L’Oréal Show Visuals

The show team content is the highlight of the L’Oréal Colour Trophy campaign for our creative team. We work closely with L’Oréal and partner brands to create fashion film visuals to compliment the live choreographed catwalk performances. 

Senior Creative, Chris Light, led the campaign this year and pushed his post-production skills to new limits. Here are some highlights from the shows and some words from Chris about the creative process. 

You’ve worked on the L’Oréal Colour Trophy for a while.
How was this year defferent to previous years?

I have worked on the L’Oréal Colour Trophy every year since I began working with Clockwise in 2016, and each year feels new to me. We work with different creative ideas, visualising a wide range of concepts, and collaborating with various brand partners. I love the variety of the work. This year in particular felt like a very different beast, as the event became virtual. Rather than thinking about the live elements of the show, we had to bring that energy through our video content.

The campaign started before the pandemic, so there was a lot of change on the journey. How did you navigate this? 

This project faced many obstacles and pitfalls, as it started during those very difficult times in 2020. Naturally, this had an effect on the content we were making, and when we were able to go out on shoot. We have a very clear line of communication with L’Oréal and have helped each other battle through tough terrain. We have collaborated in new ways to get the hairdressing industry back on its feet, and now we are able to go out and do what we love again.

There are many stakeholders involved in this project.
How does the creative process work? 

Due to the magnitude of this competition, there are many voices. From the L’Oréal team and the partner brands to the make-up artists we work with on set. It sounds quite chaotic on paper, but in reality, it works! We are all in it for the same reasons. Everyone wants to make the best content possible. When there are differences of opinion, we all group towards the common cause. We work collaboratively to make sure the videos and the shows are the best they can possibly be.

There is a lot of VFX in the content this year.
What specific techniques and software did you use? 

This year there was a strong VFX focus. This was driven by lockdown restrictions, so we needed to pursue a new creative direction. I’m constantly on a pursuit to improve my VFX skills and try new techniques. I wanted to push myself and L’Oréal wanted to see something fresh. It was an adventure for all of us and there was a lot of trust in the partnership. These projects involved a lot of motion tracking and rotoscoping, which is very time-consuming. The main step of the production process was creating 3D environments and compositing the green screen footage. The compositing software available now is mind-blowing compared to when I started in the industry.

Tell us about the grand final. What was it like to see the screen content in situ with the catwalk shows and performances? Did everything come together as planned? 

Seeing the content I had produced on massive screens at Battersea Evolution was awesome. It was very rewarding seeing it all come together. We were on-site for rehearsals in case we needed to make last-minute tweaks to the show content, but everything ran smoothly.

What was the highlight of this year’s campaign for you? 

The TONI&GUY show was the biggest highlight for me. It was such an ambitious shoot to achieve in one day, across two separate studios, with several very different lighting setups. After weeks of planning, seeing that all come together was really satisfying. We shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini with Cooke lenses on a Steadicam. We could load up and shoot so fluidly without wasting time with too much rigging. Aesthetically that was definitely the right camera and lens pairing for this project. Having the opportunity to shoot at 100FPS on the Alexa totally changed the mood of the footage. The lighting really complimented the reflective garments worn by the models.

Anything else you want to add? 

From the outset, this was a very ambitious project, and it would not have been achievable with some clients. I believe what we pulled off is partly due to the strong collaborative partnership we have with L’Oréal. It took a lot of trust from them and the partner brands to give us the creative freedom to make this content. I hope they feel their trust was well placed.

Clockwise’s flexibility and agility in finding creative solutions to this complex and demanding event is hugely appreciated. A special thank you to Chris for your great energy and all the incredible show team VTs. Also, thank you to Dan for your continuous support , the endless stings and of course, the ultimate Ode to the 65th VT”

GM, Education and Professional Development PPD UKI.