the Craft

Q&As and behind-the-scenes info on the latest and greatest
commercials, shorts and music videos.

20^th Feb SUPER BOWL 2025

HowGoDaddygotGogginsingoggles

shots' Jamie Madge speaks to Go Daddy ECD Adam Nowak, Quality Meats' CCO Gordy Sang and Brian Siedband, and ProdCo director Ian Pons Jewell about the about the rug-pull Super Bowl campaign that had people clamouring over Walton Goggins' Goggle Glasses.

14^th Feb SUPER BOWL 2025

HowAliceMathiasbroughttheSuperBowlaudiencetotearsoverChamzo

The Gifted Youth director's showstopping spot for Totino's brought the creative team from niche Netflix hit I Think You Should Leave to a massive Super Bowl audience... and then had them spit out their dips. We sat down with Mathias to find out how she rocked the Big Game's most anarchic spot.

12^th Feb

How Ruairi Robinson used AI to dance with death

With footage created entirely using AI, the Joyrider director's mesmerising music video for electronic artist Steve Moore is a modern re-imagination of the medieval Danse Macabre. Here, Robinson shares how he fast-tracked the filmmaking process, why creating with AI should be fun, and the surprising feedback the promo received on social media.

11^th Feb SUPER BOWL 2025

How Jim Jenkins chased McConaughey through time

For its flagship Super Bowl spot, Uber Eats and agency Special Group enlisted Matthew McConaughey to explore a delicious conspiracy theory - that American Football was just a ruse invented to sell food. We sat down with O Positive director Jim Jenkins to get the skinny on how the era-jumping commercial was put together.

31^st Jan MUSIC VIDEO FOCUS

How OK Go turned a 'simple' concept into a 577-hour experiment

Co-directors Chris Buongiorno and Damian Kulash talk us through the extensive planning, numerical headaches, and mental stamina it took to shoot the A Stone Only Rolls Downhill music video.

30^th Jan MUSIC VIDEO FOCUS

How Coldplay's video is a window on the world(s)

Blinkink's Isabel Garrett shares the incredible feat of bringing 27 other filmmakers and artists together – in a mere four weeks – to create a patchwork planet in film: a montage musing on the variety of life through a multiplicity of POVs from around the globe.

17^th Jan MUSIC VIDEO FOCUS

How RUFFMERCY brought inhalation to his animation

Tasked with creating a dance-based promo inspired by the act of breathing, the animation director, aka Russ Murphy, explains how he used rotoscoped live action and hand-drawn animation to create his mesmerising music video for ANiML’s track Breather.

19^th Dec CHRISTMAS 2024

How McDonald's lit up Christmas

This holiday season, the fast food chain illuminated our screens with its dazzling, decoration-clad Christmas ad, The Gift of McDonald's. We caught up with the creatives at Black Kite Studios to find out how they meticulously blended lived action and animation to bring the festive joyride to life.

Spotlight

Some recent interviews in our "How To" series.

30^th Jul SPORT FOCUS

HowHenryHobsoncraftedanOlympicdouble-decathlon

shots speaks to director Henry Hobson about how he managed to put the viewer into 20+ sports through dazzling first-person photography for Discovery+.

8^th Jul SPORT FOCUS

HowFactoryFifteenfilledTokyowitheastereggs

The Nexus collective, made up of Kibwe Tavares, Jonathan Gales and Paul Nichols, tell us how pre- and post-Covid planning, animation, VFX and shoots 1000 miles apart combined to create a disorientating journey through an Olympics-themed Tokyo.

14^th Jun

HowSwyftmadeasofaadthatisn'tasofaad

We hear from the makers of a new campaign for sofa brand Swyft that aims to defy the conventions of more traditional sofa commercials .

10^th Jun

HowCraigDavidmovedthedialforKuruptFM

Things aren't all they seem in this Ollie Wolf directed hybrid promo for Kurupt FM that mixes classic promo tropes with some behind the scenes tomfoolery.

25^th May

Howtocutamusicvideowithacrewof500

For VANS' branded promo of JPEGMAFIA's track Prone, Final Cut editor Ryan Beck had the daunting task of sculpting a 2-minute megamix from fan-shot footage.

19^th Dec

How Benedict Cumberbatch turned the heat up on pension companies

Earlier this week saw the release of a new film for Make My Money Matter, with the campaign increasing the heat on an already hot topic. Here, Academy director Sophia Ray talks about working on the spot with award-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

9^th Dec

How Ford and W+K led the charge in a global race

In order to showcase the capabilities of the electric Ford Explorer, Wieden+Kennedy eschewed traditional advertising and instead chose to create a three-part Prime Video series documenting the 30,000 kilometer journey of the aptly named Lexie Limitless and her EV of choice. shots' Jamie Madge sat down with director Chris Faith, creative directors Dave Colman and Curro de la Villa, and producer Jennifer Lawlor to find out what made them Charge Around The Globe.

5^th Dec