the Craft

Q&As and behind-the-scenes info on the latest and greatest
commercials, shorts and music videos.

16^th Nov

NezshinesalightonTheBoyandtheMoon

Ruffian director Nez has just released a beautiful short film which puts an imagined version of legendary Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry centre stage, alongside the moon. Here, Nez, talks intuition, inspiration and lunar lighting.

9^th Nov

HowtheWWFandNOMINT'ssangastop-motionsongoficeandfire

After tackling a frozen stop-motion model for the WWF last year, directors Yannis Konstantinidis and Christos Lefakis went to the other end of the temperature scale for 2022's film, A Flammable Planet. We spoke to Konstantinidis about taming the elements, one frame at a time.

7^th Nov CHRISTMAS 2022

How Si&Ad gave us two wildly different smiles this Christmas

With Academy's directing duo helming a pair of the season's biggest hitters - Shelter and Boots - we asked them how gifting cheers and tears brought on different challenges.

4^th Nov

How Save The Children's film found true heroes of war

B-Reel Films' director Tomas Jonsgården gives an impassioned account of the making of Save The Survivors, which drew on tragic real-life stories of women and children fleeing conflict.

4^th Nov

How BLINKINK animated two centuries of hop history with a light bulb in a beer can

BLINKINK director Balazs Simon talks to us about the highlights, and painstaking technical difficulties, of shooting a stop motion animation that combines 200 years of Greene King heritage, woodcut illustrations, and 355 laser cut beer cans.

2^nd Nov straight 8

How to give your straight 8 a commercial break

Longtime straight 8 contributors, Iris, picked up Silver in the Cannes 2022 Shootout. Here, Global ECD Grant Hunter tells shots how they created a witty, vibrant industry spoof from a single can of film.

28^th Oct

How a Beautiful makeover exposed a self-harm epidemic

SMUGGLER director Fiona Jane Burgess explains to shots how her powerful new video for Christina Aguilera's 2002 hit tackles the unattractive elephant in the room – how the beauty industry, social media and the online world has contributed to a potentially toxic environment for children and young adults.

27^th Oct

How Preymaker used Unreal to form a fully-fledged short

With BLUE, creative and technology studio Preymaker set about creating a real-time animated short film entirely in the cloud, achieving startling levels of detail without the use of compositing. shots speaks to executive producer and founder/chief creative Angus Kneale and director Robert Petrie about how the tech might change the future of content creation.

Spotlight

Some recent interviews in our "How To" series.

30^th Jul SPORT FOCUS

HowHenryHobsoncraftedanOlympicdouble-decathlon

shots speaks to director Henry Hobson about how he managed to put the viewer into 20+ sports through dazzling first-person photography for Discovery+.

8^th Jul SPORT FOCUS

HowFactoryFifteenfilledTokyowitheastereggs

The Nexus collective, made up of Kibwe Tavares, Jonathan Gales and Paul Nichols, tell us how pre- and post-Covid planning, animation, VFX and shoots 1000 miles apart combined to create a disorientating journey through an Olympics-themed Tokyo.

14^th Jun

HowSwyftmadeasofaadthatisn'tasofaad

We hear from the makers of a new campaign for sofa brand Swyft that aims to defy the conventions of more traditional sofa commercials .

10^th Jun

HowCraigDavidmovedthedialforKuruptFM

Things aren't all they seem in this Ollie Wolf directed hybrid promo for Kurupt FM that mixes classic promo tropes with some behind the scenes tomfoolery.

25^th May

Howtocutamusicvideowithacrewof500

For VANS' branded promo of JPEGMAFIA's track Prone, Final Cut editor Ryan Beck had the daunting task of sculpting a 2-minute megamix from fan-shot footage.

26^th Oct HALLOWEEN 2022

How Dan Trachtenberg delivered retro scares for Uber Eats

Spooky season is upon us and brands are dusting off their monster costumes to attempt to mix sales with scares. However, with their Halloween effort Don't Run Out, Uber Eats managed to not only tie in genuine consumer benefits, but also give audiences a proper short-form haunted house thrill ride. We chatted to Great Guns USA director Dan Trachtenberg to find out how he did it.

24^th Oct

How Golden Wolf sent Craig David on an ethereal ecological adventure

In a moving branded music video for Trainline, animators Ingi Erlingsson and Ewen Stenhouse were tasked with not only bringing David's music to life but also designing Mother Earth herself. shots caught up with the pair to find out how to address a topic as ominous as the climate crisis in a thoughtful, beautiful way.

24^th Oct straight 8

How to make a mooving straight 8

To kick-off our ongoing collaboration with creative challengers straight 8, we chat to the latest Shootout Gold winners, Work Editorial, about how they made a masterpiece out of a load of old bull.

11^th Oct

How Burberry started an alien invasion

From floating around fields to dancing through ice-storms, Riff Raff has taken the British fashion house on some incredible cinematic adventures, their latest creation being no exception. We spoke to Megaforce and delved into the details of creating a campaign that combines choreography, SFX, robots, and a 'giant, weird, squid-like enoki mushroom creature'.

18^th Aug AD OF THE WEEK

The Rocky road to Ladbrokes' knockout spot

How do you seamlessly update an iconic 1979 cinematic scene to incorporate modern sports people, drummers, horse riders, drag queens, dancers, and gymnasts? We speak to the brand, creatives, director and VFX CD behind Ladbrokes' blockbuster spot about how they went the distance.