Reel

Spec, self-initiated

Synthetic Product Ad Shoots

6 brands that do not exist, 34 frames, all of it set by me. Nobody commissioned any of it, and nobody paid for it.

Each one was built to break a specific thing. A wordmark that has to survive five sets. A pack claim a model would happily invent. One face under three different light sources. The brand is the excuse. The gate underneath it is the point.

01 FERAL

Spec, self-initiated Yuzu Static, canned energy drink

FERAL

One label held across five sets, then one creator held across three rooms

The wordmark on this can is a halftone build with a magenta offset behind green type, and a small black box under it reading YUZU STATIC. That is a lot of small structure to keep identical while the light, the surface and the room change underneath it. Five frames, five sets, one plate. The creator frames run the other line: one trained face, a corner shop, a car park and a bathroom mirror, all lit by whatever was in the room.

Runs on Phantom Set and Identity Lock

A FERAL Yuzu Static can standing in shallow water, beaded with condensation, magenta and green vapour behind it and a splash around the base.
hero, water set
The same FERAL can on cracked black floor tiles in a corridor of school lockers, lit hard from one side.
same plate, lockers
A square crop of the FERAL can in the ice tray, shot closer and lit with green light from behind.
same plate, square crop
A man with bleached green hair in a black tracksuit reading the side of a FERAL can in front of a lit shop fridge, carrier bags in his other hand.
creator, corner shop
The same man sitting on a kerb in a strip-lit car park at night, a FERAL can on the ground beside his neon trainers.
creator, car park
The same man holding a FERAL can up in a bathroom mirror selfie, flash on, pink strip light above the cracked mirror.
creator, mirror
The same man is sitting in the bus advertising the FERAL Bottle.
A night-city billboard for FERAL Yuzu Static, the can breaking out of the board in front of the artwork with lime slices and green liquid crossing the frame, graffiti reading STAY WILD on the hoarding below and lit towers behind.
the same plate, on a billboard

Moving

The FERAL Yuzu Static can breaking out of a lit billboard over a wet night street.
The hardest delivery for this can. A break-out board asks the viewer to read the same object as flat artwork and as a solid thing in the same second, so any wobble in the label or the light shows immediately. Same locked plate as the product sets above.
02 GRAIN 01

Spec, self-initiated Compact digital camera

GRAIN 01

One face across three light sources: a bedroom, a club and a rooftop at sunset

This set exists to test drift. The same creator appears in warm string lights, in red club light with a flash, and in low sun on a roof. Nothing about the face is allowed to move between them, and the camera she is holding has to stay the same object in all three. Stack the frames, flick through at speed, and the jaw is where a fail shows first.

Runs on Identity Lock

A woman taking a mirror selfie in a bedroom strung with fairy lights, holding a small compact camera on an orange wrist strap.
bedroom, warm practicals
The same woman laughing in a dark club stairwell, raising the compact camera to her eye, red light behind her.
club, flash and red spill
The same woman on a rooftop at sunset, camera to her eye, city and air conditioning units behind her.
rooftop, low sun
GRAIN 01 Product Spec
product specifications
product spec front
front product shot
Product Spec Back
back product shot
Grain 01 product shoot
close up
Product shoot hero shot
hero shot
GRAIN 01 Infographic
infographic
A daylight city billboard for GRAIN 01 on an acid-green ground, the translucent camera bursting through the board in a spray of magenta shards under the line SHOOT OUTSIDE THE FRAME.
the same body, on a billboard

Moving

The GRAIN 01 camera bursting out of an acid-green city billboard in daylight under the line SHOOT OUTSIDE THE FRAME.
The camera coming through the board in daylight, which is the unforgiving version: no night city to hide the seam, and a translucent body with a visible circuit board and lens barrel that has to stay the same object as it crosses the edge.
03 SLAB

Spec, self-initiated Protein blocks in a blister tray

SLAB

A pack claim that has to stay readable, and two people in one frame

The pack is a pill tray with twelve protein blocks in it and a claim printed on the card: twenty grams of protein, twelve doses. A claim on a pack is the one thing a model will happily invent, so the claim gate applies here as hard as the label gate. The creator frames put two faces and four hands in the same shot, which is where most generated sets fall over.

Runs on Phantom Set and Identity Lock

A close crop of the SLAB tray, pale protein blocks in foil wells, some sealed and some torn open, numbered along the card.
plate, macro
A woman in a car park eating a SLAB block, holding the yellow tray up to camera with the pack claim facing forward.
creator, pack claim held to camera
Two people in a car holding a SLAB tray between them, both mid-laugh, faces close together.
creator, two in frame
a woman at the gym eating SLAB Chocolate
Slab hero shoot UGC variations
SLAB at home
SLAB HERO SHOOT
04 KNUCKLE

Spec, self-initiated Energy chews, four flavours

KNUCKLE

The hardest label test on this shelf: a box, four wrappers and four moulded names

Four flavour names, four wrapper colours, a carton with three lines of small copy across it, and the flavour word moulded into the sweet itself. Every one of those has to read at full zoom, and none of it can be typed back in afterwards. Anything that fails the label gate goes back to the plate.

Runs on Phantom Set

A KNUCKLE Energy Chews carton standing behind four flavour wrappers, JAB in yellow, CROSS in orange, HOOK in red and KNOCKOUT in purple, each with a matching four-hole moulded sweet beside it.
range, full label test
A single amber KNUCKLE chew variation LIMITED EDITION sliding out of a black leather sleeve on a dark, gritty surface, the flavour names stamped into each of its four holes.
Limited Edition Knuckle chew
a man eating the knuckle energy bar
campaign frame
05 KILNWORK

Spec, self-initiated stoneware candle, warm analogue

KILNWORK

matte handmade surfaces are the quickest route to a CGI look, and daylight is harder to fake than studio light.

Speckled glaze, a raw unglazed foot, a kraft paper band, soy wax, and a lit wick throwing flame light up the inside of the vessel with the wax pool glowing through. None of it holds without a stated film response, so the grade is written as Portra with gentle highlight rolloff and no digital cleanliness. Homeware also hands the collection a warm category, which matters when everything else in it runs cold, loud or engineered.

KILNWORK hero image a sented candle. stoneware candle, warm analogue
warm analogue
hero shoot image on a surface
warm surface
image lighted KILNWORK sented candle
light set
06 SOIE

Spec, self-initiated facial serum, soft daylight

SOIE

Glass and liquid are where synthetic imagery fails hardest, and a folder built in one house style says nothing about range.

A serum bottle demands refraction, a visible meniscus, caustics thrown onto the surface beneath, and a dropper that looks like glass, not plastic. Soie also sits at the far end of the set from Feral: diffused window light, blush and champagne gold, silk and petal texture.

Petal Veil SOIE serum hero shot
hero shot
Petal Veil Close-up
close up
Petal Veil Serum
product shot veils