This one took a long time to finish, both due to lack of free time at the moment and me insisting on doing exactly what I had imagined, even though I had to create a shot that didn’t exist in the given footage. Naturally, that meant spending a lot of time in After Effects, which can be fun but also exhausting.

When I was working on the concept for this video, I fixated on the “in the days before the internet...” part. It reminded me of something timeless, which pushed me toward ideas of epicness and greatness. Together with the “open your mind” slogan, it led me to 2001: A Space Odyssey and its imagery, and I wanted to do something similar with the visuals. When I also realized that certain performances of Also sprach Zarathustra could be used without copyright issues (if I were doing a project for a real client; though I'm not sure I used the "correct one" because after all, this wasn't for a real client 🤣), everything clicked.

I wanted to use an ad style which was maybe more common in the 00s and early 10s, something I grew up with — for example, Schweppes ads, which were more slow-paced than recent ads, I think. I like that style, and I think it works well for a spirit brand.

So this is what came out. I’m not 100% satisfied, and I definitely need more practice making digital movement look smoother, especially when I combine multiple shots into one completely new shot. But overall, I think it mostly looks okay. It was a real test of patience and perseverance, and I learned a lot in the process.