ASTON MARTIN 100 YEARS FILM
Aston Martin
CREDITS
DIRECTOR-PRODUCER
Dan Constantinou
AGENCY
Fin London
MUSIC
Danny St Fin/Fin Tune
BRIEFING
With our long relationship continuing, Aston Martin briefed Fin to create a celebratory film for its centenary celebration in 2013. The film was to be targeted at a global audience, telling the story of Aston's past 100 years, along with its brand values and what the next century might hold. Using only pre-recorded and archive footage, the story had to be told within a 2-minutes, highlighting iconic cars past and present.
Dealing with mixed format archive material, at varying frame sizes, we were adamant to avoid a standard cut-together timeline edit with back-to-back footage. So we came up with the concept of the 'time blend'. This allowed us to move through the company's history in different sections, mixing modern racing cars with those from the past, as well as skilled car-crafting from yesteryear - still a big part of the company today. Without the use of text headlines or voiceover, the pictures had to tell their own story, with a highly evocative music track to guide us through the journey.


Multi-layered Avid timeline to edit a range of sources

Created entirely in the edit suite, the first task was to log the many hours of archive, highlighting the very best footage. Once we had our chosen material, we began the process of making-up the blended HD frames: in some cases, this comprised up to 20 video tracks.
With input from Aston Martin, we made sure that all the cars featured were from the correct time period and covered all the classics. Finally, the music track was added - along with the graphic overlays - before it was sent to the grading suite and sound dub. The completed film launched the brand's celebrity-packed 100-year party at the RAC club in London, before debuting online and distribution to Aston Martin dealerships all over the world.