Bonkers and utterly brilliant, the new Nando’s “Give Your Body What it Wants’
spots, conceptualised by creative advertising agency Metropolitan Republic and
brought to life by Cape Town-based Plank Film Productions, they are a fun
breakaway from the controversial commercials, which South African audiences
have come to expect from the brand.
Make no mistake, the typical Nando’s humour, which is infamously clever and
culturally relevant, is still very much a part of the campaign, which features flying
fast food, a quirky voiceover and a bunch of typical South Africans whose bodies
seem to be possessed by a craving for all things – peri-peri.
The two adverts, “Burger Meal’ and “Festive Meal’, were shot over two days in
Johannesburg during March at a number of different locations including Nasrec
train station, Nasrec Expo centre and Ndofaya Mall.
Anco Henning, Executive Producer at Plank Films, who worked on the spots with
Director Peter Pohorsky and DOP Werner Maritz, says their biggest challenge
was managing a very quick turnaround time on a production, which required
many set builds.
“We had eight work days from official sign-off to do prep, castings and call-
backs, find locations, get all the PPMs and approvals done and then we had
three days to build an entire food court,’ explains Henning. “At one stage we
were composing music in one room of the building, doing final mix in another,
doing voiceovers in another, animating the end titles downstairs and starting
the grade on the second ad, all at once… and we had a ball doing it.’
Without the luxury of time, the production team had to be innovative in their
approach to filming, so that a high quality final product could be achieved.
To achieve the effect of the actors losing control of their own bodies, Jenni
Robinson and David Mahlangu from 4FX and Stunts rigged the actors with green
poles and set them against a green screen, puppeteering their arms to create
the erratic movement in their performance. These shots were then combined
with a background plate in post-production, which was performed by Blade Post,
and refined using VFX and a rotoscoping technique.
Though the lead cast were all carefully selected and the extras handpicked, as
the concept called for creative interpretation and an ability to deliver physical
performance, Henning’s casting philosophy remained just as it would be for any
project.
“The important thing is to not limit the brief by being too specific about race, age
or gender. You never know what someone might bring that you could never
have scripted. Whoever brings the best interpretation of the role, even if it’s
completely different to the script, gets shortlisted and we might change things
according to what they bring to the party with their unique stamp on things,’
says Henning.
