Carlton Crown Lager /
Australia’s Finest
A brewery’s commitment to sourcing the finest ingredients available.
WEB & TV
Project work
Film Direction
Creative Direction
Creative Development
Post Supervision
Location
Victoria, Australia
BBDO approached me to work with them to create a campaign for Carlton Crown Lager, a brewery with a rich legacy as Australia’s premium lager. As the marketplace was beginning to saturate with all different types of new brews, the brand wanted to remind its audience of what’s always made their beer so special. Our objective was twofold: to showcase the finest ingredients grown exclusively for Crown and to pay tribute to the master growers who produce them.
Visually, we wanted to capture this relationship between farmer, crop and land in a way that was cinematic, but also authentic. We chose to film the campaign in sharp contrast black and white to help create that feeling and to differentiate the brand.
In advance of shooting, I traveled the Victorian countryside with DP Geoffrey Simpson, location scouting but also taking some time to meet the farmers and producers before filming them. It seems like a simple detail, but when working with real people, the results are remarkably different when you’ve already broken bread. It’s a wonderful chance to invite them into the process and often leads to uncovering something special that you’d just never get to otherwise. And on this project, that kind of collaboration was going to be especially necessary as we had one huge challenge: we had to figure out how to make these portrait films impressionable even though we were shooting in the winter.
From the scouting photos, we worked to lay out ideas for the kinds of vignettes that would read well on-camera and still work even though the fields were largely fallow. The result captures the history, family spirit, and quality that the best barley and hops bring to a great beer.
I had such a blast working on the Australia’s Finest campaign with Australia’s Finest Creative Director’s, Jim and Couz. Photo by the brilliantly talented Christopher Tovo. These guys are family to me now.
Wouldn't be a proper Australian farm without a kelpie or two to do the herding.
Grain storage filled with barley.
DP Geoffrey Simpson, a gentleman and a scholar, framing up.
Victorian farm country roads.
A kelpie showing off some acrobatics. These pups are trained to run on top of the backs of sheep. Photo by Geoffrey Simpson.
A portrait of the remarkably charming and talented producer Ian Iveson. Photo by Geoffrey Simpson.
Another angle on grain silos.
Geoffrey Simpson caught a snap of me in silhouette.
Sound recordist, Bart Bee, catching a break before a storm.
Team
Agency Clemenger BBDO
ECD Ant Keogh
CD Ben Couzens and Jim Ingram
Agency Producer Sevda Cemo
Production Revolver
Director Keith Ehrlich
Managing Director Michael Ritchie
Exec Producer Pip Smart
Producer Ian Iveson
Director of Photography Geoffrey Simpson
Production Designer Seth Aitken
Editor Michael Lutman
Colorist Edel Rafferty