About
| Our brand has an intimate connection to our members; they use our clubs which benefit their lives in so many ways, whether they are striving to be healthier, happier, getting over an illness or just coming in to feel good. This project is about acknowledging our role in that, our responsibility to give our members what they need to get back into their lives and meet those many and varied challenges. In a sense our clubs are like microcosms of the country, they are communities in their own right. We want to hold a mirror up to our society, to understand our members and to get to know them better. |
We are hoping to open up a dialogue with our community, dialogue being so important in South Africa as a means to deal with the issues we face as a nation. We learn by asking. By listening. We’ve been overwhelmed by the honesty and sincerity of the responses we have had so far and how willing people have shared their stories. We are excited about allowing our project to go wherever it needs to go. This is just the beginning. There are so many more stories to tell.
Nick Clarivette. Head Of Creative, Virgin Active.
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| These days, we rarely find large communal groups not centered around religion, food or drink. Virgin Active clubs offer an environment where people of all ages races and genders can come together around a central theme – health. The project presented a unique opportunity for me as a film maker. My passion is to make films that are raw but still have entertainment value. I am attracted to the real but I am also aware of the fantastic – or the magical – that inhabits the apparently mundane. | For the characters, I hope the project gave them a chance to pause and take stock of their lives, to share their humanity with the rest of South Africa. I was concerned with capturing someone’s essence in one unscripted minute but amazed at how people told their story so effortlessly; short, sweet and honest. People were humble and open about their fears, flaws, hopes and dreams.
Wim Steytler. Director.
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| I was instantly drawn to the idea of realism in this campaign. As a director, Wim’s style is very much inclined towards social documentary and cinema verite, so I found it slightly unusual that a huge corporation like Virgin Active had decided to go with a young documentarian to shoot their latest commercial. It became clear from day one that this was something very different: no scripts, no actors, no massive crews or technical set-ups. |
Just a small group of people infiltrating the lives of real people; spending time with them in their homes, meeting their friends and family, and getting to know them quite intimately. It really was like shooting a documentary: we never orchestrated any action, but rather reacted to the real action that unfolded in their presence. It was an inversion of the traditional dynamic of commercial filmmaking, where the ‘real person’ is simply an actor being told what to do, what to say and how to say it.
Dylan Culhane. Director of Photography
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