2015 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

“Markaz” Kuwait’s leading investment bank presents an authentic story about trust. An epic journey where Kuwait’s famous sailors (known as the Sindbads of the sea), were entrusted with all of the life savings of the merchants, to trade them in the far away land. A most amazing ritual by the wives of the seamen conducted on shore parallels the journey, with the belief that this ritual will tame the open sea. No contracts were signed. It was just the word the sailor gave to the merchant. Nothing came between the sailor and his word, absolutely nothing. What can an investment Bank own better than the value of trust. This campaign aired in the month of Ramadan in Kuwait resulting in an unprecedented increase in share for “MARKAZ”, compared to a slow growth for many of the international Banks.

Creative Execution

This was a really interesting spot from a VFX stand point. Lots of set extensions, lots of keying and of course lots of water. It is always a difficult task to recreate water in CG as it is such a dynamic force. But that makes it all the more enjoyable when you succeed. We created a CG environment that could be used in all the shots, regardless if it was full CG or set extensions. A virtual “bowl of water” was created and we placed the camera in different places to get the stormy sea and ominous skies. The full CG shots proved, as expected, to be the most troublesome. We had the ship rebuilt in 3D down to the finest details and used this model to drive through our water bowl to create the waves breaking. Then we added multiple layers of spray and rain on top of it to make the shot believable. Driven by very high expectations (both from client and the director as well as internal) we feel we managed to create some truly beautiful shots to add that little extra to an otherwise great commercial.