Chris Cairns Adds Some Creative Spice to Schwartz

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As far as Schwartz is concerned 'variety' is simply an interloper because in their eyes 'spice' is the spice of life, as this new spot from Partizan's Chris Cairns expertly shows.

Marrying sound and vision to beautifully colourful effect Cairns, along with music producer MJ Cole and agency Grey London, has created a balletic spice spectacular called The Sound of Taste. Below he describes the idea behind the caign, working with Cole and learning about pyrotechnics and you can also watch a behind the scenes film of the shoot.

What was the brief from the agency and did you know immediately how you wanted to approach it?

The brief from the agency was to create an audiovisual representation of taste. I love making things where the visuals match the sound really tightly and here was an opportunity to build both from scratch.

I wanted write a piece of music which had a real build to it, and use a progression of musical techniques which would allow the visuals to develop before having a real crescendo. Something that feels like our experience of tasting spicy food.

Normally I like to represent sound visually, so it was an interesting challenge to think about how you represent taste audiovisually. 

Your work for Brother printers was a creative combination of visuals and audio; do you think that gave you an added insight into the idea?

I learnt lots about using electronics to trigger physical stuff via MIDI while making The Printer Orchestra for Brother, and deployed some of those techniques for this.

The project is a collaboration with MJ Cole; how did that partnership work?

Norris 'Da Boss' Windross wasn't available so Mister Cole and I ate a curry and had a chat and he worked his magic. I met Matt doing the Fireflies ride a few years ago and I'd been really keen to work with him.

I briefed Matt [Cole] on what I was after and he did some longer rambles on the piano. I told him the bits I thought would work well for what I had in mind visually and we went back and forth until we were both happy. He was a pleasure to work with and brought loads to the project.

Which aspect of the project came first, the music or the visuals?

My approach was to write a sparse, restrained piano piece and to have each piano note trigger an individual spice explosion. Matt wrote the music with the visuals it would create in mind, then we pre-visualised the whole sequence in 3D.

This allowed us to efficiently explore camera lenses, angles and moves and to create materials which conveyed exactly what was required to all departments.

Did you immediately know when you had the right soundtrack for the commercial?

Both Matt and I thought that something delicate and restrained - contrasting with the violent visuals - would be more powerful than a more literal, bombastic soundtrack. We had the feel straight away and then developed the structure iteratively.

Did you do more than one take and, if so, how many herbs and spices did you get through?

We had only one day to shoot so all the explosion shots were done in one take. We still got through hundreds of kilos of herbs and spices and there was LOTS of testing before the shoot to make this possible.

Hats off to Machine Shop who ensured there was no need for resets. I love the smell of burning turmeric in the morning… Smelled like… victory.

Did you know much about pyrotechnics before this project and what was the experience of working with them like?

I'd had limited experience with pyrotechnics so it was a great learning experience. It was fantastic working with the team at Machine Shop and the guys at is this good? It's certainly whet my appetite for destruction!

What was the hardest part of putting the project together?

I wanted to shoot everything ten times slower than realtime so the timing system for the pyros had to be millisecond-accurate to hit the piano notes perfectly. This required some R&D and testing.

It’s an unusual approach to food advertising; is that what attracted you to the project?

I love creating arresting visuals and tackling technical challenges so this certainly tickled my taste buds. Extraordinary is always interesting to me.

Traditionally uncreative brands such as Lurpak and now Schwartz are taking a more creative approach to their advertising of late; why do you think that is?

Dougal Wilson and Scott Lyon, with Stephen Keith-Roach and John Mathieson, have certainly raised the bar in that arena with their work for Lurpak. From a marketing perspective I guess it's about shining brighter than the other stars in the content firmament.

And lastly, who was your favourite Spice Girl?

The one who was in the tabloids all the time who wasn't very good at singing.