We really enjoyed viewing the final images from Zurich-based photography duo Scanderbeg Sauer’s recent commission for the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). For the campaign, Andreana (Scanderbeg) and Alexander (Sauer) traveled around Switzerland to photograph real people in diverse business sectors to promote OFCOM’s new Internet domain, .swiss. The team completed the images—which featured a brewery, a culture and convention center, a coffee roasting establishment, a meat refinery and a tourism organization—with some fantastic CGI work that makes it seem like the subjects are interacting with and posing around the .swiss domain. Check out the final shots below:
The agency (Farner Consulting) and OFCOM chose Scanderbeg Sauer based on their formal photography but asked them to bring their unique visual expression to the project. Andreana and Alexander were thrilled to combine their CGI work with their photography.
After more than 10 years of Scanderbeg Sauer Photography we decided to break fresh ground … and this project has shown us clearly that we want to consistently expand our CGI services in the future.
The Swiss government’s goal is to support companies that invest and create jobs in Switzerland. Andreana and Alexander’s job was to reflect the values of the new .swiss domain, like quality, precision and reliability. After setting the locations and the protagonists, the client left it up to Andreana and Alexander to scout and plan the shots.
We spent quite some time on scouting and planning. It was especially difficult to get the desired angle for the Arosa Tourismus image. We had to bring a cherry picker to the top station of an imposing peak, where we enjoyed one of the most beautiful views of Switzerland during our shoot.
Andreana and Alexander say that doing both photography and CGI work on set was quite challenging.
In the first stage, we did the location shot together with a reference object. The next step was to create the .swiss CGI letters on set, render that as a mask and enter it back into our camera software. That allowed us to place apple boxes and placeholders on the set so our protagonists could fit perfectly in the shooting scene. We were able to handle those steps quite quickly, effectively and easily, and the response has been very positive
Another challenge for Andreana and Alexander was having CEOs and staff members involved in the shoots. Although they are accustomed to working with real people on set, it’s always challenging to run a production with so many people and equipment (especially in remote regions or in a refrigerated warehouse). Luckily, as always, good preparation and organization from the Scanderbeg Sauer team made the production as smooth as possible.
The most important lesson we learned from this production is that it’s a significant advantage to be able to do the CGI integration directly on the set by ourselves. It’s a bit time-consuming, but on the other hand it gives us a great flexibility and freedom to create and react on a specific situation on the set.
To see more of Scanderbeg Sauer’s work, visit scanderbegsauer.com.
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