Loki Creates An Entertaining Night At The Fairground For Nikon UK Campaign

Loki, a company which makes films for major brands including The Independent, Saab, Mizuno and Sony Playstation, has just completed a new TV campaign for Nikon Coolpix which is airing on all major terrestrial, satellite and cable channels now.
The 30 second spot was directed by Phil Taylor (Dedicated/Tennants, Tomb Raider on Wii/Eidos, Beckham The Game/Sony Playstation) and is Nikon UK's first TV campaign in five years. The result is a highly stylised piece achieved with a two day shoot at a purpose built fairground and time lapse sequences shot with a Nikon D3 stills camera.
The brief was to portray a fun experience that people could relate to, in a challenging photographic environment to show the technically innovative brand heritage of Nikon. Particular technical benefits that had to be highlighted in the ad were Vibration Reduction, Face Recognition and Auto Exposure. Shot on two 35mm cameras with uncoated lenses to create a photographic look, the ad shows a group of friends on a waltzer at a typically bustling, whirring fairground. The casting of expressive character actors rather than models create the sense of a familiar experience and the shoot was wet down to make it look like a British rainy evening.
To create the time lapse sequence at the beginning with the Nikon D3 cameras the production team used continuous sequences of long exposure (generally one second) still images. As well as adding to the overall stylised and distinctive look o the project, using the stills cameras created additional camera positions especially at the dusk period of the shoot.
The ad also used spectacular special effects with fibre-optic lenses to probe the internal workings of the Coolpix. All graphics were created by Loki's Leo Marcantonio (formerly Lost In Space) and he used a combination of packages to integrate all the live action shots and titles. As Loki has its own edit suites, the offline was done at its Berwick Street offices by a long time collaborator of Taylor's Rob Featherstone. Taylor worked closely with Featherstone to create a fast edit with careful compositions and a hard cut.
The grade was performed at Rushes by Adrian Seery and all finishing at Absolute by Pete Smith. The audio was done at Bent Ear, a Manchester based company, which worked from Loki's suites for the project. Loki also created a 'Making of...' film of the ad, which was used to drive pre-sales of the camera with retailers. A HD version of the ad was also delivered.
Further information is available at: www.lokiltd.com.
(KMcA)