Oh for the days when a gentleman could wear a blazer to the airport and not be mocked by feral children...when one could enjoy a leisurely Dunhill in a hansom cab, one’s club was not infested by laptops and the squares of our fair city not blighted by bike parks. A time when an intrepid reporter could enjoy sweet nothings over Camparis with a millionaire’s wife, and not be misunderstood by the grubbier end of Fleet Street. And when ‘reality television’ meant a five-hour cigar lunch at Scotts with charming Lord Grade. It is for these reasons that Fin humbly brings you a wistful homage - via a regular series of video Blogs - to TV’s eternal man of the world (and imaginary Fin Chairman), Alan 'Twicker'...
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Fin film on-line series for the UK’s coolest brand*, Aston Martin
Personal notes from co-director Paul ‘Dutch’ Denchfield on his experiences tracking the 2-year creation of the amazing £1.2 million Aston Martin One-77
(*CoolBrands Council, Sept 2010)
As a 5 year-old child, walking to my grandmother’s house, we’d pass an Aston Martin showroom. Peering in until wrenched away, I stood consumed by the sensation of looking at a mindboggling, unfeasibly large Rocket Ice Lolly. For my best-est possible thing ever was the Rocket Ice Lolly. And now I was looking at a fantastically distorted popsicle, wherein the sheer epic proportions of automotive beauty had become a literal Gob-Stopper! In a rare moment of an infant boy exercising self-calm, I steadied myself by calling it simply… a Super Rocket. It therefore seemed entirely logical, later that decade, that the term ‘Super Car’ was coined.
Progressing through enthrallment at Bond driving his gunmetal DB5, like all small British boys I came to totally adore Aston Martin for its mystical promise of an even more exciting life to come. And – if I’d known the words then, and if you’ll forgive my use today of the brand’s legend - for its power, its beauty and its soul.
35 years on, Super Cars have really achieved their Super Rocket status, for surely 200 mph-plus machines are not merely ‘cars’ anymore? So, I was a little taken aback on my first arrival at Aston Martin to film the fledgling One-77, the finest Super Car creation by my all-time favourite creators, to find I was looking at a clay model, roughly 4 foot long, with crudely cut-out, photocopied pictures of wheels stuck on it!
Standing there with my co-director Dan ‘Six’ Constantinou, we silently faced Mission Impossible: We were to make a series of on-line films about the most expensive, most amazing …clay model ever built. In a time-tunnel contra-zoom moment, I was back in that early 1970’s showroom – but the child’s toy was now looking at me.
But here we were in 21st century clay city: On the other side of the futuristic design studio, protectively flanked by a 60-foot high, 150-foot long wall of glass – the secretive, inner sanctum of Aston Martin where dreams are born, nurtured and coaxed towards explosive life - clay doors were being sculptured. Just across was another block of clay being worked in from the middle out - the interior being crafted. Then at the opposite end of the space was a life-size clay model of the car, its body bizarrely being fitted in a giant pinstripe 'car suit' (for the Geneva motor show) by a team of tailors up for the day from Savile Row.
I dimly realised in those moments that between wonderment and reality is creation. Following that first day almost 2 years ago, what Six & I have witnessed over filming the development of the One-77 project is the core beauty of that creation process: From clay modelling, to the welding of aluminium, to defining the engine position, pitch & performance…every tiny, exquisite detail.
The one sense we really wanted to convey in the series of films we made for Aston Martin along this journey was that this is a marque where artistry is at the very centre of creation. I hope you enjoy them - and somewhere I hope a 5 year-old is watching them through the window of their computer screen with the same wonderment I had then, and now.
Film 1 Film 4
Our films can viewed at:
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)