Advertising agency Hunt Lascaris’ new pan-African Standard Bank campaign, ‘Never Stop Moving Forward,’ is based on the understanding that in Africa necessity is the mother of invention.
Directed by Egg Films’ Sunu, the spot takes the form of a fast-paced montage made up of a collection of images that manages to be so distinctly African while still deferring from the stereotypical. The movielike voice over, centered around seven evocative words – hot, big, fresh, dark, quiet, deep and busy – acts as the glue of the commercial, giving meaning to the visuals in a uniquely Africa-centric way.
Sunu says that the client expressed a desire for a campaign that would connect with viewers on an emotional level and be indicative of a distinctly African aesthetic. Hunt Lascaris developed the idea of the voice over and required images that would accompany the shift in perspective prompted by the voiceover. “I liked the play on words and used images that played with perspectives of what that specific phrase was saying,” says Sunu. “It was a very open brief. I came in with the idea of doing a seamless edit, with a cohesive narrative through-line.” With the freedom to choose the images that he thought worked best, Sunu worked on conveying “the human element” on screen: “My focus right from the start was to bring the human element and make that the focus, so it wasn’t an ad that just showcased all these things that every bank does, but showed the human side. Industry is because of people, so we focused on finding the humanity and emotion in each of the sequences; I wanted to make that the connective tissue and thread in the film.”
The feel of the spot is inherent in the rapid edit – packing 60 shots into a 45 second edit – which was executed to reflect the pace of the African continent. “We wanted people to see something new with repeated viewing… just like Africa. You can visit a certain place and return a year later and it’s completely different. Africa is a mercurial continent, a constantly shifting playground,” says Sunu. To enhance the sense of immediacy, everything was shot handheld using the Alexa Amira, “from the minutiae of an eye to wide landscapes with snow falling down. The art department and camera team were incredible in helping to achieve that,” he adds. “The edit was exciting because we really brought the film to life and my editor Gordon Midgley was a master at nuance and pacing. He also influenced the sound design and we kept pretty much everything he had done all the way to final mix.”
The final outcome is a spot that is authentic to Africa and the African aesthetic, while still delivering on the client’s request to showcase another side of Africa. “I believe that in a world where people are looking to express their identity and cultural relevance, people are looking to see themselves reflected on the screen, to be seen authentically, not some glamourised version. So I hope that a few frames will catch their attention and make them proud of their African heritage,” concludes Sunu.
Credits:
- Agency: Hunt Lascaris
- Agency producer: Sandra Gomes
- Chief creative officer: Peter Khoury
- Executive creative director: Jenny Glover, Rui Alves
- Creative director (art director): Shane Forbes
- Creative director (copywriter): George Low
- Director: Sunu Gonera
- Director of photography: Rory O’Grady
- Production co-art director: Keenan McAdam
- Production co-producer: Vjorn Du Toit
- Executive producer: Kerry Hosford
- Editing company: Deliverance, Cape Town
- Editor: Gordon Midgely
- Post-production: Sinister Studios, Johannesburg
- Music & music publisher: Waves Studio, London
- Composer & sound: Dugal MacDiarmid
