VILKA AGENCY

Commercial for HR campaign of Coca-Cola HBC Russia

Being a sales representative is more than a job, it's a lifestyle!
What motivates us to work? Everyone has their own answer.
But there is one thing that will make anyone fall in love with their job. That is if your work spreads your wings, and you literally can't stop. This was exactly the idea we had for the Coca-Cola HBC Russia HR campaign. We will now reveal almost all the secrets of creating the clip.

PRE-PRODUCTION

At the preproduction stage, when developing the creative and presenting the concept to the client, two things were key: dynamics and changes.

These reflect both the Coca-Cola brand itself and the task at hand, that is, to vividly show the role of the company's sales representative.

Based on these principles, the Agency developed a scenario plan to fully implement them.

According to the plot, we see the characters' mini-stories, shown through parallel editing. Characters are in dynamics. As if playing, they change the world, bringing color to it. And they do it while working!

PRODUCTION

According to a number of focus group participants, while watching the clip, they forgot to breathe and their mouths fell open. We won't exaggerate and say it's because of unprecedentedly breathtaking filming (although some things can make your head spin). Dynamic camera, tight editing, and an intense plot wrapped the viewer like a sea breeze on an August pier. The clip grabs the attention, you wouldn't want to miss a thing, and would want to watch it over again.

But let's get back to the point — the mystery of creation. To the production. At this stage, the team faced massive challenges with subtle nuances:

  1. To make dynamic scenes, but not to drive the viewer to a seizure.
  2. To shoot with drive, but maintain high image quality.
  3. To embody different styles in a single artistic space.

And we did it. And here's how.

Seen closely, most of the dynamic scenes and shots are a credit to post-production, namely, editing. That is, the operator was not always running around or sliding on the dolly.
Of course, there were some really actionable shots as well. It was with joy and fun that we filmed them on the set, and they seem to be the ones that are especially memorable: the characters' runs or the poster's spread.
Despite the goal of embodying dynamics, this video was not meant to be a promo for a rugby team. Therefore, our operator did not use real action cameras. First, they "break" the image, revealing the "fish eye". Second, the image quality does not meet the objectives set for commercials. We imitated the action-camera effect using the operator's extensive experience with the Steadicam.

POST-PRODUCTION

So, we've already mentioned editing a few times, and it does matter in this video.

In it, we used techniques such as kaleidoscope-style transitions. It's when the action mechanics in one frame seem to continue into the next.
Or when the object's move from one scene is picked up by another object in the next episode.
Along with editing, the graphic elements were just as important. We tried to adequately integrate them into the clip in terms of quantity and intension. On the one hand, there had to be just enough of them to create bright elements emphasizing the images of the Coca-Cola brand. On the other hand, they should not have drawn the audience's attention away from the dramatic line.
Thus, we chose a style close to "infographics", namely, graphic elements similar to video games. This refrain helped reach a wider audience, the teens, for the video. It is not yet a direct target audience for the product, but it may become one soon. By the way, the principles and style of the video game were built into the plot. Our heroes were driven by competition from the very beginning.

As the music background, we chose a catchy and driving vocal track with a positive Brit-pop kick.

INSTEAD OF THE AFTERWORD

Remember where we started? We began with the question: "What motivates us to work?". Do you remember the answer?

For our Agency, VILKA, the answer is not just a vivid metaphor born from creativity for the specific task by a particular brand. It is also our principle.

We understand we are professionals and belong in our place, as what we do does spread our wings! It always does. And here's how it happened on the set:
Film crew:
Coca-Cola HBC Russia: Ekaterina Puzankova
Director and Creative: Ivan Ustinov
Producer: Anton Kuznetsov
Camera operator: Dmitry Strashkov
Starring Yaroslava Brik, Vyacheslav Morozov
Film editing: Denis Smirnov