinematic. Like we’re styling for a David Fincher movie. Everyone should have a realism about them but the clothes should really spell out their character in a cinematic way. We’ll have such an array of amazing costumes, in a way it has to be totally right. I don’t want it to FEEL costume though, let that be clear. It should have a somewhat dusty, real and cool feel.
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THE GRADE As a whole the grade should look super cinematic. Referencing films like Rock N Rolla and Fight Club for their stylized warmth and pushed highlights. These kinds of films are a good star ting point because the content is gritty but visually it looks 100 per cent slick, this is absolutely where we need to be heading if the tone is to sit right. I’d use grading not only to make our film look stunning but also as a creative tool. Different glitch moments should be punctuated by a shift in colour and texture. For example, if we think a cer tain character looks par ticularly awesome, we can use the grade to separate them from the pack and give their moment that extra bit of impact. On the whole though we’ll have a very cohesive look to the whole piece.
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THE EDIT Let’s talk about edit for a second just to reaffirm just how impor tant I see it being in this film. We all hear the term glitch edit a lot. It’s something that gets talked about a lot but rarely executed per fectly. In fact there are a lot of imitations. I want this glitch edit between our characters to star t a new dialogue of what a glitch edit actually even means. In the Barnaby Roper NY times reference I shared before that is so much more than an edit. Its actually much more post than edit. Its layers of textures and graphical fashion images that are rapid cut with incredible sound design.
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POST TOUCHES & SOUND DESIGN The general post on this film is as impor tant as the technical execution. The textures and glitches of our transitions need to work seamlessly together with out edit and sound. It’s not just an edit thing. Everything needs to sing together and be ridiculously slick and innovative in our techniques. I’ve been working with MPC this week on how we can do this and making ‘flash texture glitches’ of the skin and 3D outlines of our cast out of concrete, marble, metal, broken glass and sand will give these awesome and unique flash frames. They won’t be on screen to register long enough as weird – it’ll just feel very, very cool and visually it will be incredible.
As well as these organic textures having things in there like fire, water, 3D graphical lines, negative x ray imprints, par ticles and white noise will make this thing really dance as a truly innovative. I have only seen this technique employed in a locked off camera situation, ever. To do it the way we are doing it with Motion Control is completely new.
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SUMMARY I hope this has gone some way to give you a clear idea of how I see this film being totally impact. It’s rare that oppor tunities in adver tising come along that are so exciting. This technique of motion control is absolutely the right technique when you are looking to make something visually spectacular or a truly special piece of work. In a blistering 30’ of cinematic excellence this can be a truly special piece of work and one I’d love to work with you on once more. Please note that my suggestion of the film is simply my suggestion. There are definitely ways to develop this fur ther together and to add in a character or two we think is missing, or lose one that you guys feel isn’t working. As I hope you all know from last time, I am very much the collaborator. It’s the par t of my job I love the most. Thanks so much for thinking of me and I’m here to answer any questions of concerns. Best, Ryan
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GSP VERSION
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CONCEPT The GSP film will be executed exactly like it reads script wise in terms of content. The main feel with this should be very tight and intimate. It’s such an oppor tunity to shoot someone like GSP fighting up close and personal – I think this can be really exciting for sure. Extremely interesting crops and dynamic angles should really capture things as GSP fights his opponent in a way we have not seen too often. Really playing with frame rates and textures is definitely the way to go. I’d like to also use stock footage that is pre researched before we shoot and go into shooting this with a real plan in place on what we capture.
The reason for this is I want to shoot the shots that we are going to match to the other footage in a way that ‘matches’ the glitch. For example when GSP roars – I want his head to be on the same angle as the bear when it roars. Doing this search for stock footage BEFORE we shoot will help us execute much slicker rushes for our editor to cut with. I see the location of where we shoot him being exactly the same in feel and tone as where we shoot our brand film. The edit too should follow suit. It shouldn’t be one paced. It should pulse and go crazy, then hold for a second. Breathing. It should be totally arresting from a visual and audio perspective.
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THE FILM We open on a super tight, photographic por trait of GSP. He’s looking fierce, sweating, mentally preparing for a fight. Slowly jogging on the spot he pulls up a can of NOS to his lips and takes a swig.
VO: “Focused, fired up, and fearless I am ready.”
VO: “With this NOS I will, wake up, walk out and tear today to shreds”. We cut dynamically round to the back of his head to reveal an MMA ring. As he steps in we see him lean towards the camera and roars, then BOOM he glitches to a huge brown grizzly bear, giant teeth roaring right down the lens. This glitches in with a few different bears (Black, Brown, Polar) and the footage almost rips into each other.
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The fight begins. He lands a per fect roundhouse on his opponents face, our whole scene goes slowmo on impact, saliva spur ts through the air as we glitch to a baseball bat making contact with a ball in super slow motion followed by flash frames of 5 or 6 hits of a baseball bat into balls, car windscreens, concrete.
imagery is where we need to be on this. VO: “Ready to smash the world with a sledgehammer”.
VO: “A tough thriving, firing on all cylinders, home run big gun”. We zip back into real time as GSP lands three monster punches, we glitch to a 6 cylinder engine firing off it’s pistons – Bang, bang, bang. A killer visual to show our audience just how rapid this guy really is. Some super slow tight motion of a jet engine spinning should be sliced in too. I really think this multiple layering of
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VO: “Ready to smash the world with a sledgehammer”.
VO: “Just me, the open earth”
Our action calms as GSP moves to the back of the ring. Then suddenly, he launches into an EPIC super man punch that glitches mid air into a giant scorpion sting then a praying mantis arching back and a Doberman barking super tight of its whirring teeth and a chainsaw going.
“And 16 OZ of kick ass”. Our final shot is GSP towering over his defeated opponent, can of NOS in hand. As he takes a swig, he glitches to a massive black wolf with blood red eyes, howling in the night.
VO: “No looking back. No holding back, and absolutely no regrets”. That superman punch has floored our other fighter as GSP now goes for the elbow drop! As his body drops down, his arm glitches to a fat off jack hammer.
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