Nice work from Living Projects. The images are all genuine shots of the living city and the bubbles were created by the unstoppable 'Krazybubbler', Emil of performance artists Banialuki.
Great to see another tourist board thinking a bit more laterally.
The Seychelles Islands are scattered over hundreds of miles of the Indian Ocean and were uninhabited until some pirates turned up in the 17th century. Apparently they came from the Caribbean which may explain why the locals have a fondness for dreadlocks and believe the late Emperor of Ethiopia is god incarnate.
In a rare example of live action, we persuaded some of them to help us make this spot early one morning on the tiny but occasionally bustling island of La Digue. If you look very carefully, you may discover how to encourage an ox to pull a cart uphill. And if you can't quite make it out, drop me a line and I'll tell you.
Of course with jobs like these, there's usually a catch.
In this case it was a simple one. There was no money. Not 'no money' in an absolute sense, but certainly in an advertising sense - £16,000. Not enough to produce a single commercial in the UK, let alone a dozen. And certainly not on 35mm film, which is what I wanted to use.
Fortunately at that point there were no scripts either. So we made a rule. Every film would consist of a single shot. And every film had to capture the sense of remoteness, peace and relaxation that we all hope to find in an exotic, far off destination. In the middle of the fast-cutting, pump up the volume, this week only chaos of a typical commercial break, they would be a sea of tranquillity, an oasis of calm.
You can wait all your life for a script to come along that begins with the words "We open on a tropical beach...". And then along come a dozen at the same time.
This is one from the campaign written by Lucas Wild that I produced & directed for The Union who are part of the Worldwide Partners network. It's currently running on CNN Europe (who still transmit in 4:3, which is why it's in this charmingly nostalgic letterbox format).
My favourite job of the last few years has been shooting campaigns for VisitScotland with a small documentary crew led by Paul Herley as DOP. We've made three campaigns so far, of which this was the second, shot in 2005 and screened on cinema and TV in 2006.
Derrick was our focus puller in the Seychelles - he's also beginning to operate and light his own work in London. This is just a small selection of shots he took while we were over in the Seychelles.
