NY-based editorial shop Fluid editor Michael Elliot teams up with Eskimo director Charles Nordeen to deliver New Yorkers their morning coffee with clothing on the side in 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 astore in New York with baristas and café-goers wearing body paint. The video catches unsuspecting customers finding that their daily coffee experience is on this day anything but—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 a wealth of 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 undiscovered 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 piece that truly told a story. To streamline the process, Elliot 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 notes. “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.”
Credits:
Client: Nestlé
Brand: Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss
Title: “The Natural Bliss Café – Surprisingly Natural” 1:33 / :30
Agency: 360i
Chief Creative Officer: Pierre Lipton
Group Creative Director: Michael Nuzzo
Creative Directors: Tim Hancock, Michael Condrick
Art Directors: Michael Dooley, John Ta
Senior Art Producer: Dana Eisenberg
Editorial: Fluid NY
Editor: Michael Elliot
Assistant Editor: Evan Johnston
Producer: Valerie Iorio
EP: Laura Relovsky
Production: Eskimo
Director: Charles Nordeen
Audio Mix: Mister Bronx/Cody Zapata
Colorist: Shawn King
Flame Artist: Fluid NY/Chris David & Cliff Moller
About Fluid
Fluid is a creative editorial company crafting commercials and content across all platforms, located in Soho, NYC.