Commercials unlimited - Case Study and Updates

Prior to affiliating with Commercials Unlimited, Laurie's work in the last 5 years has included commercials for brands such as AOL, The Daily Telegraph, Telefonica, Samsung Sony Playstation and Gordons Gin as well as non commercial projects including a Victimas del Terorismo commercial (Association for the Victims of Terrorism) featured below.

His experience in advertising began during a six year stint at BMPDDB where above all, the importance of good ideas was given pride of place. Whilst trying not to cultivate any particular style, Laurie aims to introduce an element of 'humanity' into every script. .

Whether it is humour or drama, dialogue or special effects, Laurie's approach is always to try and make an emotional impact by connecting to a real human emotion. Born in Spain and brought up in the UK by parents with Italian, Spanish and French roots, Laurie now divides his time between London & Madrid.

Laurie is no stranger to working in diverse markets, having shot in Kenya, Moscow, Dubai, Bulgaria, Prague, Athens, Madrid and London during the last year alone.

NB: This month's Case Study shows work directed by Laurie prior to his association with Commercials Unlimited.



	Product: Sunday Telegraph Title: Football Director: Laurie Castelli Director’s Comment "Being The Telegraph, this commercial was designed to promote its coverage of football in a less 'laddish' tone than one normally sees on TV. The idea was to give the impression of the camera happening to stumble upon people as they enjoy their own private 'football moment'.	Click here to view




	The ad features several situations, including offices, a kitchen, a canteen, a car-park etc. On a limited budget (£35,000 E49,000) the problem was how to fit a number of locations in to a very tight shooting schedule. The solution was to shoot the whole commercial at Shepperton Studios - not the stages, but throughout their complex of other buildings and facilities! Once we had made that decision, it was a question of adapting the scenes to fit the locations we could find." Laurie Castelli. Click here to view the full Showreel*



	Product : Victimas del Terorismo (Association for the Victims of Terrorism) Title: Victimas del Terorismo Director : Laurie Castelli Directors Comment "Even before the Al Qaeda train massacre in Madrid, Spain had lost nearly 1000 victims at the hands of the Basque separatist movement (ETA), and this piece was commissioned to commemorate the lives of those who have been killed. Given the sensitive nature of the subject, not to mention the tiny budget, the whole production was moved from Madrid to Sofia in Bulgaria. By avoiding specific signs or indicators, all the locations pass as Spanish for the purposes of the film.	Click here to view the commercial




	The 1 minute piece was shot on Super 16mm over a period of 4 days, often moving location 3 times in each day. All the cast are Bulgarian; but the names written on their foreheads are the authentic names of some of the many people whose lives are being commemorated." Click here to view the full Showreel*

The Case Studies for April and May will focus on the launch of two Directors who are new to Commercials Unlimited. As you may not be familiar with their work, I have asked them to write a couple of case studies. Next month - Laurie Castelli

Director - Chris Beckles Chris has been directing since 1997; after a career as a competitive semi-contact kick boxer (with a European title under his belt) Chris graduated from Liverpool with a degree in graphics and went on to Watford College and a post grad diploma in advertising. Chris worked at some of London principle agencies as an Art Director but after ten years it was time for a change; this change was to directing full time.

He was nominated at both the BBC Short Film Festival and Cannes for his film ‘GOD’ and thereafter he shot a series of test commercials culminating in commercials for Equal Opportunities and Weetabix for Lowe’s. In 2001, Chris was invited by Trevor Beattie to be on the jury for the British Television Advertising Awards and after a year or so, set up his own production company ‘Aurora’ to develop commercials and film projects. A feature is currently being discussed with Channel 4 and for the past year Chris has been working extensively in Asia shooting commercials for Lowe Lintas and JWT Amsterdam.



	Product: Freeport Lisbon 'Designer outlet Title: Giant Director: Chris Beckles Directors Comment The script called for several good looking giants walking through the streets of Lisbon. The plate shots was to be shot over two days, with the final studio day in London. Although the fixers in Portugal had done a great job, when the day came the lighting had changed, so chris had to rethink the look. He opted for shooting into the sun to add drama and a whole different style.	Click here to view the commercial




	"This meant that most of the locations had to change leaving the only option of shooting guerrilla style which was exciting yet nerve racking. The post guys from Absolute co-ordinated our 50/50 overlays for the CGI but halfway through matching the plate shots the studio flooded! Coping with bad weather is par to the course but not usually INSIDE the studio. The technical aspects were extremely tricky and I love effects but only when they are subtle and treated with care. The crew had to constantly think about scale, movement, film speed etc. and our plate shots were so good, the pressure was on to match everything with the live action. The difficulty was in creating the right backgrounds for our giants to look natural; the last thing wanted was it looking like 'The Attack of the 50 ft Woman'." Chris Beckles *Click here to view the full Showreel****



	Product : Indian Tourism Board Title: Indian Summer Director: Chris Beckles DOP: Angus Hudson Directors comment: "This commercial ran as a generic promotional piece on flights and conferences worldwide for the Indian Tourism Board. Its aim was to promote a view of India that travelers and holiday makers would find both surprising and intoxicating i.e. not just the Taj Mahal. The client wanted to really focus on the flag throughout and weave the narrative around it.	Click here to view




	The actors were all street cast locals cast just a few days before each location shoot. The weather was very unpredictable with dust storms and flash floods but with a huge and experienced 'Bollywood' film crew to hand, there was always someone who knew how to swiftly get things moving again. This was by far the most challenging shoot I've ever worked on. The crew was amazing; no shot was too big or too difficult and without their positive attitude, many of the dream shots I'd envisaged would have fallen by the wayside. This is really their film. Chris Beckles. Click here to view the full Showreel NB:* This month's Case Study shows work directed by Chris prior to his association with Commercials Unlimited. We hope that before very long this extremely satisfactory alliance will produce work that we can equally be proud of!

March 2005 - £200,000 - £250,000

Product : Toyota F1 Team
Title: F1 Team
Director: Paul Henman

This commercial was for a campaign to promote Toyota’s own Formula One Team web site for fans of the team. It ran at on Eurosport. The shoot took place over a week at the Paul Rickard Circuit in southern France, the test track home of Toyota’s racing team.

The footage for this spot was shot as part of a much bigger project to supply racing footage and promotional films of the seasons new cars and drivers for both Toyota an