Black & white ad underlines colourful taste of Cornetto

Director/director of photography Miles Goodall says: "I was excited by the possibilities of black and white, of the negative image and of giving it a really bold look. At the same time, I wanted to make sure the romantic notion was still alive, that the look didn't overtake the emotion and that there was still some softness to it."

Goodall creates a bold and very graphic look on an open-top bus specially constructed by Metrobus and, exploring the streets of Johannesburg and Sandton from this unique vantage point, away from all the clutter and chaos, he brings to life amazing backgrounds with unusual buildings and images.

Though controlling the light on a moving bus is no easy task, he manages to synchronise the backgrounds with the shots, creating harmony between the light in the background and the action. With the intention of achieving as much in-camera as possible, cast members were all coated in low-contrast matte yellow to maintain a singular tone, as everything was shot in full colour with as much detail as possible.

Most difficult part

The most difficult part for the film art director Jeremy Argue was to think-translate everything first in black and white and then to re-imagine it all reversed out white and black. "Add to that the parts that were going to be rendered in infra-red black and white and one had a real head-splitter!" he says.

Once filming was wrapped, it was time for the post-production artistry to add that extra bit of imagination. The Black Ginger team turned the colourfully filmed world into a high-contrast black and white one. The graphic world envisioned at the beginning came to life with empty burned-white space and solid black shapes. To maintain the beauty of the images when they were inverted, certain aspects such as nostrils, eyes and open mouth were retouched, ensuring that it did not look "too strange." To round it off, giving the world the ideal level of "different", an infrared effect was added - turning it into an almost ice cream-like place.

Team magic

At first, it appears to be another ordinary romantic tale playing out in black and white. As a young couple bite into their full-colour, Cornetto Black and White ice cream, the world becomes inverted black and white. In just 30-seconds, this advert shows a visual journey that culminates in a bright red meteor explosion and a kiss.

Sweet Spot content production team:

• Producer: Linda Notelovitz
  
• Production manager: Peta Sacke
  
• Production coordinator: Thembela Ndyalivane
  
• Director (DoP): Miles Goodall

Advertising Agency - Lowe and Partners:

• Executive creative director: Peter Badenhorst
  
• Creative consultant: Alan Bunton
  
• Senior art director: Gavin Dexter
  
• Senior copywriter: Stephen Pollock
  
• Head of account management: Sylvia Swart
  
• Managing director: Sarah Dexter
  
• TV producer: Juliet Curtis