How to make a Take That watch

This year, Fin Creative Director Darian Weir details how he aims to match his success with last years unprecedented run on the Sekonda 'Electra' watch on 'An audience with Take That' and make the Seksy designer watch - 'Eclipsed'  - this years Take That watch! 


Broadcast 13th Nov on iTV, Take That's come back documentary 'Look Back, Don't Stare'.

The ever-developing series of Sekonda Seksy idents is a job I always look forward to. This is not just because we get to work with fabulous Swedish model Tess Montgomery, the face of the Seksy range, but because it's a perfect project to show off the creative capabilities and digital power of fin’s Flame suite.

Flame suite 'Ops' window

While we've evolved the Seksy look and story stylistically since its TV debut in 2006, there has always been a regular challenge: to make the watch the star, the focal point, the desire - and with the beautiful Tess in frame this can obviously be quite a task!  To focus the viewers’ eyes to the watch and away from Tess, I use a number of visual effects, some of which I developed myself, some classic and others borrowed...

The most prominent effect is the use of optical layers, like sparkles and flares, to pick up the detail and highlights around the face of the watch. I also apply vignettes to darken and subtly defocus parts of Tess’s face and body, a technique which distances her away from the watch. With the new ‘Eclipsed’ watch ident, we've also introduced subtle, esoteric backgrounds like cityscapes and party marquees, counterpointing these with additional foreground optical sparkle. Inspired by the nighttime worlds featured in the Seksy commercial we’ve made with creative agency Springetts (which also airs through December), these narrative and technical developments produce a dream-like quality to the sponsorship campaign.

You can see the here Sekonda Case Study here

When should you wish someone Happy Birthday?

Over the years, I've often scanned my colleagues’ half-blank birthday cards as they landed on my desk, reading the wishes for inspiration and trying to out humour them. Then, to realise that I don't actually know the person and that my written wish will just have to fall back on a 'Happy Birthday – you're looking great'.

For those employers who insisted that each employee’s birthday gets a surprise celebration, I've actively tried to hide my birthday. How can it be a surprise for each person? You know when the phone call is about to come when the office starts to empty in unison and your colleagues gather for the obligatory ten minute dry cake eating contest.

How does everyone paint that same surprised look upon their face when they walk in the room? I just can't do it. It similar to the same unified answer, ‘I’ve got no change’ when the birthday envelope does the rounds.

Today, my birthday wishes for Fin and my friends here could not have been any warmer. The cake could not have tasted sweeter.  At six years old, Fin is at a new stage of its life - we started out as a Production Company on the Southbank and we are now known as a Production Agency in Soho square, working for some the UK's most enviable brands. Over the next year, I aim for Fin to be increasingly known for its quality of work and values.

I suppose the next cake will have to be even better - but who bakes a better cake than Patisserie Valerie?


Happy 6th Birthday Fin

Written by Andrew Newman (I'm holding the cake)