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Crowdsourcing continues: Finch and Colenso give photobombing a V in Waimauku

Photobombing has been given a V, with unsuspecting winery tourists having a homemade bomb packed with tempera powder exploding in their photos.

The work of Colenso and Finch for Frucor, the project is the latest in the “Give it a V” series which crowd-sources campaign ideas from V fans and executes them in 24 hours. This one was shot at West Brook Winery in Waimauku near Auckland last week, and posted on social media and the V website.

“It was a matter of a phone call to the scout for suggestions combined with a quick look online and then we were driving out there to meet the owner,” says Finch producer Jimena Murray.

West Brook winery was a prime location because it is on the wine tour bus route, so there was guaranteed to be a steady flow of people there throughout the day – no emergency friends would need to be brought in.

Murray says the photobombing involved lots of experimentation, hiding away from the tourists so as not to give the game away, and buying out all the green tempera powder they could find in Auckland for the explosion (tempera powder is for making paint, and is the stuff often used in Indian colour festivals). “The testing process at the special effects workshop was pretty limited time wise and it’s not an exact science so we were really reliant on materials that were readily available and or could source quickly,” she says.

The team used a large canister from the special effects workshop to create the bomb, which needed some modification to get it working for the needs of the project. “It would normally sit in a ditch dug into the ground for use in movies etc so that you don’t see the actual canister, but we liked the look of it so the special effects team attached it onto a cart so it could be easily wheeled in and out of shot,” says Murray.

Last month, darts were given a V, which was also shot by Finch.

Compared with the photobombing, Murray says the darts campaign had required a lot more cameras to make sure they had all the angles covered, with the land-air aspect adding a huge unknown to the mix.

Murray says the feedback has been great on both darts and photobombing so far, with Facebook viewing numbers “well above the norm”.  

“Agency and client have been great to work with, as you can imagine, the fast turnaround means everyone has to think quick, decide quick so we’re really lucky to have such a great team behind us,” she says.

When carrying out epic 24-hour stunts with bombs or skydivers, you’ve got to ask – how does an agency deal with Health & Safety barriers in such a short turnaround?  Murray says they have a safety officer present throughout the process, and they discuss the possible factors involved for each one as soon as the idea is revealed. They then discuss with the Colenso team and decide on the best approach.  “No-one was harmed in the making of these films,” she says.

But even if the stunts do go bad, V can rest assured there’s millions of people out there who will still watch the content. The movie below has had almost 3 million views since February.

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