Nine Lanterns

The idea

Every brief has a face. The scene opens on that line in the mist, then climbs a rock spire past nine projects anyone in the trade has met, each one carved into a lantern.

The nine are universal on purpose, so agencies and clients both recognise their own. Each gets a short line written to its face.

The nine

The simple one: just a small website, they said. The urgent one: due yesterday, briefed today. The do-over: rebranded last year, back again already. The keeper: made once, properly, and never touched again.

The camera rests at each lantern and keeps drifting while it waits. A scroll pushes it on, and it settles on the nearest lantern when the hand stops.

The look

Our own palette. The sky falls from charcoal to bone, green appears only as light, and the lanterns stay orange: always the brightest thing in the frame. Every face was drawn first, then carved.

Come closer

A lantern near the cursor stokes. Its flame leans towards you, sparks leave through the carved holes, and its skin glows from within. On a phone, a tap does it.

On the last frame the whole spire is seen once, then circles slowly. Lightning strikes in the cloud under the cursor, and the studio finally speaks: one line, and a button that says “Bring us the brief”.

On a phone

Narrow screens get their own layout. Each lantern's number, title and line sit at the top over a dark fade, the opening words stack in the open sky, and nothing at the foot hides behind the browser's bar.