Swiss director Maxime Durand and Montreal art director Vincent Raineri elevate the interview-based brand film into new and visually dynamic territory for The North Face and their Summit range of mountaineering boots.

Vincent Raineri: “As the client is not seen as an expert in this type of footwear, they asked us to create a film based on athlete and designer interviews while keeping a reel focus on the products and the avant-garde positioning of the brand.

“Our goal was to create something totally different than the usual films based on interviews. To do so, we imagined a visual language based on print layouts: by mixing many different types of footage, we can create links between them and thus enhance the meaning and comprehension of the film.

“As the film is based on interviews, it was impossible to know upstream what the athletes or engineers will say. Thus, the structure had to be created during the process which made it complicated to define what you need to shoot.

“It’s always difficult for the client to project themselves into such a video. As you don’t have your final sources at the beginning of the project, nor the structure, and because the design is always evolving, you can’t really propose a proper storyboard.

“Hillton, the production company, did a great job on this point; they prepared the clients and explained to them carefully each step of this complex methodology. The North Face understood clearly the project’s evolution and gave us the freedom we needed to create something powerful and meaningful.”
 

 
Client: The North Face

Production: Hillton
Director: Maxime Durand
Art Director: Vincent Raineri
Producer: Alessandra Dolci
Director of Photography (Interviews): Grégory Bindschedler
Director of Photography (Packshots): David Baumann / Artaban.tv
Set Design (Packshots): Saskia Mata
Director of Photography (Mountain): Danya Schwertfeger
Post-Production Producer: Billy Bains
CGI: Maxime Durand
Color Grading: Maxime Durand
Motion Graphics: Vincent Raineri
Editor Interviews: Jannis Davi

Sound Design: Kambiz Aghdam
Sound Engineer (Interviews): Henry Michels