2015 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

In a market of established premium brands, Infiniti is a late-comer that has to fight harder to be heard. Infiniti could not afford to use clichés or hallmarks of the genre, so to do away with TVCs of classical music, frosted glass and drivers turning corners, the brand sought out to steer away from the traditional and create something truly inspired. To proclaim the brand’s credentials in a language that would be universally understood, we used an art form just as new and bold, one that showed the cars in their best light: Light Painting. Combining extensive, detailed engineering, a team of specialist artists from three continents, precision-moves from stunt drivers, and three QX70 Elite Sports, three nights at Dubai Autodrome brought extraordinary results. With a medium that had never used cars as paint-tools before, every hour was spent learning what effects were possible, how best to illuminate both the cars and the surrounding landscape, then push this to the most beautiful outcome, capturing stills, and slow-motion footage through the lens, and an emotive, complex kinetic art form. No effects, just lights, cameras and action.

Creative Execution

We had to create something that would be visually compelling using a vehicle that could only move in two-dimensions. The concept literally turned the cars into a light-brush. Because of the vehicles’ sleek design, there were no external holes/fasteners, and a rigging mechanism had to be designed to fasten the lumens in a way that was low-profile and unobtrusive, and still be able to produce the massive amount of light necessary to reflect off a surface and be captured in camera at high-speed, while remaining safe and within budget. To overcome serious budget constraints, we cut-out the production agency, and applied a guerrilla approach to make the project a reality. Instead of booking the Dubai-Autodrome for three days, we used the parking lot. After weeks of measuring, mapping, planning, trial and error, through five major design iterations, and innumerable changes and on the ground with a dedicated team of engineers, technicians and artists, each car took 4-experienced technicians 8-hours to rig while the prototype took several days. Each QX70 has 59-feet or 18-meters of LED strips carefully fixed in place. All visuals were created in front of a camera-lens using recorded footage; no CGI or any visual-effects were used.