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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Johnny Walker Bruce Lee ad finally released! Epics/Master Primes

As a reduser I congratulate the work and the effort. As a Bruce Lee fan I find this ratter insulting to the memory of one of the most iconic film figures of all time. And putting his famous words in a Whisky commercial sounds distasteful to say the least. Anyway, I'm sure the Bruce lee estate allowed this. They are more the ones to blame to allow this going forward...
 
Yea, his daughter Shannon was intimately involved with the project.
 
Christopher Probst said:
Yea, his daughter Shannon was intimately involved with the project.
Click to expand...

Well, Bruce might be rolling on his grave, but I'm sure her daughter is rolling on big money for this.
 
Even on Vimeo HD mode it's still highly compressed so the CG doesn't stand out to me. I actually avoided looking for it and just let the commercial itself play out. Sergio has a very good point about the connection between a company that sells alcohol, a rather unhealthy beverage, in contrast to the physical specimen that Bruce is/was. Of course, money always trumps taste, so no surprise that they are doing it and I didn't know Bruce nor do I know his family, so I can't really make an informed commentary about whether this is insulting to their family. I also do not know what commercials Bruce actually starred in when he was alive. For all I know, maybe he did a beer commercial back in the day. Anyway, Chris it looks good and as I said I wasn't analyzing the CG. To me, it's about capturing a feel, a mood and you accomplished that for sure. Nice job!
 
Cmon guys,

I'm sure similar concerns were raised when Volkswagen advertised with Gene Kelly or Galaxy Chocolate with Audrey Hepburn. After all chocolate causes diabetes and obesity and cars kill people ;)
But seriously, its an ad for Johnny Walker Blue...thats a $600 bottle....its not like they used him to advertise Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Nobody can possibly judge the circumstances through which this concept came to life....unless they are familiar with the inner workings, moral & financial circumstance of Bruce Lee's estate.
if we are really stiring the morale pot here, yes alcohol is unhealthy and Bruce was an amazingly fit, healthy and spiritual guy....but then...how much violence got conveyed through many of his movies and how many people beaten up in them ?

As far as I understand Christopher was the cinematographer on this project, not the creative director.
This place is about red & cinematography and this is a piece to be proud of...lets be honest....if Johnny Walker came knocking on our doors asking to do what we love while shooting a high profile campaign for them, who would refuse that ?
 
It's a nice Ad :)

I do like the more moody/blue/reflection lighting - as that also helps integrate the CG more (plus I presume the stand-in also will have provided a pretty good lighting ref for the CG).

Personally, I prefer this to the Audrey TVC, as they made the fatal error of too many blinks in that one - and it became more fake because of it.

The test to see how realistic should be showing it to someone who doesn't know who Bruce Lee is... as our frame of reference is always based upon the knowledge that the actor is dead.

Good job all round, IMO.
 
Dominik Muench said:
if we are really stiring the morale pot here, yes alcohol is unhealthy and Bruce was an amazingly fit, healthy and spiritual guy....
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And this doesn't seem "a bit off" ?

Dominik Muench said:
but then...how much violence got conveyed through many of his movies and how many people beaten up in them ?
Click to expand...

Not sure I follow your logic.
Or the general justificafion of well crafted imagery with disregard to moral values which affect the health of society.

Surely a reasonable men with concern should have the freedom to express their opinion about this matter, no ? Unless you suggest everyone should just shut up in awe to pretty imagery served to the masses, regardless of it's meaning, message and purpose, with colleagues petting themselves on the back with complete lack of responsibility towards the society which their work affects.

Reactions like these are not directed to the craftsmen but to the mindsets which abuse their talent and expertise.
Looking at the state of the world, with an awareness wider from chasing individual gain, multiple signs keep suggesting that it might be a good time to start paying attention and pull heads out of the sand.
 
The CGI looks disturbingly fake to me, the texture of the skin is totally wrong and the eyes are soulless , bordering on anime', which takes my brain out of the story and into the realm of "something is wrong here".

No thank you.
 
EDITED:

This best reflects my true filling about it all, now that I am more sensitive to the video it self and the nice work done, instead of reflecting my current situation with a beloved one that made me say what really was not what I wanted to say about this piece, this is Art and it should be taken as such.


Great work Christopher!
 
Hrvoje Simic said:
And this doesn't seem "a bit off" ?
Click to expand...


Not necessarily, that doesn't mean he couldn't have been a connoisseur and enjoyed a glass or two every now and then ??

I'm usually not one to avoid ethical and social discussions and I'm glad there are people out there quite concerned with these issues.
I merely tried to point out that this might not be ideal place as this most likely wasn't the intend of the threat starter who was probably hoping for a more craft related discussion about the work.

I agree with you on the state issue, the good time should have been long ago though, well before they started with reality tv and casting shows, which I see more of an actuation to the decline of social and ethical values than a classy tvc for a brand like this. no harm intended.... I'm a scotch fan and just got excited about the ad ^^
 
I'm not sure that alcohol is any less of an addiction than lust after nude images or violence. Some peoples lives have been affected dramatically by the destructiveness of alcohol. Similarly, others lives have been dramatically affected by those who shoot and promote nude and half-nude women for a living. Call it art, but it can still promote a dehumanization of women and is a contributing factor in acts of rape and adultery, etc...

This website explains it well.... http://www.unearthedpictures.com/

But again, this isn't a morality forum, so good job Chris.
 
Hey Christopher, just my two cents, the spot is beautifully shot. Really love the look, framing and lightening. So, from your side of the fence, awesome work.

The CG, however, is horrendous and does the rest of the visuals, in my opinion, a disservice. It's so far into the valley that is is almost laughable. It's a tough thing to pull-off, there are so few good examples of it working and on a commercial budget and timeline I give them credit for giving it a try, but in the end it's only distracting and ineffective. They took a shot and failed, hopefully the next attempt will be more successful.

As an admire of Bruce Lee, I will say I find it crass and offensive. As a regular customer of Johnnie Walker, I would have hoped they were above this sort of advertising, but sadly it appears not.
 
Bruce Lee as a brand has been used many times, in print adds, with his likeness, etc. An interesting comparison is with this Nokia and Johnnie Walker commercials. The Nokia one is a tribute, playing with the physical attributes and style of Lee and actually selling a product that relates to him, even if its just a limited edition phone. In the Johnny Walker Commercial, they bring him back from the dead, say his "words of wisdom" and knowledge in the context of... a whisky. In my view, this is tasteless. I can imagine a next TV Commercial with Gandhi saying his words to sell Beer next, with consent from the Gandhi family... Or maybe they bring back Heath Ledger in CGI form for a Mcdonalds commercial... Again, in my humble opinion, there's something really wrong here. I don't like it. And I do like Johnny Walker. Its my favourite Scotch.
 
This is the third such ad I've seen now in the past month -- bringing former stars back from the dead. I truly hope this is not a new trend that we'll have to endure. From a production and CGI perspective, this one holds up pretty well. To echo the sentiments of others -- I say well done! from a production point of view. Way better than the Audrey Hepburn ad where her face just looped the same eye blinks and expressions.

I'm a Bruce Lee fan, sure, but I fail to see the point here and totally question the motive behind this one. Knowing that Bruce Lee did not drink, as part of his quest for both physical and spiritual harmony, I find it unlikely that he would willingly make such an endorsement himself if he were still here today. I realize his daughter has rights to his estate and image, but some things just need to be marked with a huge "WTF?"
 
I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting him to smash the competitors product with some num-chucks at least. ;)
 
This was the companion piece shot at the same time for the Thai market...


I am a big Bruce Lee fan too and I personally don't find any conflict in the message delivered in the spot. They only used lines he actually said or that were philosophically very close to something Bruce said. That Johnny Walker is saying, "we agree with what this guy said, be bold, be yourself..." I don't have a problem with that. Many advertisements use archival footage of famous people who achieved greatness and try to make a correlation to their product in terms of innovation, stability or revolutionary thoughts. The ONLY difference here is that we created a semblance of the character stating these ideas.
 
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I think it would be even wiser to look at phenomenon from a wider context. For me, the Audrey Hepburn one, was like someone had accidentally plugged one of those Real Dolls into life. I watched it knowing nothing about it, and spotted the fake / unnatural feel of that bot a mile away. In this case the VFX is better but still quite dead and emotionless.

From a wider context, I find it absolutely creepy that this is somehow an acceptable form of expression, purely from the stand point of distorting the legacy of a human. I mean, what if marketeers decide that the personified image of an individual fits the brief or a brand of a company. Breathing life into historical or glamours individuals under the pretense that the estate owner has authorized it seems utterly grotesque to me. What we thought was acceptable 50 years ago is NOT acceptable today.

My two cents
 
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