Velocity's Keith Rose Directs a Daring Urban Escape for Carling Black Label

Dynamic, beautiful, intriguing, fast-paced and hugely entertaining, building upon the already strong and recognisable spirit of Carling Black Label, this commercial breaks new ground, yet still honours the strengths and brand values of the previous campaign. Epic, definitely, but most importantly it has plenty of heart. 

The breathtaking commercial, conceptualised by Ogilvy Cape Town, was a labour of love brought to life over several months after intense collaboration between advertising agency, production house Velocity Films and client South African Breweries.

Filmed in Cape Town over six nights, preparation included street lock-offs of epic proportions in order to secure and control several city blocks to work in. The 160 strong crew, technical expertise and equipment that was required to realise this mini feature film included cable cam rigs for the opening scene, multiple specialised cameras, tracking vehicles mounted with crane arms and remote camera heads, allowing Keith Rose and his team to track alongside, behind and in front of the horse.

With the commercial’s success so reliant on the performance of an animal, Velocity Films looked to world renowned animal trainers Sled Reynolds and Tamara Andrews from Los Angeles who spent five weeks in South Africa in advance of the shoot training and prepping up to five horses to play the lead role. Local horse wrangler Michelle Mazurkiewicz was integral in coordinating the shoot and supplying all the hero horses. Naturally the horses safety and welfare was paramount and training and filming was overseen at all times by a team experts.

Simply put, this is a big, exciting, rollercoaster of a film. It’s got action, tension, drama and a hugely rewarding finale. Keith Rose once again at his very best, his skill and passion clearly evidenced in a production full of character and spirit.