This ad is cool. I first saw it about a year and a half ago when an agency in Singapore called me into their offices to talk about an idea they had for a commercial spot. It’s of the Rebel XSi.

There’s some background on the web regarding the making of this advert – for that 30s spot, Canon hired 10 photographers and over 70,000 shots were taken. Impressive.

The reason why I was pulled in was because the agency wanted to pitch a similar idea to their client (a corporate bank). They wanted me to shoot something based on the same concept with in a weekend. If the client then bought the idea, we’d go shoot the entire thing over another week. Never one to shirk from a challenge, we agreed our rate for the two days and hit the rugby fields (the chosen sport).

I shot a couple of thousand images in two intense 8 hours sessions. I had several hundred keepers from sequences that we pieced back together – enough for around 10 seconds or so. It looked cool. The agency went and pitched the idea based on the shots. Unfortunately, while the client loved the images – and the concept – it was a little too “edgy” for their conservative, corporate background. They went with some stock stills in the end to classical music! Oh well – can’t win ‘em all but was a lot of fun putting the pitch together. Attached are a few of the outtakes – and watch that ad: