A few months ago, Olivia Gideon Thomson, founder of the English agency We Folk, contacted us in order to work alongside her and the talented Viviane Sassen, on a photo and video project for the house of Champaign Perrier-Jouët.
For its upcoming communication campaign, the Champaign house wanted to honor the biodiversity within its vineyards, without which the Champaign itself could not develop the aroma that creates its uniqueness.
Nature represents a prominent part of Viviane Sassen’s work. A heightened sensitivity is provided to the balance of forms, colors and fragility of the world surrounding us.
To accompany her along this journey, the Perrier-Jouët team asked the philosopher Emanuele Coccia to join hands with her. His recent research addresses the topics of the nature and the living, specifically in his book “The life of Plants”, published in 2017. He has given the campaign his vision on the bond between Champaign and biodiversity and has expressed it through his choice of words and voice.
The cast Director Monika Domarke found in the Dutch National Ballet dancer Hannah de Klein, the necessary grace and delicacy to perform an aerial figure in the middle of the vineyards, for Vivian Sassen to capture.
The principal sketch was precise and the scout, rigorous. A graphic landscape, proper variety of grape and adequate sun orientation had to be found all at once. Furthermore, the set had to be accessible without excessive effort to mini-buses, equipment and dressing vans.
Our long lasting experience in scouting work allowed us to put a panel of options at the team’s disposal without ever distributing the requested flexibility to achieve the project.
The first day was dedicated to technical scout work, followed by four days of shooting.
The first shooting day was spent in the gardens of “La Maison Belle Epoque”, a treasure in the heart of Epernay, home to the most beautiful collection of French Art Nouveau in Europe.
The forenoon of the second day was dedicated to the making of the main visual. In order to do so, we set up a trampoline in the middle of the vineyards allowing Hannah to have the necessary height for Viviane to frame.
During the afternoon, the participants/extras took part in the making of some visuals on the theme “ A moment of consumption”.
The making of the film started on the third day. We worked alongside Cedric Nelsi from the Adronaline firm, who helped us with some wonderful aerial shots in the Champagne region’s sky.
In order to mirror reality, we called on a trumpetor to ensure proper grip of the instrument.
The fourth and last day, we concentrated on capturing, both in photo and video shots, the biodiversity scattered through the vineyards of the House Perrier-Jouët, which gave us substance to work with on the collage process.
In addition to the visual part, we have worked in a studio in the 9th district of Paris, on registering Emanuele Coccia’s voice for the narration of the film. The entire foreign team participated via videoconference, in order to maintain the harmony of the images, the music and the voice.
We are extremely proud to have been able to put our production services and our expertise at the disposal of this project, which has produced results beyond our expectations and we await impatiently further collaboration with the brand.
