Section80 and director Federico Mazzarisi take us to the racing underworld in an epic commercial to launch the new Puma x Nemen SS21 collection.
The technicality of the products by NEMEN, an Italian brand that combines quality and innovation without compromise, has met the sporting DNA of PUMA.
The result is a collaborative capsule collection that draws on the heritage of both brands and gives life to a series of unique products, in terms of silhouette, aesthetics, and materials.
The environment from which the duo decided to draw inspiration for the realization of this partnership is the world of motorsport. For this reason, inside the PUMA x NEMEN capsule, there are garments of clothing inspired in all respects by racing uniforms, from the positioning of co-branding prints, through the use of PUMA technologies, to the textile refinement that distinguishes NEMEN’s work. Technical products are then flanked by a selection of basic products such as sweatshirts, t-shirts, and crewnecks.
The launch film of the collection has been produced by the Italian company Section80 and directed by the YDA winner Federico Mazzarisi.
How did your skills and vision contribute to the success of the project?
Federico Mazzarisi: The film aimed to establish a clear connection between the clothes and the racing DNA that inspired the collaboration between the two brands. For six months we have been working closely with PUMA on research to avoid using clichés and stay away from conventional choices. The key was to find the right balance between the story of the bosses and the driving sequences. In the film, we alternate the hyper-real technical world with macro shots of the clothes and extremely realistic scenarios in which we observe the process of designing the product and the machine.
My experience (Golden Goose and Eyes On The City) in shooting unconventional automotive stories and my interest in casual culture and sportswear they helped brands find their aesthetic in this special collaboration. During the research, I continued to seek and propose creative solutions and original ideas to make crafting and tell the concept with different and unconventional choices. My intent is always to differentiate myself, the most important thing for me is to find my point of view and a unique style of voice to tell the story/concept, both in cinema and in advertising.
Thanks to personal experiments with macro vision, I came up with the idea of shooting clothes as if they were on a running track, using dynamic movements, confusing and alternating the action and driving sequences with pyrotechnic shots made with the use of a special macro lens and a rotating head.
What was the biggest challenge of this project?
Federico Mazzarisi: As with most of these digital films, we had to work with a very limited budget. Thanks to Section80 we have found creative and original ideas to optimize the budget without giving up the heart of my aesthetic vision. We have divided the production into two phases of recovery. In Italy, we shot the textile and factory scenes, while we went to Kyiv for the driving sequences, shot with Russian arm and rotating head.
With Section80 we have a unique way to approach our work. Over the years we have established an active process that stimulates each other; having a constructive dialogue with a producer who understands your visual language helps me as a director and feeds my imagination with new and tailored solutions; together we evaluate which are the best choices for the project and how best to implement them.
I am aware that we push in the same direction: every time we try to create the best possible content and we want to keep pushing to make the best possible film, always.
