A slice of pre-pandemic life

As an editor, I’m used to doing a lot of sitting around while I work, confined to my desk and the four walls around me. 

Still, like everyone else who's been locked up inside for the better part of the past year, I’ve experienced just as much frustration thinking about a life I haven’t fully lived. Frustration, but plenty of excitement too. And while we’re set to sit and stew for a little while longer, that excitement continues to build, transforming into energy and lighting a fire under our collective behinds. 

I’m seeing edits that are driven by the rhythm of life; sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but all brimming with a passion for what’s to come. 

I’m seeing it in new work; creative ideas full of energy, excitement and a yearning for the intensity of a life we’re all missing, or looking forward to. I’m seeing edits that are driven by the rhythm of life; sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but all brimming with a passion for what’s to come. We’re sick of sitting around - literally, and figuratively - and it shows in the work.

Above: Stitch's Adriana Legay.

Spontaneity

For a conveniently literal example of what I mean, take a look at this commercial from Seat’s Vivez Intensément [Live Large] campaign. A celebration of spontaneity, this is a commercial that’s all about getting up and going, about spitting in the face of contemplation and living life in short, giddy bursts. All of this is helped along by an edit that’s just as excited to get out and live, set to a track that samples Sammy Davis Jr crooning The Rhythm of Life, which is exactly what this spot gives us, a snapshot of impulse and spontaneity, an ode to freedom. Not on a grand, existential scale, but on a slightly more hedonistic level that I’m sure a lot of us are craving.

This is a commercial that’s all about getting up and going, about spitting in the face of contemplation and living life in short, giddy bursts.

Impulsive nights out aren’t necessarily everyone’s idea of universal post-pandemic liberation, but this ad does a fine job of showcasing the kind of spontaneity that we’ve lived without for almost a year now, and the edit supports that sensibility every step of the way. The film marches in step to the music and its subject's off-the-cuff movements, rarely lingering on anything other than the vehicle it’s showcasing. The result is a film full of the intensity of life and an excitement for the future; a commercial that reminds us about what we have to look forward to, not what we’re missing.

Passion

But that intensity of life isn’t reserved for the wild world outside our homes. More intimate, universal stories can be told with that same excitement and intensity. Look at this new campaign for Tommee Tippees, a commercial that instantly struck me with a similar kind of passion, backed by another kinetic edit that is packed with get-up-and-go. 

We’re carried along by an edit that is bold and brash, that swings hard but slows down for softer beats when it needs to. It’s an edit that manages to be both tender and assertive.

This spot is also a celebration; this time, a celebration of womanhood, of motherhood; an ode to all forms of baby feeding. While the Seat spot asks us to act on impulse after a year spent sitting on our bums thinking about what we’re missing, Boob Life confronts us with a different kind of urgency. It’s a battle cry, a call to arms, underlined with a rousing war-drum beating us into action. It rallies mothers to feel confident about how and when they breastfeed their baby, unshackled from the societal pressures that say otherwise. This film captures women in a way that is still considered taboo by much of society, and delights in its breaking free. We get skin, we get sensation, we get smiles, and it makes sure to have us smiling along with it.

The end result is an unyielding, honest and - most of all - joyful film. To get there, we’re carried along by an edit that is bold and brash, that swings hard but slows down for softer beats when it needs to. It’s an edit that manages to be both tender and assertive, oscillating between moments that are intimate and moments that are in-your-face, balanced wonderfully to a steady, rousing rhythm. This is an important subject, full of truth, but we shouldn’t be afraid to find the humour in the truth. Which is exactly what this ad does, it wants us to think, but it also wants us to smile - a combination made possible by a fast-paced, passionate and joyful edit.

Joy

Speaking of joy, this commercial for ParionsSport is full of it. The edit communicates jubilation not by speeding up, but by slowing down, giving life to the kind of joy that comes out of moments that seem to defy the rules of time. Football fans - at home, in bars, in cafes, at the beach - watch on in zealous slow-mo as a winning goal is scored. Most left elated, others depressed, but throughout we get a sense of life being lived to its fullest, sharing our love of the game with others in short bursts of emotion that seem to last forever.

The edit takes time to give us a sense of the spaces where people come together, and a sense of the people themselves.

This commercial is certainly a celebration of that kind of communal freedom and intensity we’ve been missing in life, but it’s also a celebration of the multiculturalism and sense of global community that is, or certainly should be, indivisible from the sport. Accordingly, the edit takes time to give us a sense of the spaces where people come together, and a sense of the people themselves. The moments they experience are short, so the editor slows the cuts in order for us to fully appreciate the range of emotions within.

Celebration

This final commercial, for Nikon Lenswear, does the opposite of the ParionsSport spot in order to capture a lifetime. This story also starts with a moment - or as the narrator would have it, a 'detail'. That tiny detail kicks off a story that leaps from first dates to late nights on the town, to road trips and long-distance migrations. It’s a celebration of love and the tiny moments that lead to it, told through moment after moment. 

There’s so much pre-pandemic experience here it’s enough to trigger social distancing-anxieties.

There’s so much life here, it almost feels like a feature-length love story, packed into a scant 60-seconds. But those 60 seconds are more than enough to give us a taste of life at its fullest. Indeed, there’s so much pre-pandemic experience here it’s enough to trigger social distancing-anxieties (why are they touching? Where’s all the PPE? How is that nightclub not getting raided!?) Still, like all of these ads, it’s not teasing us with what we’re missing out on, it’s just a reminder of life outside the pandemic and of how much there is of it is left to experience. We get an edit that crescendos in intensity, bouncing rhythmically from one moment to the next. It’s an edit that moves in excited but measured leaps and bounds, with an eagerness for a taste of the life in the story it’s telling.