Cloud Nine: Beyond Words
for
Cloud Nine
With
Propaganda
Cloud Nine needed a statement film to launch a new brand awareness campaign, built around the visceral reaction generated by their “Revive Mode” hair straighteners the first time someone uses them. Working alongside Propaganda, we brought director Amy Becker-Burnett on board to make a statement piece with a striking fashion film aesthetic that truly embodies the campaign tagline: “Beyond Words”. The outcome was a 30-second TVC accompanied by a 10-second cutdown, with 1:1 and 4:5 social crops of both, all shot in a single day - oh, and a 60-second Director’s Cut just for fun!
The approach for this film was all about the hair, with a stripped back studio look to keep the focus on a stunning cast of eight diverse models. Showcasing a range of hair textures, we combined an 8K Ronin 4D cine camera with a vintage camcorder to capture a truly enormous bank of bold and beautiful model material, with at least one camera rolling almost constantly for the entire shoot day.
The brief called for a mix of surprised and delighted reactions to Cloud Nine’s “Revive Mode” straightener setting, blended with moments of carefree cool, fearless confidence and sheer joy. Amy directed the cast with an eye for honest and natural performance, looking for the cheeky shoulder shuffle, the knowing nod, the playful swish and twist of silky hair.
With hours of footage to work with, our editor had a huge playground to build from. We found a musical artist to compose a bespoke soundtrack for the film and then cut to the rhythm, building in pace in time with the music and leaning into the eclectic high-fashion style with split-screens, multi-tiles, light leaks and film frames. The colour grade followed suit - mixing editorial black-and-white with restrained pops and accents of colour.
We loved this one so much that we kept going after the final delivery. Once the hero 30-second TVC, 10-second cutdown and social crops were complete, Amy guided the edit for an alternate 60-second Director’s Cut, and even then a huge quantity of fantastic footage had to be left on the cutting room floor - enough to cut even more versions of the ad should Cloud Nine ever need one!
