Jaked - Never Stop Racing
A Portrait of Olympic Champion Federica Pellegrini
Directed by Giada Bossi
Interview by Tatev Avetisyan
Milan-based director Giada Bossi returns to Curation Hour as she invites us to follow the journey of renowned Italian athlete Federica Pellegrini in her latest commercial for Jaked. In collaboration with the Italian company of high-performance swimming suits, Bossi introduces a principal theme - confronting fears. As a current world record holder and a freestyle specialist, Federica Pellegrini, before everything, is a woman who is not devoid of the feeling of uneasiness. “I hide my shyness underwater, yet I fear the open sea: I cannot swim where I cannot see.” Hence, by pinpointing a single day from her life, Jaked reflects on the characteristics that bring to light the humanity of sportspeople.
In conversation with Curation Hour, Giada Bossi tells us about working with the Olympic swimmer champion, the technicalities of putting together the shots and the challenges behind the production.
Can you tell us how the collaboration between you and Jaked took place? What was the brief like, and how did you interpret it?
Jaked, a sportswear brand from Italy, came as a direct client to Withstand. Executive Producer Davide Ferazza, who really pushed for this project, called me in to write and direct it. The need was to create a celebrative video on Federica Pellegrini, Olympic champion and world record holder recently retired from competition. She is Jaked’s testimonial. Their brief was to create something powerful, matching the brand credo “never stop competing”, meaning in everyday life, meant for everyone. I worked without an agency, so I wrote the project with the support of Davide.
Federica is a very important and famous person in Italy, you see her on television, as a testimonial of many advertisements. She is called “la Divina” (the Divine), and popularly she is perceived as a super-woman: she is the athlete that made Italy proud. Indeed, her achievements are undeniably outstanding. To convey the campaign message, I aimed to show her humanity by making her an approachable role model, and connecting her with everyday people on a grounded level: giving the audience a different and intimate point of view on her, making it very powerful. So I started diving a bit and found a very interesting point: her natural element is water, but she is scared of the open sea. And I suddenly realised that that was a starting point: showing her fear and inquietude, and breaking the invincible image we have of her, so she can really be a role model for the public: as humans, we share fears, we share conflicts. We are imperfect and fragile.
Tell us about working with Federica Pellegrini and how you directed her. How did you make sure you truly got to know her - not only as an athlete but also as a person? How did you make yourself feel comfortable in front of the camera? And how much input did she have in the creation of the piece?
Federica is very busy; we didn’t have much time to talk before the shoot. We shared the treatment and my ideas via a quick call, and we did some tweaks to be more faithful to her daily life, involving her husband, for example. But nothing major. I was told she is very straightforward; she doesn’t like wasting time. And that is true. I guess a lot comes from years of agonism, training, and being performative. Also, the time we had with her for the shoot wasn’t much. I came to the set with a very definite shooting list; I just did my best to explain to her clearly and shortly what the aim of the scene was, and what I wanted her to do. She is a very gentle and kind person, though she has her very own moodiness, which was super interesting to me, so I didn’t force her or guide her too much, we just waited for her to be herself.
The video doesn’t rely on words in order to connect emotionally with the viewer. Rather it’s a combination of intimate shots and sharp editing. How much material did you end up shooting, and what was the editing process like? How did you work with cinematographer Emanuele Zarlenga and editor Filippo Patelli?
Together with Emanuele Zarlenga, we had many conversations before defining what could have been the best look for the film. We know there was much water, and there was her, always present. Her solitude was also a theme to give space to her inner workings. We chose to strictly reduce the colour palette to shades of blue, white, and water marine to highlight the warmer colour of her figure. We also decided on a tighter format than the 16:9, which is a 3:2, enhancing portraits and the figure in it rather than the ambience. We tried to keep a natural feeling, as I didn’t want it to be too decorative or elaborate. We worked mainly to be faster and ready to catch her spontaneous reactions. We used a different lens that distorts and de-focuses a bit of the edge to emphasise some specific shots.
As said, we already had a very specific shooting list and an idea of editing order while shooting. Still, once in editing, Filippo worked a lot in looking at the images and focusing on her, trying to consider what the shot was saying rather than what it was supposed to say from the shooting list. Therefore some sequences changed a bit. But we kept the idea of a structure in which moments of hyperactivity are broken by her thoughts and apprehension about her relationship with water. And every break corresponds to a re-start, with a faster pace, in the climax that gets to the final jump.
The sound was a very important point in the editing already. I worked with Matteo Pansana and Filippo many times, and we have a very specific workflow in which I give Matteo the shooting list, treatment, and references. He worked before the shooting on a pool of sounds - both ambience sound for foley and more creative sound fx, so that when we come to the edit, Filippo can already edit on those, making it organic. Then Matteo, after the editing is done, works on fine tunings. But that helps a lot, as a shot can change narrative value with or without a sound or with a completely abstract sound.
“ I suddenly realised that that was a starting point: showing her fear and inquietude, and breaking the invincible image we have of her, so she can really be a role model for the public”
Why did you decide on Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune as the soundtrack for your work?
Of course, I love that song. Still, I thought this classic piece could be a good support for storytelling: it underlined some emotional beats and gave a different connotation also to the ‘sport and training’ shots. His soft but firm crescendo conveyed a sense of urgency but away from the physical ‘adrenaline training’ feel of sports films. I think it helped to keep it in a human and emotive dimension.
Working within the commercial realm often means having to work within a specific frame and sometimes having to make compromises. How do you strike the balance between staying true to your ideas while making sure that the project will be well-accepted by the client and their audience?
In advertising, you need to choose projects that, starting from the briefs, are very close to your vision. And a client that loves your work and trusts you. Otherwise it is very hard to bend something different from your vision toward your ideas. And then it is all about explaining clearly your points of view to the client - why you did choose to do specifically something, always having an answer ready when the doubt arises. Most of the time, I found much comprehension in that sense. To have the support of the production company also on the creative aspect is important. And also get used to coping with the fact that the ideal situation where the client’s cut is the director’s cut is rare.
What challenges did you face during production? And how did you overcome them?
In this case, the usual. Low budget and a tight shooting time. Those are always the main challenges. We needed to cut and rework the script more than once to make it possible. Of course, shooting in Naples with Mosaicon Films is always a blast; the city has so much to offer in terms of locations, climate, and vibe. We succeeded in finding the perfect combo of sets that allowed us to shoot many different scenes in the same spot. Teamwork is always fundamental, and in this case, I got much trust from the client, which allowed us to close every scene very quickly as soon as I was happy.
Do you have any upcoming projects we can be on the lookout for?
Still too superstitious for anticipation… I am working on a very nice campaign and, as always, putting together the basis for a new personal project for 2023. But let’s wait for the details!
Client: Jaked
Director: Giada Bossi
DOP: Emanuele Zarlenga
Prod Company: Withstand Film
Executive Producer: Davide Ferazza
Producer: Elisabetta Carli
Production Service: Mosaicon Film
Executive Producer: Andrea Leone
Post producer: Valentina Segalla
Editor: Filippo Patelli
Color: Daniel Pallucca
Sound: Matteo Pansana