BAKCELL BY
MARCO & GIOVANNI
SEE WHAT'S POSSIBLE

INTRO

INTRO

Thank you a million for sending over this script and for allowing us to elaborate on the project. This film gives us a unique chance of creating something truly memorable and worthy, and the following are a few initial thoughts on how we capture the fleeting, but incredibly human stories with that same invigorating authenticity.

This spot will be authentic, engaging, and surprisingly profound, positioning the ‘Bakcell’ brand as a great inspiration and vital enabler of ‘seeing and achieving what’s possible’.

This is the spot that will emphasize the national pride of Azerbaijani people, and compel the ‘Bakcell’ sincere devotion to making the country greater and more progressive in any imaginable way. We will compel this national idea and love to the motherland through the images of beautiful places and heartiness of people of Azerbaijani.

So please, join us in this mesmerizing journey and

discover ‘Bakcell’ devotion and Azerbaijani beauty with us…

Great explores, courageous adventurers, hospitable hosts and simply good people – that is how ‘Bakcell’ sees its customers.

And our goal is to deliver and transcend this admiration of the people

and the country through stunning images and impressive visual experience.

IDEA & APPROACH

The idea of this spot is to present the poignant and vivid moments of human lives, and to underline Backcell’s role in it. With the help of impressive visuals and persuasive performance ‘Bakcell’ will allure you into the story full of feelings, pride and inspiration. ‘Bakcell’ have come up with an excellent message – ‘See what’s possible!’ – act, do something, influence and therefore, change the world around you.
The approach we have chosen is very cinematic and emotional. We
are describing sincere moments of everyday life of ordinary
people: men and women, Azerbaijani national and guests, adults
and kids. And our greatest mission as filmmakers, is to deliver these
moments with sheer honesty and deep emotion.

Our goal is to create a touchy and captivating spot that will motivate people with its raw honesty and beauty.

The drama of each moment is exploreded and cherished, and it creates the same level of emotion in the viewers as it does in the characters. We cut right into the heart of every scene to discover the simple but so poignant emotions that are very relatable to the audience. It’s a set of simple stories in terms of plot, but very deep it terms of emotional lining and motivation.

LOOK & FEEL

This film will be visually stunning, but above it, it will have a touching emotional core that makes it personal and accessible to all viewers. We explore all the shades of human emotions in challenging and aspirational moments of their life, and we expose the deepest feelings of the viewers to themselves through candid cinematic prism.

And through this personal experience and strong emotions we make the spot relatable and appealing.
In order to achieve this level of emotive devotion and connection, the real emphasis must be placed on the casting and performance, so that from the very first frame there’s an instant and strong bond established with the audience.

The scale of emotion and the established strong bond with the characters will keep viewers at the edge of their sit till the final resolution in the movie.

On top of this, we should build the drama and not give away all of the story up-front. By capturing unusual angles, elements and moments, and weaving them into the dramatic crescendo of the script, we’ll have a strong narrative thread. The edit will help us to create an intrigue, and to keep viewer excited and interested to

follow the characters’ lives.

Tilda Publishing

Our spot is like an ode to Azerbaijan – it cinematically cherishes
rough landscape and pure water, wide smiles of its citizens and
deep connection they share.

The success of this spot lies in the visual balance between the
wider images proving grandeur of Azerbaijan landscapes and
architecture and closer shots resembling the touchiness of its
people healthfulness and sincerity.
Finally, strong editing and post-production will let us “lock-in” to all the key moments in the script with maximum emotional impact once it’s set to an epic soundtrack with motivating voiceover.

And the product is there in almost every scene to reinsure that ‘Bakcell’ is always there to fuel customers’ curiosity and confidence, and be their inspiration for the day-to-day achievements.

NARRATIVE

We very much like the scripts as they stand now. Maybe a few alterations in terms of mood and light will be applicable, but in the end it all happens on the pre-production and the shoot itself, once we meet the cast and explore the locations to find out the best ways to convey the message.

We open with an incredible drone shot of enormous Azerbaijani forest. We cut right into the thick woods to discover a group of young men making their way through a forest. With the steadycam we follow the people in the woods. Cut closer to discover one of the guys holding a smartphone with a Google Maps navigator turned on. ‘Bakcell’ supports them in the most distant places.


- What moves us forward?


Cut to little lovely girl, the granddaughter, who spreads her arms wide to hug her dearest grandfather. In the next frame, she sits on his lap and carefully reads him a text from his phone’s screen, strongly articulating like only the young kids do. Grandfather cuddles her hair and he responds her with a loving and grateful look.



- What makes us better?


- What makes us who we are?
We cut to see a macro shot of one beautiful eye, and than cut wider to
see already two eyes of different color on attractive female face. Her uniqueness is mesmerizing. Her sight is focused on something that we yet cannot see.



In a reverse shot, we see the girl in art studio. She stares on a huge empty canvas, and the
moment later she spreads a full brush of sky-blue paint on it. Swift and meticulous gesture
confirms her expertise and talent. We feel that the masterpiece will be impressive in the end.

- We are what we imagine.
Cut to a view from a plane window on a night-time Baku. We see a young man looking through the window and snapping a photo of this astonishing landscape. Cut to the same young man heading his way through the empty night
airport. He looks down on his screen and subtly smiles to himself. We cut onto the screen to see the app sending off a photo that he has just taken..

- Imagine the world full of possibilities.


We cut to an intensive compilation of close ups of various smartphones in people’s hands. It is essential to see them using Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, as well as Bakcell apps: Ulduzum, Roaming, Menim Bakcellim.


- Look at them.



We cut to cashier desk of the retail shop, branded with Ulduzum POS materials. We discover a happy consumer showing the screen of her smartphone to the cashier. The cashier looks back with gratefulness and smiles.





- Benefit from them.




- Ask a question.

Next, with a drone shot we reveal an old car moving down the village road. We cut inside the car to see an authentic local man driving the old-school vehicle and chatting with the tourist beside him. Ulduzum shaped accessories are hanging from rear view mirror. The driver looks super excited about having a guest, and tries to explain as much as possible and promote the country at its best.

They both laugh, and the tourist shazams the local song which is playing in the car. It might be nice to interlace a piece of traditional Azerbaijani music into our score at this point. To make the experience more credible for the viewer.
Still hearing a local tune in the score we cut to a close-up of a smartphone to see the results of his search on Shazam. Shazam didn’t let him down and suggests the name of a famous Azerbaijani song.

- Get an answer.
We proceed to a breath-taking shot of one of the beautiful places of Azerbaijan to discover an off-roader and three friends sitting inside of it. They laugh, make jokes and look for route in their smartphone’s navigator.

We cut outside with a drone shot again, to portray how the car is climbing higher and higher into the mountains. We’d love to grab a high drone shot to see the scale of the mountain and compare it with a tiny car on its enormous body. With these few shots we should compel that they had gone a very long distance to get where they intentioned.

- Lay new routes.


Finally we reveal the destination of their journey – the Goygol mountain top. Friends are standing on the edge of the cliff and looking at the incredible view it opens. We use a drone shot to show them in frontal frame first, and then to track out and up with the drone and celebrate the magnificent landscape.





- See where they lead you.



We intercut with the existing footage of Tamerlan with friends at Old Trafford. The aspirational expressions on their faces are vital for the scene. It should coincide with the motivating VO.








- Get inspired…




Also the existing footage of Tamerlan running excitedly with the flag of Azerbaijan on his shoulders at Bakcell Arena.








- … and inspire.



Cut to young woman standing in a dressing room in her gorgeous wedding dress. There are plenty of dresses hanging or piling up on the background. We clearly understand that she had a long way to go before she finally put this particular dress on. She smiles excitedly, as if she had finally found what she was looking for. The woman poses funnily and snaps a picture of herself.

- Be amazed…

Cut to two young women on the other side of the phone screen. They look at the screen amused. We reveal the picture of the previous girl, the gorgeous bride in the perfectly fitted wedding dress. Young women must be her friends, and they laugh and exchange thrilled glances.

- … and amaze.


Next, we appear in a kids’ bedroom in the late evening. The boy is playing under the little homemade tent, and dad crawls inside to present him his first ever smartphone. We capture and cherish a sincere, genuine joy of the kid. It would be nice to have a connection with the consequent scenes: the kid could have some handcrafted planets in his room and lamp designed as a space shuttle, or the one throwing some beautiful little lights in star shape onto the walls.

- Fill every day with joy…

Later it would be nice to cut back to the woods by night to discover our kids surrounded with plentiful fireflies integrated in VFX. We capture the moment of their sincere amusement of the natural wonders.








- … the joy of new.




We cut to a woman from an impaired couple. She sits on a sofa at home and talks with a man on Skype using the sign language. We cut to him resting on the park bench and responding her. They laugh at something sharing a joke.








- Live a fuller life.



- Don’t stop!
We use the stock footage of the wingsuit fliers jumping from the top of the mountain. ‘Bakcell’ branding is added onto their suits, giving an amazing endorsement of the adrenaline lovers.

A nice-looking old Azerbaijani woman sends voice message by WhatsApp. We prove that ‘Bakcell’ services are ubiquitous and all approachable.









- Do things you’ve

never done.




Another stunning shot reveal Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory against the dark night sky. We will need the help of our postproduction partners to ensure the magnificent starry sky in the shot. Through the cut we apear inside the observatory. Where a man puts his looks through the telescope eye, smiles to himself and then presses the phone camera to telescope eye, trying to transmit the image.

In the next shot we see the recipients of his image - his delighted kids, watching the impressive video of night sky live from the telescope. The kids are excited and they adore the game their father introduced.

- See the things you’ve never seen.



And finally, we reach the biggest and the most impactful shot. We see a large stage and a crowd surrounding it. The bottom of the stage is a huge LED screen. A stage controller touches his tablet, and we "See What's Possible" slogan lighting up on the screen. This is a very emotional and inspiring image. With a touch of his finger, he can manipulate such a huge screen and inspire the audience with a message. Fireworks go off and the crowd raises their hands in ecstasy.

Packshot: Bakcell logo, slogan.
- See what’s possible. Bakcell.



CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDIT

Our goal is to make the audience touched and motivated, and only through personal experience you can get involved and then influenced. And cinematography is our strongest virtue in achieving this ubiquitous involvement. The viewer should always feel himself as a part of the action. Camera appears almost like a fly on the wall in every scene, granting the audience the feeling of presence in this very important life moments of our characters.
Ultimately, naturalism is everything. And we should be careful not to over-style our imagery, because things can very quickly feel inauthentic. Real locations, and sincere performance would be our base, but photography and lighting will play crucial role in making the film believable.

Natural lighting, or discreet practical lighting when we’re filming evening scenes will suit the best here. We prefer to shoot in the blue hour, the magic hour of sunset and sunrise, when the sun has just went down. In this moment of the day, the natural light is more emotional and the color palette becomes pastel. We feel like this magic light wipes off all the artificial and excessive visual elements, and leaves only the core of raw emotions and credibility.

The photography should be grounded in the documentarian world with its authenticity and credibility, but the approach should definitely be cinematic to create aesthetical value and to magnify human emotions and to glorify the Azerbaijani heritage and beauty. The anamorphic lenses will help us to give this kind of cinematic style to our frames. Moreover, it give shallow depth of fields, allowing to concentrate on what is important – the feeling and the motivational message.
Camera movements will vary from handheld camera to beautiful and utterly cinematic dolly or steadycam. This combination will allow us to have both realistic feeling of presence and filmic splendor. The framings will be very well thought and designed to portray each situation with the scale it deserves.

The wide lens will catch the beautiful landscapes and short lens will focus on the details, faces and emotional expressions of people. Besides, to celebrate amazing Azerbaijani landscapes we propose to use some spectacular drone shots.

The colors in the frame will have a beautiful colors palette. Harmonic and mainly in the world of pastel color chord. It also feels essential for us to is to have different look of the different scenes in the final color grading. With this trick we’ll enhance the notion that every scene has personality and a poignant feeling to communicate. So, the grading will follow the various emotions we have in our film. And of course, the general mood will be fluid and harmonic.


We are also planning to have the stock footage in the film. Our
only caution is for it to be fluid in terms of mood, quality and
color grading. It’s vital to check the quality of the stock footage
or the existing one. It can either elevate or kill the rest of the
spots. So the abovementioned cinematic guidelines also relate to the footage that we search. Generally, we need high quality in the stock footage in order to create a fluid flow of both our and stock footage, and eventually, to have a harmonic film.








Regarding the edit and transitions, we would like to mention that both should be very simple not to overwhelms the viewers with visuals. Edit is where we take our footage and sculpt it into an emotional and engaging arc. The edit will be very dynamic and rhythmical, yet allowing every scene to unfold gracefully. The voiceover helps us building the consequent narration out of the individual scenes. The edit increases the emotion from scene to scene, and gradually leads us to the crescendo in the end.









CASTING & PERFORMANCE

It’s impossible to overstate how critical the performance of our actors will be in creating moments in which the viewers can lose themselves. Again, we should create a universe where everyone feels welcomed and understood. Compelling each emotion truthfully is a cornerstone for this film. The characters have to feel relatable and real. Their performances should make this story gripping and persuasive by creating experiences that feel spontaneous and unique.

We’re always looking to cast actors who bring texture to their characters, and whose instincts give the impression of characters that are deeper than these brief moments. Once you see them and feel their emotion, it seems that you’ve
already know the persons for a lifetime. The unique ability of telling a life-story within two seconds should be found and explored in actors during casting process.

We will search for people who can show us the interesting layers that lie beneath the surface of their performances. Every performance feels a bit like a piece of a feature film. We can't see the end of the moment, but we can taste and
feel every scene.

We like to give the actors longer scenes to perform than the moment we’re grabbing for the edit, so the acting itself looks absolutely lived-through and feels spontaneous. Giving the actors a bit of room to instinctually expand the story will help us capture unanticipated moments that ultimately lead to a richer storytelling experience in the editing room. That said, nothing should ever feel forced or contrived. Instead each performance should feel simple, candid and real.

MUSIC

An uplifting but subtle track should accompany our emotional journey through the spot. Emotional and inspiring, the music simply supports the narration without overriding it. When there is a strong message in VO, then the music doesn’t have vocal. The tune gives more impact to the VO and highlights the connection between the metaphoric lines and the imagery.

We imagine a non-intrusive, elevating track and maybe even subtle sound design that supports and enhances action and key emotional moments. Music transcends the idea of greatness and
possibility.

The score brings authentic and incredible feeling of being present right in the moment and witnessing the stunningly sincere moments of our characters. It is subtle, yet still energetic and powerful enough to support the narration and to accentuate the crucial moments.
Thank you!
… for investing your time and attention in our vision. We would
love to further elaborate with you on every aspect of the film
and to create a stunning and inspiring experience of ‘Bakcell’
and Azerbaijan.

Yours,
Marco & Giovanni
WWW.THEMARTINISHOT.TV