Editor Michael Elliot of New York-based editorial shop Fluid recently teamed up with Eskimo director Charles Nordeen to deliver a campaign for Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss creamer from agency 360i.
The 1:33 web film “The Natural Bliss Café – Surprisingly Natural” depicts Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss’ takeover of a store in New York with baristas and café-goers wearing body paint. The video catches unsuspecting customers finding that their daily coffee experience is anything but routine, with reactions ranging from confused to giddy, with one diplomatic man even attempting to act as if the woman before him is not indeed covered in body paint.
With previous experience cutting hidden camera docu-style spots for the likes of Febreze, Virgin Atlantic and Amazon, Elliot approached the project with an established organizational structure to bring the storyline to life through the video captured. Elliot worked closely with Nordeen and the 360i team to cut the hours of surveillance footage from over 10 cameras into a short piece that told a story.
To streamline the process, he first broke down the footage into types of reactions and then began to weave the story arc alongside Nordeen to create an overarching narrative that encompassed all of the different customer reactions. Once a loose storyline was in place, he pulled from the additional camera footage to enhance the moments and add additional beats.
“For these types of projects, the cut is put together thematically,” Elliot explained. “It’s about how we can build the reactions to create a story arc. Since the guise was so well-executed, there were many stages of the discover process that helped tell the story.”
