At first it appears to be another ordinary romantic tale playing out in black and white. But a few seconds later we realise that something rare and exceptional is happening.

As a young couple bite into their full-colour Cornetto Black and White ice cream, the world becomes inverted black and white. In just 30-seconds, this advert takes you on a remarkable visual journey that culminates in a bright red meteor explosion, and a kiss.
When Sweet Spot Content received the brief from agency Lowe and Partners, they were given the opportunity to really experiment with the visual medium of black and white. They were challenged to create a ‘different’ world that would emulate the experience of eating and enjoying a Cornetto Black and White ice cream.
World-class director/director of photography Miles Goodall says: “I was excited by the possibilities of black and white, of the negative image and of giving it a really bold look. At the same time, I wanted to make sure the romantic notion was still alive, that the look didn’t overtake the emotion and that there was still some softness to it.”
And so Goodall creates a bold and very graphic look that shows the viewer a spectacular moment in time. They chose the location of an open-top bus specially constructed by Metrobus and, exploring the streets of Johannesburg and Sandton from this unique vantage point, away from all the clutter and chaos, Goodall brings to life amazing backgrounds with unusual buildings and images.
Though controlling the light on a moving bus is no easy task, he manages to masterfully synchronise the backgrounds with the shots, creating harmony between the light in the background and the action. And with the intention of achieving as much in-camera as possible, cast members were all coated in low-contrast matte yellow to maintain a singular tone, as everything was shot in full colour with as much detail as possible.
The most difficult part for the film art director Jeremy Argue was having to think-translate everything first in black and white, and then to re-imagine it all reversed out white and black. “Add to that the parts that were going to be rendered in infra-red black and white, and one had a real head-splitter!” he says.
And once filming was wrapped, it was time for the post-production artistry to add that extra bit of imagination to the world of Cornetto. The Black Ginger team turned the colourfully filmed world into a high-contrast black and white one. The graphic world envisioned at the beginning came to life with empty burned-white space and solid black shapes. To maintain the beauty of the images when they were inverted, certain aspects such as nostrils, eyes and open mouth were retouched, ensuring that it didn’t look “too strange”. And to round it off, giving the world the ideal level of “different”, an infrared effect was added – turning it into an almost ice cream-like place.
Overall, Sweet Spot Content set out to produce striking work with an artistic flair. And with a great team, headed up by the passionate and experienced producer Linda Notelovitz, together with the creative team from the agency, they succeeded. Not even the delay after a car drove into their bus in the middle of high-volume Sandton traffic could put a dampener on a great production.

Sweet Spot Content Production team:
Producer: Linda Notelovitz
Production Manager: Peta Sacke
Production Coordinator: Thembela Ndyalivane
Director (DoP): Miles Goodall

Advertising Agency – Lowe and Partners
Executive Creative Director: Peter Badenhorst
Creative Consultant: Alan Bunton
Senior Art Director: Gavin Dexter
Senior Copywriter: Stephen Pollock
Head of Account Management: Sylvia Swart
Managing Director: Sarah Dexter
TV Producer: Juliet Curtis