The new Vodacom “Single Ladies” spot has been lapped up by viewers by all accounts. Part of Vodacom’s ‘Connect to Fame Campaign’, this tightly choreographed spoof of Beyonce’s smash hit video has been rocking the airwaves and racking up serious viewership numbers on the web.
The creatives behind the campaign are the Draft FCB team, headed up by Grant Jacobsen, and Ola Films! director Amy Allais. The same team worked on another hit Vodacom campaign, “The Internet is Maklik”.
The “Single Ladies” ad involved almost 100 artists, 150 extras, 21 different locations and truckloads of costumes.
Casting was central to the success of the spot and director Allais and the Draft creative team – Neo Mashigo, Grant Sithole and Marcus Moshapal – were very involved in the search for the freshest ‘local’ talent.
“The whole point of Vodacom’s campaign is that it makes the Internet accessible to everyone and we really wanted to extend that idea to casting too, so we hit the streets of South Africa looking for some homegrown divas,” explains Allais.
Providing crucial guidance to the amateur dancers on set were choreographers Adele and Natalie Fischer, who had the mammoth task of teaching the choreography to 250 cast members and the lead – Asher Stoltz. “Asher was just such a trooper – he had to dance in every set up – all day – every day! And he had to rock those cut off shorts,” says Allais.
Lensing the spot was DP Willie Nel, who rose to the formidable technical challenges of transitioning from set up to set up seamlessly. “The camera had to be in exactly the same position in each location and the dancers had to hit very specific marks so everything would line-up in the edit. There is a lot of sweat and tears that goes into making things look this effortless!” explains Ola Films! executive producer Olivia Leitch.
The spot can be viewed on www.vodacomfame.co.za.
