How Savanna Cider Created an Underwater Apparel Collection
While sea levels are rising, a climate crisis is brewing and Savanna’s Dry Cider is keeping light-hearted as it tackles climate change with a totally different approach. The South African drinks brand launched its latest ad with fashion designer Wanda Lephoto, who created a collection of waterproof clothes for an underwater world - quite the juxtaposition to the Dry Cider of Savanna.
Known for being a brand which keeps things light-hearted, Savanna worked with agency Grey and Carbon Films’ director Mzonke Maloney to bring this spot to life. Showcasing the beautiful clothing collection on top of glaciers and within the water, the classically South African, dry humour of the narration takes centre stage. The cool blues and whites of the setting against the yellow and green clothing – matching the drinks brand – provide a contrast, and the crisp imagery gives all of the elements of a fashion spot, without falling into existing tropes. With proceeds from the apparel collection going towards Green Up, the spot isn’t just aesthetic and funny, but also champions real change.
Mzonke speaks to LBB’s Nisna Mahtani about his vision for the spot, channelling the brand’s existing tone of voice and his organic approach to editing.
LBB> When did this collaboration with Savanna first come about and what was the brand keen to convey in this spot?
Mzonke> I can’t quite remember when but they came to us with the idea of doing a fashion film that spoke to Savanna’s dry sense of humour, as well as to try and convey a thoughtful message about sustainability in a way that wasn’t riding on people’s sense doom, fear and panic but was illustrative of the impending humanitarian crisis in a much more imaginative way.
LBB> Tell us about the initial conversations you had with the client. What were some of the ideas floating around and how were you keen to put your own twist on them?
Mzonke> I’m not sure if it’s how I want to remember it or if it’s actually what happened, but the project felt pretty open ended, the team at the agency has certain elements already locked in, the script, and the campaign but the idea for the ad wasn’t yet fleshed out. I knew I didn’t want to make a conventional fashion film, because I don’t find it often appealing or interesting, it at times feels like this aesthetic assault of image after image. So I wanted to break that.
The tagline for the campaign “Waterproof apparel for a world underwater” got me thinking about a world that actually submerged underwater and what ‘fashion’ would look like against this backdrop and how precarious the act of selling/modelling clothes might become in a world underwater. The film also had a ‘making of’ element to it initially.
LBB> Climate change is the key element of conversation and lends itself to the clothing designed by Wanda Lephoto, specifically for this campaign. Can you tell us about how the setting nodded to the topic while also enhancing the clothes?
Mzonke> I imagined a world that was already submerged, with remnants of a life that were protruding through the surface of the water. In the form of peaking rooftops, a tall lamppost, a basketball rim, telephone poles etc. To amplify the climate change in the piece, we also had to digitally create a glacial landscape, which of course doesn’t exist in South Africa but we wanted to bring the stakes of global warming and climate change closer to our own context. We wanted to paint a graphic picture of what unsustainable practices may lead to. Both client and agency liked the idea and so it went ahead.
LBB> How long did it take to film this spot?
Mzonke> We shot it in a day, with a few weeks to prep.
LBB> Where did you shoot the campaign and can you tell us about some of the unique challenges you faced on set, as well as how you overcame them?
Mzonke> We shot it at the Strandfontein Pavilion in Cape Town. The filming happened in a really large rock pool that’s pretty shallow and good to do water stuff in. We really over prepped, we have amazing producers at Carbon, Martina Schieder, who got ahead of things and made sure we had asked all the questions we needed to ask beforehand, as well as very technical sound DoP Julian Robinet and a wonderful VFX team at Strangelove Post. Our biggest worry was the weather and not getting rained out.
LBB> Let’s talk about equipment. What did you film on and how did that add to the visuals you wanted to create?
Mzonke> I don’t really pay much attention to the equipment, but depending on what perspectives we were trying to achieve, we were in a fish tank for the very low-in-the-water moments, on a jib arm for the scale and mostly locked off and on the same two wide lenses for most of the piece It was a mixture of green screen and shooting it in the water at the Strandfontein rock pools. The horizon line there is flat and pretty consistent so it allowed us to be able to comp in our glacial expanse off in the distance, in a simple and seamless way. We went with the simplest and most practical ways to do this thing. If we could shoot in the water we did it and when we couldn’t we used very elementary film trickery.
LBB> Can you tell us about some of the lighting choices you made for the shots both in the water and on floating, dry land?
Mzonke> I think that the battle was getting the natural light to match the stock footage that we were comping for some of the shots, mainly the glacial elements. So we picked two types of stock images and based on the weather we would go with either or. Most of it was natural lighting, with an 18K on a barge for some of the water scenes when the weather wasn’t playing along.
LBB> The dry tone of voice in this campaign, the idea of climate change and the icebergs that are melting creates a wonderfully stark yet funny combination. How did you find the balance between striking visuals and comedic value in the spot?
Mzonke> I think that Savanna as a brand is quite dry and humorous in itself, so the style and tone felt pre-established. We wanted to break the traditional approach to fashion films and take it a step further by satirising it, emphasising the frivolity connected to this hyper-aestheticised space. In our film things are a couple of degrees off-kilter, the poses sometimes feel uncomfortable, the wind blows, sharks and danger circle, glaciers melt, essentially the natural world intervenes with the aesthetic integrity we often expect in fashion films. It impresses its presence forcefully upon the film and this relationship creates the tension and the humour.
LBB> Did any existing ads, films, or TV shows inspire this campaign? Can you tell us about them?
Mzonke> I think there are a lot of ideas right now that are critiquing the unsustainable nature of the current cultural milieu and capital focussed human endeavour. So I’ll say all of that but maybe Ruben Oslund’s films ‘Force Majure’ and ‘Triangle of Sadness’ come to mind.
LBB> What was the editing process like? Were there any takes you knew had to be in the final spot?
Mzonke> I have a slightly more organic approach to editing and I’m willing to find other perspectives, pre-rolls, accidents etc. It’s fun to still be in the process of making the thing again, in the edit suite. Xander the editor is really smart and has a good sense for what’s funny but also serves the piece best.
LBB> How has the audience in South Africa responded to the campaign so far?
Mzonke> I’m not entirely sure but I think it had a great response because to me it feels like a unique piece of work. I don’t come across briefs like this often and I’d appreciate it if people liked it, I think?
