The Art of Christmas

There’s been a lot of Christmas hype in the office this week with a handful of brands launching their festive TV campaigns and there’s no doubt a lot more to come in the weeks ahead.

So far we’ve seen a touching animated tale of gift-giving and enlightenment, a gingerbread man entertaining Ant and Dec at the dinner table, Santa Clause in disguise as a mystery shopper and LEGO took a subtler approach with its Lets Build, tapping into the bond between father and son.

The first to hit our inboxes though, was Marks & Spencer’s offering Magic and Sparkle, which sees Rosie Huntington-Whiteley stumble upon a magical realm of fantasy where she is joined by Helena Bohnam Carter and David Gandry after looking for her lost dog. With references strong visual references to Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, the ad is a real treat from agency RKCR/Y&R London.

Below, the editor on the job, Work’s Art Jones, tells us about making magic with Johan Renck, what appealed to him about the idea and how he made everything flow seamlessly between the different worlds.

What was the most challenging aspect of the edit?

I think we were gifted by the fact the client liked our two-minute version so much. We were only intending to do a 90-second but every shot was so beautiful and rich that hardly anything got dropped.

There were a few technical problems dealing with 35mm. it's not the same climate it was just a few years back before the digital tsunami and processing it felt different somehow.  I really, really love celluloid. This ad was built on the premise of magic and sparkle and I surely believe there to be a lot of magic in this film.

Had you worked with Renck in the past?

This is the third job I've done with Johan - the others being a Stella Cidré spot for Mother and the H&M video for Lana Del Ray.

Johan Renck has said that he wanted to find a 'temperature and tone that would combine' the eclectic fairytales 'into something coherent' how much did this drive the cut and how much freedom were you given?

There was actually quite a lot of freedom as the rushes were so beautiful - it seemed to have a language and vocabulary all of its own from the very start. My job, as I saw it, was just to make everything flow between the differing worlds and retain the beautiful quirkiness and idiosyncrasies that make each scene work so well.

Anything else that stands out about this project?

Only the lovely idea, the great cast, the beautiful cinematography, the production design, the styling, the special and visual effects, the grade, the music and the opportunity I got to wrap it all together and stick a lovely big bow on top.