treatment by

Anders Hallberg

– Anonymous

Winter and style are well-known archenemies. Honestly, not a lot of us have managed to look good dressing warm and it’s certainly also almost impossible to look good when you’re freezing your a** off. It can be a total catch 22, or if you will, a lose-lose situation. But there’s a way to outsmart the season that means that even during arctic cold temperatures you don’t have to put your head before your heart. You can be warm and stylish with one of O’STIN coats. It’s a modern way to do winter, so we need a modern way to tell our story with great visual impact and style.

Apart from being a director, I’m also managing Elsa Hosk.

We’ve seen the advantages of us being able to cross pollinate our different skill sets. This gave us the ability to quickly turn around campaigns and work in a fluent and more adaptive way as fashion moves quickly. Why do I share this? It’s because I’m involved in all aspects of different campaigns Elsa is part of, not just as a director or photographer. I’ve been able to harvest actual know-how when it comes to what works and what doesn’t work in various markets since we get instant feedback based on her own Instagram feed.

As I said on the phone, we need to break free from the usual commercial production approach and instead of being “production heavy”, focus and spend all of our effort on casting, art direction, hair, make-up and a great adaptation of the existing music. So with that being said, I don’t think we have to be too literal in our storytelling in this campaign for our message to come across.

We’ll create a really multi-layered campaign with a light/fluent, hand-held camera so our film is beautiful, fun, and fast. We only have 20 seconds to tell our story so we’ll stagger actions as we watch the women having fun and catch abstract glimpses of the shop displays that react to them and the O’STIN winter collection.

It’s a snappy visual language where the rhythm of the edit is built around the beat of the music and connects the viewer to O’STIN to make sure the brand is etched into your mind.

I don’t often write about the tone and mood in my treatment, but this time I think it’s important as I’ll get a little technical later. But this film shouldn’t feel technical or like a typical commercial – it has heart, witt, and warmth. It’s important that we build a really positive mood. Their good mood is contagious – so much so that the window displays appear to be a little bit swept up in the joyfulness. Of course for the audience to be swept up in the moments too, every action and reaction has to feel spontaneous. The positive mood and tone is the backbone to our film that allows us to be a bit abstract in our visual language and our storytelling.

Teasing out and capturing real moments is a huge part of my directorial approach and something I’m passionate about as you can tell from my reel. I’m all about communicating on set so I’m right there with the cast giving them instant feedback so we can improvise on the spot. Sometimes I’ll also give the cast directions to react to as opposed to act, so that they don’t have time to overthink and we’ll capture real emotions. Maybe we’ll try out a few coordinated steps on set so it feels like they just share the same rhythm and are in sync with life. I’ll also set up longer sequences where the camera reacts to their movements, as opposed to single shots where the moves are set up for the camera, so we naturally progress through the action and the cast can be really loosened up in the scenes. We’ll avoid the risk of a typical start-stop, robotic feel that we see too often in the world of advertising. I work closely with the cast to understand how they move and behave so that I can easily adapt to their patterns. Do they normally turn to their right or left? All of this gives us so much material to cherry pick from to make a really dynamic edit. The modern way to do winter with O’STIN is a whole lot of fun.

I really liked your unified thinking in the brief where the art direction and overall mood is based on the same monochromic vibe that the actual clothes have. We open on all of the products in full display and in motion, “motion” being the key word for me. To show how comfortable life on the go is in one of these coats, we should avoid any static beauty shots and instead focus on movement, and perhaps even dance a few fun steps where the cast gets carried away by the actual beat of our song, to show how much fun our friends are having. In the same way you don’t really plan out a shopping trip with friends in advance, the movements should never feel rehearsed or we’ll end up in advertising land. Of course we’ll need to plan the top shot of the women, but other than that it should feel very natural. I might ask one of the girls, without anyone else knowing, to burst out a couple of moves to capture her friends’ genuine reactions or even try a chain of motions that we could try in an edit in a split screen or TikTok style. Regardless of the weather you can look and feel your best with O’STIN.

The outerwear is the real hero of the story and the rest of the wardrobe is there to compliment our soft color palette and not steal any of the limelight. I imagine matching items in neutral colors – grey, black, and white. Although we’re using the same color palette for our friends, I’d love it if we could build out and highlight their personalities a bit through the wardrobe and accessories so that it truly feels like there’s an O’STIN option for everyone.

Our group of friends are in their mid 20s. We have to believe in their friendship and like in any group they have different personalities and different looks. Charismatic people who take pride in their appearance, but not in an alienating way. Good-looking people, sure, but their beauty is strengthened from within because when they feel good, they look good. I’ll be looking for a cast that heightens the fun and inclusive feel to show that anyone can feel great with O’STIN. People with bubbly personalities who would be the first ones to dish out compliments to other women and encourage their friends to be a bit spontaneous.

When it comes to the casting process I’d like to keep the brief as open as possible so that we can find the right mix of friends – diverse in personalities and without it feeling like we have picked one blonde, one brunette, etc. Key though is that we find people who can act with very subtle means – someone who would make you laugh with a cheeky side glance, or join in the fun by a sudden and quicker-than-lightning dance move. Someone you’d love to be friends with. I always ask the people who audition to include a scene of them dancing to see how willing they are to let loose and have fun and of course this time it’s extra important. You’ll see, this will truly separate the great ones from the rest... We need our women to really embody that when you’re comfortable, you can focus on having fun.

Of course we have to be smart when it comes to dressing the shop windows so that we don’t show any products that would compete with our brand but rather decorate it in a modern way that compliments the overall stylized vibe and monochromatic mood. I would go for a more abstract wintry theme and what better way of doing that than something inspired by modern origami? We then have total control over the color scheme and avoid the typical red and green and instead craft a really graphic and clean O’STIN world in: white, silver and black. The paper also gives us a nice graphic contrast to the soft materials of the outerwear. An angular tiger’s head that moves to follow the friends, a spinning swirl of paper inspired by the women’s dance. Subtle, more artful moments that make us think that O’STIN affects us aaaaaaalmost so powerfully that it can bring objects made of paper to life.

We will of course plan for all the specific shots that are needed for the story to come together, but in addition you and I will be able to see what works best in the moment and shoot more of it, and rather than repeating it from many angles we will shoot it with multiple cameras so we can match cut the same exact action from two angles, and we can get a fast edit that doesn’t feel choppy but rather fluent. Perhaps we love the way the girls look when they walk together so much that we want to spontaneously add in some close-ups, let's say where we rotate around each of them slightly to capture their unique character. We will be able to spontaneously try out these things with my setup.

I want to suggest a different format than the typical Alexa or RED cameras in order to be nimble and agile. We can maybe even start off the film with an FPV drone shot that flies between the legs of one of the girls or swishes by really close. Maybe we shoot on GH5s, S1Hs, GoPros, or similar cameras at times, so we can be truly free in our approach to framing and even in how we handle the cameras. We all know how big and heavy a typical film camera is and how different in style it always feels compared to GoPro footage for example. Our upbeat and modern style deserves camera work that doesn't feel slow or traditional.

Instead we should go all-out for the most current trend in beauty and fashion, with a fast moving and reactive camera that is hand held or on a gimbal, the use of wide-angle lenses, and very strong camera angles – both very low and very high. The film will feel incredibly dynamic, just like your references, as we move toward, away, around, and past our heroines – there will be a true sense of freedom that captivates our audience and propels our story forward. I love this camera approach as it allows our cast to stay in the same energy for longer periods of time without having to constantly reset and try to recreate that same energy after a long break. It also means that we can capture much more footage than we would be able to on a typical shoot.

I'm very used to shooting in a way that works for square and tall formats, so this film will work nicely in different aspect ratios. Usually when I'm creating the shooting board I start planning which shots I may have to shoot twice to cover other formats, once in a normal angle and then again slightly wider to make sure that certain horizontal actions fit better into a vertical frame.

When it comes to the edit, the most important thing is to tell the story in a way that gives our film an energetic flow that grabs and keeps our attention throughout. This means that sometimes we will have faster cuts to complement the movement or add energy, but other times we will simply let the shots breathe and have the camera work do the rest. With these types of films it's important to have a dynamic back and forth in speed and movement so that it never feels monotone or constant. This will naturally happen within our story due to the structure of going between our heroines and the reactions from the shop windows, and the edit will support that feeling. I would LOVE to explore more of the shot-in-shot type of editing where we can build tiles and treat the screen like a blank canvas, so we can add and build out the film to its fullest potential.

There’s a magic to this film that can’t be boarded. I’d like it if we can keep an open mind and see what works best in the edit so I don’t want to be too descriptive. Maybe it’s that special little interaction between the friends that we capture that wasn’t in the script? Maybe that one quirky move that is pure joy? Maybe that one little angle in the display that we notice works best on the day? As you can see I have staggered some of the actions to make sure we can fit everything within 20s. Also, although I have written out the action in a linear way we’ll see what works best in the edit to get the energy we’re after.

We open on our group of friends walking towards the camera down a snow-sprinkled European street on a crisp, wintry day. The O’STIN logo appears in frame for a brief second.

VO:

O’STIN...

They pass by a seasonal window display. A whole winter wonderland in origami – an owl on a snowclad tree branch, white large stars, a big angular white tiger’s head. In quick closeups we see details of their clothes and when they pass the camera the tiger’s head turns to follow their moves.

VO:

You know what you’re wearing this winter.

In the background we see the friends smile as one of the women walks a few steps ahead. Her fur coat billows behind her – what is she up to now? In a closeup we see the fur coat and we cut to a top shot of the friends all spinning around, enjoying the moment, spinning like no one is watching.

VO:

We cut to see them walking and laughing after the liberated moment and in the shop display behind them we notice silver paper swirls in a ceiling mobile installation that mimic the twirling moves when they walk past in the exact same way as the group of friends did in the topshot.

VO:

When they walk past the window, paper confetti snow starts to fall down on the display.

VO:

The four friends leave us behind as they continue their walk. They all turn to the camera at the same time and a frame with them freezes as we switch to the packshot.

VO:

Now each woman is separated by a frame and it looks like an O’STIN webpage, before a mobile phone with the O’STIN shopping site and an O’STIN shopping bag appears on either side.

VO:

The city is our playground and for the location scout we’ll search for a beautiful stretch of a street with delicate white sand stone facades, grey tarmac or paving stones that really accentuate the winter collection. Ideally a real street where we can own two shop windows in a row so we have the freedom to approach it more like a stills photography shoot. This way we can be more loose than a traditional commercial setup and it will feel like we’re there in the moment with the friends on their shopping spree. As we talked about on the call we’ll be looking for a metropolitan, European city that could be Paris or Milan or other metropolitan fashion capitals.

As discussed on our call we will of course use the O’STIN theme song, but let’s make sure we really tailor it so it matches our mood even more. A more modern version that you’d want to dance to. Imagine something with a heavy baseline and beat that you just haaaaaave to move to.


I’d love to start composing this so we have it ready for the shoot. We’ll of course take the VO into consideration so that it will help tell the story. The VO should be female, with a really friendly tone that’s not in any way salesy. We should experiment with sound design too and build in some city sounds and some foley sounds to underline certain moves or actions. Let’s explore!

I can see this film so clearly in my head – the unique angles and pulse that we’ll get from a nimble crew and light camera work, the authenticity that we’ll get from the spontaneous moments and the fun that O’STIN encourages. These are of course just my initial thoughts and I look forward to developing them further with you.

Best,
ANDERS