Sunday, November 25, 2012

Masterfoods Tomato Sauce


The opportunity arose to submit a last minute treatment for what was originally a typographical execution with a simple hand-with-pack shot to overlay.

I couldn't think of much to make a hand more exciting, so I expanded upon the brief a little, suggesting we go for a bit more depth, and instead of doing the headline typographically, I thought of using a stencil on a wooden crate. This would give the type the genuine wood texture.The crate has relevance also, as it further suggests the use of fresh produce, and provided a tactile third dimension for the shot.

The creative team loved the idea, and sold it to the client, who was reluctant at first but happy to put their faith in us.

I stuck to my guns in my efforts to keep it "in camera", and our stylist, Jan Edwards found beautiful crates and painted stencils of varying sizes to suit the layout. We took it a step further by shooting the sauce splats on acetate so that they could be positioned in camera and required minimal comping. It also allowed us to ensure the message was not lost.

Our hand model was a pro, and was able to fine tune the amount of squeeze distortion on the pack. I had mentioned in the treatment that the squeeze is part of the fun, and wanted to portray a bit of bottle throttle, but needles to say we pulled back to a firm hold which yielded a more acceptable label distortion.

The team were stoked with the result, as was the client. 


Monday, November 19, 2012

Synology Server

I'm happy to have finally invested in a high end NAS server as an additional archiving module and a system for clients to access their files should I not be available. I went with an 8 bay +Synology DS1812+, and that should serve my purposes very well. Here it be:

http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS1812%2B&lang=enu

David Stone at +DRevolution did the setup and I can wholeheartedly recommend his services as a super-techie.

The DSM web based interface rocks. This is dangerously geeky shit, I know, but you can't help getting excited about the potential of that much storage.