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THE MARTINI SHOT PRESENTS
DIRECTOR'S TREATMENT
by MARCO & GIOVANNI
BAKCELL
INTRO
Thank you a million for sending over this script and for allowing us to elaborate on the project. This film gives us a unique chance of creating something truly memorable and worthy, and the following are a few initial thoughts on how we capture the fleeting, but incredibly human stories with that same invigorating authenticity.

This spot will be authentic, engaging, and surprisingly profound, positioning the ‘Bakcell’ brand as a great inspiration and vital enabler of ‘seeing and achieving what’s possible’. In this movie we are also aiming at celebrating the Azerbaijan country and discovering all its marvels through the prism of pure human experience. This is the spot that will emphasize the national pride of Azerbaijani people, and compel the ‘Bakcell’ sincere devotion to making the country greater and more progressive in any imaginable way. We will compel this national idea and love to the motherland through the images of beautiful places and heartiness of people of Azerbaijani. Great explores, courageous adventurers, hospitable hosts and simply good people – that is how ‘Bakcell’ sees its customers. And our goal is to deliver and transcend this admiration of the people and the country through stunning images and impressive visual experience.

So please, join us in this mesmerizing journey and discover ‘Bakcell’ devotion and Azerbaijani beauty with us…
IDEA
The idea of this spot is to present the poignant and vivid moments of human lives, and to underline Backcell’s role in it. With the help of impressive visuals and persuasive performance ‘Bakcell’ will allure you into the story full of feelings, pride and inspiration. ‘Bakcell’ have come up with an excellent message – ‘See what’s possible!’ – act, do something, influence and therefore, change the world around you. It is incredibly simple, yet at the same time hard to move people, to influence their lifestyles and to motivate them to achieve more and push the boundaries of possibilities. Moreover, ‘Bakcell’ provides the means that will sustain you in your actions. Innovating and state-of-art technologies allow the company to make your day-to-day activities more efficiently and to keep pace with the rest of the world. Thus, it encourages you to achieve more in whatever field you’re good at.
APPROACH
The approach we have chosen is very cinematic and emotional. We are describing sincere moments of everyday life of ordinary people: men and women, Azerbaijani national and guests, adults and kids. And our greatest mission as filmmakers, is to deliver these moments with sheer honesty and deep emotion.

We want this spot to feel dynamic and capacious, while taking time to magnify particular moments and influence the viewer. The drama of each moment is explored and cherished, and it creates the same level of emotion in the viewers as it does in the characters. We cut right into the heart of every scene to discover the simple but so poignant emotions that are very relatable to the audience. It’s a set of simple stories in terms of plot, but very deep it terms of emotional lining and motivation. And we want to tell them from a candid and very touching point of view, filling each of them with details and nuances that texture these experiences.

We hope that with our humble contribution we will elevate this spot to a striking and impactful level, and it will definitely have the vast and powerful feedback we’re aiming for. Our goal is to create a touchy and captivating spot that will motivate people with its raw honesty and beauty. We’ll employ our best joint efforts to deliver ‘Bakcell’ message and to make the film sparkle and persuade, to make it memorable and effective.



LOOK & FEEL

At the heart of the approach is epic cinematography with very credible performances from our cast. This film will be visually stunning, but above it, it will have a touching emotional core that makes it personal and accessible to all viewers. We explore all the shades of human emotions in challenging and aspirational moments of their life, and we expose the deepest feelings of the viewers to themselves through candid cinematic prism. And through this personal experience and strong emotions we make the spot relatable and appealing. In order to achieve this level of emotive devotion and connection, the real emphasis must be placed on the casting and performance, so that from the very first frame there’s an instant and strong bond established with the audience.

On top of this, we should build the drama and not give away all of the story up-front. By capturing unusual angles, elements and moments, and weaving them into the dramatic crescendo of the script, we’ll have a strong narrative thread. The edit will help us to create an intrigue, and to keep viewer excited and interested to follow the characters’ lives. Our biggest wish is to make the story enticing and fascinating to watch till the very last frame. The scale of emotion and the established strong bond with the characters will keep the viewers at the edge of their sit till the final resolution in the movie.

This film is aimed at celebrating visual beauty of the country and its people with ultimate depth and exquisiteness. Our spot is like an ode to Azerbaijan – it cinematically cherishes rough landscape and pure water, wide smiles of its citizens and deep connection they share. Epic and spectacular shots will compel the beauty of the country and its nature. And at the same time, with the right lighting and definition, we’ll capture the visceral elements that unleash the human subtlety of every scene. The success of this spot lies in the visual balance between the wider images proving grandeur of Azerbaijan landscapes and architecture and closer shots resembling the touchiness of its people healthfulness and sincerity.

Finally, strong editing and post-production will let us “lock-in” to all the key moments in the script with maximum emotional impact once it’s set to an epic soundtrack with motivating voiceover. And the product is there in almost every scene to reinsure that ‘Bakcell’ is always there to fuel customers’ curiosity and confidence, and be their inspiration for the day-to-day achievements.
NARATIVE

We very much like the scripts as they stand now. Maybe a few alterations in terms of mood and light will be applicable, but in the end it all happens on the pre-production and the shoot itself, once we meet the cast and explore the locations to find out the best ways to convey the message.

      NARATIVE
      We open with an incredible drone shot of enormous Azerbaijani forest. We cut right into the thick woods to discover a group of young men making their way through a forest. With the steadycam we follow the people in the woods. Cut closer to discover one of the guys holding a smartphone with a Google Maps navigator turned on. ‘Bakcell’ supports them in the most distant places.

      - What moves us forward?


      Cut to little lovely girl, the granddaughter, who spreads her arms wide to hug her dearest grandfather. In the next frame, she sits on his lap and carefully reads him a text from his phone’s screen, strongly articulating like only the young kids do. Grandfather cuddles her hair and he responds her with a loving and grateful look.

      - What makes us better?

      We cut to see a macro shot of one beautiful eye, and than cut wider to see already two eyes of different color on attractive female face. Her uniqueness is mesmerizing. Her sight is focused on something that we yet cannot see.

      - What makes us who we are?

      In a reverse shot, we see the girl in art studio. She stares on a huge empty canvas, and the moment later she spreads a full brush of sky-blue paint on it. Swift and meticulous gesture confirms her expertise and talent. We feel that the masterpiece will be impressive in the end.

      - We are what we imagine.


      Cut to a view from a plane window on a night-time Baku. We see a young man looking through the window and snapping a photo of this astonishing landscape. Cut to the same young man heading his way through the empty night airport. He looks down on his screen and subtly smiles to himself. We cut onto the screen to see the app sending off a photo that he has just taken.

      - Imagine the world full of possibilities.


      In a dimly lit bedroom we hear the buzz of the message and we see a young woman, waking up in the middle of the night to read it. Her sleepy face is lit with murky light of the screen. And we cut to her POV to discover the already familiar photo of the Baku night landscape. Woman widely smiles with warmth, smirks to herself and off the bed.

      - Waiting to be discovered.

      She drives through the night city, and her face is determined and anticipating. We capture the beautiful reflections of bright streetlights on her face as she rushes down the empty roads.

      - Waiting to be realized.

      We cut to the airport arrivals to discover our young couple finally meeting together. She soars into his arms and he holds her tight after all the lonely days of missing her.

      - Waiting for you.


      We cut to an intensive compilation of close ups of various smartphones in people’s hands. It is essential to see them using Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, as well as Bakcell apps: Ulduzum, Roaming, Menim Bakcellim.


      - Look at them.


      We cut to cashier desk of the retail shop, branded with Ulduzum POS materials. We discover a happy consumer showing the screen of her smartphone to the cashier. The cashier looks back with gratefulness and smiles.


      - Benefit from them.

      Next, with a drone shot we reveal an old car moving down the village road. We cut inside the car to see an authentic local man driving the old-school vehicle and chatting with the tourist beside him. Ulduzum shaped
      accessories are hanging from rear view mirror. The driver looks super excited about having a guest, and tries to explain as much as possible and promote the country at its best. They both laugh, and the tourist shazams the local song which is playing in the car. It might be nice to interlace a piece of traditional Azerbaijani music into our score at this point. To make the experience more credible for the viewer.

      - Ask a question.

      Still hearing a local tune in the score we cut to a close-up of a smartphone to see the results of his search on Shazam. Shazam didn’t let him down and suggests the name of a famous Azerbaijani song.

      - Get an answer.

      In a POV of the tourist we show him scrolling down the Azerbaijani music albums.

      - Repeat.

      A stock footage of Azerbaijani man who makes a 360 video selfie with an after-dark Time Square in New York in the background.


      - Grasp the world, make it yours.



      We proceed to a breath-taking shot of one of the beautiful places of Azerbaijan to discover an off-roader and three friends sitting inside of it. They laugh, make jokes and look for route in their smartphone’s navigator. We cut outside with a drone shot again, to portray how the car is climbing higher and higher into the mountains. We’d love to grab a high drone shot to see the scale of the mountain and compare it with a tiny car on its enormous body. With these few shots we should compel that they had gone a very long distance to get where they intentioned.

      - Lay new routes.

      Finally we reveal the destination of their journey – the Goygol mountain top. Friends are standing on the edge of the cliff and looking at the incredible view it opens. We use a drone shot to show them in frontal frame first, and then to track out and up with the drone and celebrate the magnificent landscape.

      - See where they lead you.

      Stock footage of plane landing against the bright golden sunset is followed with a close-up of a smartphone screen, where we see a short welcoming text of roaming operator.

      - New places.
      Cut to a video selfie with rural people. It should look like it’s taken with a GoPro or similar equipment to support the realism of the moment. In fact, we’ll use a real camera, but with a feel of GoPro attached to it. Our travellers (the same group or another one is not that important) and meeting the locals and responding their welcoming smiles and gestures. Old man or a woman of exotic appearance, a shepherd or a craftsman waves into the camera and offers some food (traditional meal) to the travellers.

      - New people.


      It’s night time now, and a group of young men sitting in a tent in the woods. Their warmly lit tent looks like the oasis in the land of murky shadows. This moment feels very emotional, and the nature feels so close to the guys. One of them inserts USB dongle into laptop. In his over shoulder shot, we see a speed test running on the laptop screen. Cut to friends, grouping around the laptop guy and starring at the laptop with amazement and almost disbelief to such a great speed.

      - New experiences.
      A double exposure present an impressively looking businessman. The camera turns around his head, and we see his ideas and plans “inside” him. A successful business meeting, growing revenue schemes, partners shaking hands, etc. All the images should be very visual and easily read to instantly get the idea of being inside of his head and dreaming of success.

      - New ideas.
      We intercut with the existing footage of Tamerlan with friends at Old Trafford. The aspirational expressions on their faces are vital for the scene. It should coincide with the motivating VO.

      - Get inspired…

      Also the existing footage of Tamerlan running excitedly with the flag of Azerbaijan on his shoulders at Bakcell Arena.

      - … and inspire.
      Cut to young woman standing in a dressing room in her gorgeous wedding dress. There are plenty of dresses hanging or piling up on the background. We clearly understand that she had a long way to go before she finally put this particular dress on. She smiles excitedly, as if she had finally found what she was looking for. The woman poses funnily and snaps a picture of herself.

      - Be amazed…


      Cut to two young women on the other side of the phone screen. They look at the screen amused. We reveal the picture of the previous girl, the gorgeous bride in the perfectly fitted wedding dress. Young women must be her friends, and they laugh and exchange thrilled glances.

      - … and amaze.
      Next, we appear in a kids’ bedroom in the late evening. The boy is playing under the little homemade tent, and dad crawls inside to present him his first ever smartphone. We capture and cherish a sincere, genuine joy of the kid. It would be nice to have a connection with the consequent scenes: the kid could have some handcrafted planets in his room and lamp designed as a space shuttle, or the one throwing some beautiful little lights in star shape onto the walls.

      - Fill every day with joy…

      We proceed to another shot, discovering children are on a park or woods (but not thick) excursion. The kids crawl on their knee, and have the lenses in their hands to explore beautiful macro details of some little insects or plants or flowers. They check their empirical experience with the info from Wiki on their smartphones. This shot stands for amazing use of phones in education and discovering the nature.

      Later it would be nice to cut back to the woods by night to discover our kids surrounded with plentiful fireflies integrated in VFX. We capture the moment of their sincere amusement of the natural wonders.

      - … the joy of new.

      We cut to a woman from an impaired couple. She sits on a sofa at home and talks with a man on Skype using the sign language. We cut to him resting on the park bench and responding her. They laugh at something sharing a joke.

      - Live a fuller life.
      We use the steadycam to follow a man running up the stairs of Heydar Aliyev Center. We want to shoot the runner by beautiful blue hour or dusk to underline the exceptional beauty of Center’s architecture and the contrast with him physicality. He wears either a smart watch or a smartphone in an armband. The small screen is shining bright, hinting that it counts every step and every effort of the athlete. On the top of the stairs he victoriously raises his arms.

      - Be a better you.

      In close-up of smartphone we showcase slick female fingers with perfect nails swiping the screen and searching for cool female outfits on Pinterest.

      - Seek, …


      Cut to a modern car service. A technician is lying under the car and holding his tablet. His eyes sparkle, as he finds solutions to the specific car problem with the help. Maybe we could introduce a fun moment here: he find the answer on the screen, smile excitedly and tries to step up immediately, but bumps on the car bottom and laughs at his own clumsiness. A warm note of humor would only benefit the spot.

      - …learn, …

      We see Bakcell branded MUSS bus with kids in it. We cut to a window shot to see happy kids’ faces pressed funnily to the window glass.

      - …move forward.

      We use the stock footage of the wingsuit fliers jumping from the top of the mountain. ‘Bakcell’ branding is added onto their suits, giving an amazing endorsement of the adrenaline lovers.

      - Don’t stop!
      A nice-looking old Azerbaijani woman sends voice message by WhatsApp. We prove that ‘Bakcell’ services are ubiquitous and all approachable.

      - Do things you’ve never done.

      Another stunning shot reveal Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory against the dark night sky. We will need the help of our postproduction partners to ensure the magnificent starry sky in the shot. Through the cut we apear inside the observatory. Where a man puts his looks through the telescope eye, smiles to himself and then presses the phone camera to telescope eye, trying to transmit the image.

      In the next shot we see the recipients of his image - his delighted kids, watching the impressive video of night sky live from the telescope. The kids are excited and they adore the game their father introduced.

      - See the things you’ve never seen.

      And finally, we reach the biggest and the most impactful shot. We see a large stage and a crowd surrounding it. The bottom of the stage is a huge LED screen. A stage controller touches his tablet, and we "See What's Possible" slogan lighting up on the screen. This is a very emotional and inspiring image. With a touch of his finger, he can manipulate such a huge screen and inspire the audience with a message. Fireworks go off and the crowd raises their hands in ecstasy.

      Packshot: Bakcell logo, slogan.

      - See what’s possible. Bakcell.


      CINEMATOGRAPHY
      Our goal is to make the audience touched and motivated, and only through personal experience you can get involved and then influenced. And cinematography is our strongest virtue in achieving this ubiquitous involvement. The viewer should always feel himself as a part of the action. Camera appears almost like a fly on the wall in every scene, granting the audience the feeling of presence in this very important life moments of our characters. Every story is very relatable, maybe we’ve even happened to be in similar situations before, or if not then, we’ll feel the emotion and the inspiration of the scene. Therefore, we need to portray each moment with candidacy and truthfulness it deserves.

      Ultimately, naturalism is everything. And we should be careful not to over-style our imagery, because things can very quickly feel inauthentic. Real locations, and sincere performance would be our base, but photography and lighting will play crucial role in making the film believable. Natural lighting, or discreet practical lighting when we’re filming evening scenes will suit the best here. We prefer to shoot in the blue hour, the magic hour of sunset and sunrise, when the sun has just went down. In this moment of the day, the natural light is more emotional and the color palette becomes pastel. We feel like this magic light wipes off all the artificial and excessive visual elements, and leaves only the core of raw emotions and credibility.

      The photography should be grounded in the documentarian world with its authenticity and credibility, but the approach should definitely be cinematic to create aesthetical value and to magnify human emotions and to glorify the Azerbaijani heritage and beauty. The anamorphic lenses will help us to give this kind of cinematic style to our frames. Moreover, it give shallow depth of fields, allowing to concentrate on what is important – the feeling and the motivational message.

      Camera movements will vary from handheld camera to beautiful and utterly cinematic dolly or steadycam. This combination will allow us to have both realistic feeling of presence and filmic splendor. The framings will be very well thought and designed to portray each situation with the scale it deserves. The wide lens will catch the beautiful landscapes and short lens will focus on the details, faces and emotional expressions of people. Besides, to celebrate amazing Azerbaijani landscapes we propose to use some spectacular drone shots.


      The colors in the frame will have a beautiful colors palette. Harmonic and mainly in the world of pastel color chord. It also feels essential for us to is to have different look of the different scenes in the final color grading. With this trick we’ll enhance the notion that every scene has personality and a poignant feeling to communicate. So, the grading will follow the various emotions we have in our film. And of course, the general mood will be fluid and harmonic.

      We are also planning to have the stock footage in the film. Our only caution is for it to be fluid in terms of mood, quality and color grading. It’s vital to check the quality of the stock footage or the existing one. It can either elevate or kill the rest of the spots. So the abovementioned cinematic guidelines also relate to the footage that we search. Generally, we need high quality in the stock footage in order to create a fluid flow of both our and stock footage, and eventually, to have a harmonic film.

      Besides, we think it would be nice to pump in postproduction in some of our scenes. For instance, in the observatory scene we want to have a beautiful sky with bright stars. Or in the kids in the woods scene, we would like to have a lot of fireflies, making the shot more cinematic and magical. And surely, fitting of the stock footage to the rest of the film will be one of responsibilities of our postproduction partners.
      EDIT

      Regarding the edit and transitions, we would like to mention that both should be very simple not to overwhelms the viewers with visuals. Edit is where we take our footage and sculpt it into an emotional and engaging arc. The edit will be very dynamic and rhythmical, yet allowing every scene to unfold gracefully. The voiceover helps us building the consequent narration out of the individual scenes. The edit increases the emotion from scene to scene, and gradually leads us to the crescendo in the end. There is a distinctive rhythm of the edit, built on either the music of the voiceover. It is crucial to have this vein of rhythm, pumping the emotion flow through the spot, and we love the simple cut in terms of passages between the scenes.


      And to conclude, we would like to share a few amazing reference with you. We find them suitable in terms of cinematography, lighting and general mood. Everything is true to life, but very emotional. Nothing is exaggerated, you just meet the situation you have in the real life, but with a distinctive cinematic flair

      CASTING & PERFOMANCE

      It’s impossible to overstate how critical the performance of our actors will be in creating moments in which the viewers can lose themselves. Again, we should create a universe where everyone feels welcomed and understood. Compelling each emotion truthfully is a cornerstone for this film. The characters have to feel relatable and real. Their performances should make this story gripping and persuasive by creating experiences that feel spontaneous and unique.

      It’s the authenticity of their emotion and how that emotion invites the viewers to invest in these moments that will help this story leave a relatable imprint on the audience. We’re always looking to cast actors who bring texture to their characters, and whose instincts give the impression of characters that are deeper than these brief moments. Once you see them and feel their emotion, it seems that you’ve already know the persons for a lifetime. The unique ability of telling a life-story within two seconds should be found and explored in actors during casting process. We will search for people who can show us the interesting layers that lie beneath the surface of their performances. Every performance feels a bit like a piece of a feature film. We can't see the end of the moment, but we can taste and feel every scene.

      We like to give the actors longer scenes to perform than the moment we’re grabbing for the edit, so the acting itself looks absolutely lived-through and feels spontaneous. Giving the actors a bit of room to instinctually expand the story will help us capture unanticipated moments that ultimately lead to a richer storytelling experience in the editing room. That said, nothing should ever feel forced or contrived. Instead each performance should feel simple, candid and real.
      MUSIC
      An uplifting but subtle track should accompany our emotional journey through the spot. Emotional and inspiring, the music simply supports the narration without overriding it. When there is a strong message in VO, then the music doesn’t have vocal. The tune gives more impact to the VO and highlights the connection between the metaphoric lines and the imagery.

      We imagine a non-intrusive, elevating track and maybe even subtle sound design that supports and enhances action and key emotional moments. Music transcends the idea of greatness and possibility.

      The score brings authentic and incredible feeling of being present right in the moment and witnessing the stunningly sincere moments of our characters. It is subtle, yet still energetic and powerful enough to support the narration and to accentuate the crucial moments.

      THANK YOU!

      … for investing your time and attention in our vision. We would love to further elaborate with you on every aspect of the film and to create a stunning and inspiring experience of ‘Bakcell’ and Azerbaijan.

      Yours,

      Marco&Giovanni
      January 22, 2024