After a successful creative collaboration on Freshpak Rooibos earlier in 2015, Sunu says that he couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with the 2015 Adfocus Agency of the Year again.
“The brief was to update this iconic South African brand for a new generation,” says Sunu. “They wanted something fresh that kept that distinctive sense of magical wonder.” The new spot takes viewers on a 45-second tour of the fantasy Bakers biscuit factory.
Sunu loves directing children, but he says that working with this kiddie cast was particularly special as M&C Saatchi Abel selected Sunu’s son, Joshua Gonera, from more than 100 auditions, to play his first lead role in the spot. “Working with my boy was a dream come true. He was an absolute professional and he even called me Mr Director,” laughs Sunu. “I’m ticking this one off the bucket list.”
Sunu shot the commercial at the Mowbray Town Hall in Cape Town. “I wanted to do as much in camera as possible and the town hall gave us so much naturally.”
Production art directors Wendy Fredriksson and Michael Linders from Wigwag built all the ginormous biscuits and sets, with Sunu working closely with Sinister post-production house to finish bringing the factory to life in post with the necessary enhancements, duplications and extensions.
Rory O’Grady shot the commercial, using a Red Epic Dragon and a Phantom. “The big technical challenge was to move seamlessly from the high-speed micro details, like flour falling at 1 000 frames per second, out to the cast and the macro scale,” says Sunu, who’d had similar challenges on Freshpak. “I also had to think in terms of emotions and narrative, so it wasn’t just about capturing flour falling beautifully, but about finding the emotion in that, and being edit conscious about how the different shots would fit together.”
Riot Post-Production’s Gordon Midgely edited the spot, which is held together by Rob Roy’s updated version of the original Bakers Man melody. “We talked about redoing the song, but you have so much equity in that melody. People recognise it right away,” says Sunu. “When we started editing with the original song, it just worked.”
Sunu says that he wasn’t surprised when M&C Saatchi Abel was named Agency of the Year at the recent Adfocus Awards, as he loves working with agency producer Kathy Scharrer, executive creative director Nick Liatos and art director Nicole Binikos.
“They really trust you as the director and allow you to bring your experience and passion to it, which makes you go out of your way to give them something special. They challenge you, but they don’t dominate and Kathy fights for you as a director. It’s as close to pure collaboration as it comes,” adds Sunu.
