Project Story
Opici Wines’ New Brand-statement
Opici Wines is known for what it distributes, the unique design on their bottles, and their multi-generational family brand. It seems more and more that everyone appreciates a business that lets down their guard and shows their vulnerability. When they wanted to make their brand more human, they chose Greenroom Communications.
“First of all, the owner is the coolest guy,” says Zak Ciotti, Director of Production at Greenroom Communications, “and he has such a talented and fun crew that he surrounds himself with.” Stereotypes readily coming to mind about what a company like this represents, it was a blast writing the copy with their creative department and Greenroom’s. “We look for moments to direct actors and non-actors that naturally pop up all of a sudden,” Ciotti says. It’s Greenroom’s unique style of writing mixed with onsite-spontaneity that brings people to the near-boutique agency.
Greenroom Communications Creative Director and Partner, Penn Holderness, joked around with the employees that stepped in as talent “Now stroke your beard while nodding your head and drinking!” Holderness’s directing style is all about seizing the moment – if it is funny at the time of the shoot, pivoting right then and there is his specialty. Holderness and Ciotti flew to New York, NY and drove to the mainland where Opici Wines’ warehouse was located. They had provided us the space to film exactly what they needed, but the Opici product wasn’t the only one in their warehouse. “So we had to improvise,” says Ciotti. “By setting up the shots just right, we could spend less time in post-production correcting the boxes that were labelled with other company logos.”
“By setting up the shots just right, we could spend less time in post-production correcting…”
Boxes & Boxes
A beautiful shot in the warehouse was a choice spot that placed our protagonist right in the middle of a very different setting. Each scene had plenty of wine boxes, but this one had them in the foreground, in the background, in layers. With some photos of the correct wine cases, we turned a few stacks of a different brand into the Opici Wine brand. When something added to an image is adjusted to make it appear like it belonged there in the first place, this is what is called “compositing.”
Boxes in Motion
In some situations it’s more appropriate to plan to do a little extra instead of sacrificing options for easier shots. In one of the scenes, a muscle-man, wine-enthusiast pops his cork when he seems to have woken up right in the middle of the warehouse. The slap-zoom was most amusing to reveal the quantity of wine located around him in one of the aisles. By adding additional effects and motion tracking, the compositing had a more natural appearance in the frames. At a glance and when focused on the subject, any faults in the process go completely unnoticed.
Cleaning the Office
The production provided a small carpentry crew who manufactured a fake wall. There was one stream of natural light blazing in from the ceiling that was changing shape and position every minute. We opted to remove it in post. It was a brief scene, again, where your eyes are drawn to the subject.
See the final product here:
For more information on Opici Wines, please visit their website at: .