Is there a right way to promote a release? When Balli Ivory approached us to promote his single “Do You Worry?”, we immediately established our foundation; mood, key elements, palette and overall tone. Our objective was to create a memorable and distinctive campaign for Balli’s core audience. What we struggled on is making something visually unique on a shoe-string budget. To maximise what we could do, we focused on developing our concepts instead of reducing our ambition — with the goal of having the creativity of the concepts to carry the campaign.

This project ultimately covered three separate shoot days and modules; cover shoot & promotional imagery, parody advert shoot and main campaign shoot. Each module was designed to explore a singular concept, allowing us to test how far we could push bold, unconventional ideas while still maintaining a visual balance.

Our initial ideas and concepts were informed by the track itself. A blunt shine shadowing lyrics of loneliness and inadequacy. Phrases like “The Life is draining from your Eyes” greatly inspired and guided the way we would shoot a cover, as without the consideration, there would be an immediate disconnect between the visual and audible experience of the song. Connection between the two senses were vital. A persons eyes can say so much about them. Eyes form the basis of human interaction, serving as the primary tool for conveying complex emotion and a banner for how attractive we are deemed to be. We focused on eyes and used light as a metaphor for life, a straightforward concept that could be translated as a photograph. The use of blue light was a creative decision that fell onto our lap. January Blues, seasonal mood changes — this was the atmosphere at the time of preparing this campaign.

To keep production costs down, we had to show initiative. Instead of using standard lighting equipment to create the light rays, we used a piece of cardboard with slits created using a key and an iPhone flashlight. This along with a dome-diffuser camera flash helped us capture the imagery we envisioned.

We leveraged the concept of inadequacy as the central theme of the promotional videos we produced. Feeling behind or left out is a natural part of the human journey. The question was how do people deal with it? The four shorts that were filmed follows a man who found his answer in a pill. Eager for success, our character stumbles across an advert that promises relief; relief from overthinking, relief from feeling useless, relief from every emotion that is holding him back. However, we quickly learn that he is turns into something that he is not.

Our campaign takes from films like Limitless (2011) and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), with the parody advert being a direct call-back to Two Door Cinema Club’s Are We Ready? (Wreck) music video. Managing Partner Nabighah comments “It is wonderful to see how past pieces of media still influence you to this day. 10 years ago, when 'Are We Ready?' first came out I was obsessed with how uncomfortable the video made me feel. I was itching to recreate that exact feeling on this project. Just like the reference, the cards used in this parody are lyrics of the song. It also gave us the excuse to use facial prosthetics to exaggerate Balli’s cheekbones, an idea we are all proud of.”