Ahmad Tea
Global TV commercial for Ahmad Tea
TITLE: For The Love Of Tea
ROLE: Direction & Post Production
AGENCY: Southpaw Agency
PROD CO: Edge Picture Company
CLIENT: Ahmad Tea
DOP: David McDowall
COLOURIST: Megan Lee
BRIEF
To direct a series of commercials for Ahmad Tea’s Global Campaign. Featuring a woman experiencing the magic of tea-making through 3D projections in her kitchen. This included two master 60" second commercials. Each with a different actress for different global markets. We then had to create a series of cutdown versions for different regions and social media.
PROCESS
This project took us on quite a journey: first, capturing the traditional tea making process in Sri Lanka, and then back to a London studio to create a cozy kitchen vibe. It was a bit of a puzzle, where we had to carefully plan every shot, choreographing each shot we’d shoot in London so that whilst in Sri Lanka, we could capture the process and make sure it worked within our designed set. Balancing the energy from our Sri Lankan adventure with the studio kitchen. We relied on our trusty storyboard to guide us, ensuring everything fit together in order to create a seamless blend of real-life moments, both exotic and familiar.
3D Projections
In collaboration with Creative Director Andy Peel from South Paw Agency, our goal was to immerse the viewer in Ahmad Tea's world, capturing the love and dedication behind every cup. To achieve this, we utilised projection mapping to showcase the journey from tea leaf to cup across all kitchen surfaces, creating a truly immersive experience.
Flavour Explosion
In the projections, moments are brought alive as flavours burst on screen, vividly representing the taste of Ahmad Tea. Using a Phantom Flex camera shooting at 1000 fps the challenge was to capture the precise moment the ingredients explode towards the lens.
Taste of Ahmad Tea
The finale is when our tea drinker takes her first sip and the entire process from tea leaf to the cup bursts with flavour. A combination of green screen and VFX allowed us to transport our tea drinker momentarily from the kitchen to a taste heaven before she finds herself back in her kitchen again.
Social Media
A number of social versions were created from the original advert in a variety of formats. These ranged from the full 60 seconds to a trilogy of 10 second portrait moments as seen here.