Wizard’s Gold

Concept, Director, Camera Operator, Editor

Oliver of Oliver’s Brighton (Brighton’s #1 shop on Trip Advisor) asked me to help create a video to launch his new product Wizard’s Gold. He wanted a teaser video for a social media ad campaign. I originally shot this with a 4:5 aspect ratio in mind (It’s pretty much the perfect size for a social media advert that will be seen on mobile devices).

Oliver stated he wanted mystery, magic, and a snake. As this was a teaser with the sole purpose of intriguing the viewer into wanting to find out more and click the ‘learn more’ button beneath the ad, I decided we would only close ups of the bottle or, if the whole bottle was in shot, it would be slightly out of focus so as not to give too much away. I also had the idea to make things hypnotic inspired by the snake characters Kaa/Sir Hiss from Disney’s Version of the Jungle Book/Robin Hood. All that combined with the circular snake logo meant I knew I wanted to add a magical motion graphic that contained light leaks and smaller rotating particles. These smaller elements were to convey the idea of the 23 Karat gold leaf that is in every bottle.

The first cut wasn’t far off but needed to be refined. I would send Oliver my latest cut to review he’d come back with notes and together we would shape it into the vision he had in his mind’s eye. Amazing what you can do with good lighting, a snake and great communication ;).

To say the final version was a success would be putting it lightly. Oliver loved the video so much that he asked me if it was possible to create a version in 16:9 landscape for his website and a looped 16:9 version to exist in a TV in his shop window. With a little elbow grease and some crafty VFX work I was able to make it happen. You can see the finished 16:9 version above.

Setting up a video to play on your website can be a hassle if you’re not technically minded and I was more than happy to host the video for Oliver on my Vimeo channel and custom tweaked the video player to match the requirements he had for his website. I even made the button gold to match the Wizard’s Gold logo. Visitors to the Wizard’s Gold website will have no idea that I am hosting the video, it just ensures a bespoke finish and less hassle for my clients.

If you want to create a bespoke video marketing solution for your business, don’t hesitate to get in contact.