The marriage between the understated power of New York-based QuietMan, one of the most respected VFX houses in advertising, and the melodic power of Brit supergroup Coldplay, has resulted in a uniquely kinetic, graffiti-inspired promo sponsored by American Express and featuring Coldplay’s brand new song, Paradise.

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The :60 promo is for a Coldplay show, to be directed by photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn, and will be projected behind the band when they play a major concert in a Madrid bullfighting ring at the end of this month as part of the online series American Express Unstaged. It will also be broadcast live on YouTube.

The job came to QuietMan through Steve Torrisi head of production at Digitas. QuietMan Founder and CD/Lead Flame Artist Johnnie Semerad reports that the initial idea was to shoot the band in a hotel room.

With QuietMan’s input, the job eventually morphed into something very different, with the band moving and performing against a stark white brick wall which appears to be in an alleyway, but which in fact was on a rooftop.

Johnnie, a big graffiti fan and music lover, notes that the whole approach to the shoot was “perfectly in sync” with the overall concept for the piece. “It turned into a big ‘found footage’ piece that just worked so well with the song,” he adds. “Right now, for me the art world is graffiti – that’s where the energy is, and so the concept just evolved very quickly and naturally from that.”

To execute the concept, the QuietMan team used live-action concert footage from four different camera angles for maximum coverage, and then approached the edit like a music video edit. With five designers and an editor working full-time on the project, the team scoured past Coldplay materials such as album covers and concert footage for graffiti elements, and then took those elements and used them to tell the story.

The resulting arresting visuals provide a perfect showcase for the band’s new song and QuietMan’s design skills and experience.

“Basically we created this big collage out of bits and pieces we found here and there,” explains Johnnie, “and we got it done in just a week. But we all appreciate the graffiti look, so it was one of those great fun jobs. I was here till 3:30 AM one morning, but I was so engrossed in it that it felt like just an hour.”

He also notes that jobs often call for something “that sounds like Coldplay – but here we were working with the real thing. That made it very special.”

Credits:
Client: American Express
Promo Title: Unstaged- Madrid


Agency: Digitas
CD(s): Thompson Harrell, Nick Zafonte
Producer: Ina Burke

Prod Co: QuietMan
Director: Johnnie Semerad
EP: Carey Gattyan
Producer: David Michaels

Editorial Co: QuietMan
Editor: Joe Kriksciun
Producer: David Michaels

Post/Effects Co: QuietMan
VFX Artist: Johnnie Semerad, Matt Stroub
Motion and Graphic Design: Anthony Ferrara, Mickey Dwyer, Ali Birns