Lee Cooper: Release Your Rebel

‘Release Your Rebel’ was the theme for the SS17 Lee Cooper collection. To add a little punk to their new collection of apparel, the MMMob worked with some of the industry’s most talented rocknrollas.

The Brief

Lee Cooper is a clothing brand hailing from England, but the classic staples are available worldwide and can be found on fashion-forward bodies in every corner of the globe. The brand is best-known for their premium denim jackets, jeans and trendy apparel. Kameleon, the brand’s London-based agency, asked Mobile Media Mob to deliver an SS17 campaign which would showcase the season’s collection.

The theme: “Release Your Rebel” – an ode to the spirit of Brit Punk, with a rock ‘n roll undertone. The MMMob needed to shape an edgy, youthful concept for Stills Imagery and Video Footage, based on the brand lookbook and then run with it. MMM would need to take care of everything from start to finish; including Pre-Prod, Model Casting, Location Scouting, Commissioning Crew & Talent, Production Execution, Post-Production, and Licensing & Usages.

The MMMob Approach

MMMobBoss Thoban took the lead as Executive Producer and Executive Creative Director. Recruiting the talent was paramount to the project. Photography, Video and Styling were key roles, which needed to be filled by the right people.

Adriaan ‘Oupa’ Louw, a true rocknrolla with an indie-film aesthetic, was enlisted as Creative/Film Director & Cinematographer. His conceptual, visual storytelling style, and directorial skills, were a great fit for this rebellious theme. For the Photographer, we needed someone who could shoot from the hip, but had a real eye for framing fashion – Tyrone Bradley was perfectly suited. The boys behind the cameras were matched with Marieke Merts – a young and gifted Stylist, with a firm grasp of international fashion trends, and an eye for classics with a twist.

Next, the core team set out to find the cast. After a good few days of meeting models, MMM had narrowed it down to 10. But, we needed more than just fresh faces. Our rebels had to have on-camera attitude, and proper performance skills to pull this off. The MMMob did test shots – both candid and posed, as well as short video takes. These tests were streamed to the UK, allowing our client to make the final call on the two guys and the two girls, who would carry forward the campaign.

Lee Cooper had their Rebel heroes, now we needed places to shoot them in. There was a special instruction which came with the brief: everything had to be shot in Cape Town, but the location had to feel global, slanted towards a UK cityscape. With Thoban being a CPT local, he had a few cool locations in his database. After every day of scouting, MMM sent a daily report to the UK-based client, including GeoTags and reference photos, shot on the scouted sites.

The locations were narrowed down to a shortlist, and when the client touched down in Cape Town, just 72-hours before the shoot started, a final location recce was completed. Along with our client, came all the Lee Cooper SS17 apparel – our stylist and her team did an extensive wardrobe planning and fitting session, with the models and Agency Team.

The big day arrived and MMM were all set with a production schedule which maximised our two days of shooting, with 12-hour stints on each. Our MMMobsters directed the Models to naturally engage with each other, and caught these authentic moments on camera as they unfolded. We were aiming to capture a good mix of candid and posed shots.

On set there was a fellow British classic, an old-school Mini Cooper, which was used as a prop in some of our shots. A dust-stirring, donutting biker was also on the scene, creating a dust cloud in the background of the vacant graffiti’d lot MMM were shooting in.

Our Photographer and Videographer worked in hot-rotation, allowing each talent the space and time to hit the shots they needed, and to get creative. Through single shots the MMMob told the brand story. One of our models blacked out the camera lens with a can of spraypaint (not before covering the camera lenses with a pane of glass and protective plastic, of course). And jumping through a hole in the fence added a little touch of anarchy to the everyday.

On each location, MMM parked a mobile workspace – a big, professional production CamperVan. It was equipped with a generator, power banks, deskspace, toilet, changerooms, stations for hair & makeup, and wardrobe closets & rails. This saved us time from having to go back to a base camp between looks.

Video was shot on a RED, with vintage Prime Lenses, to capture high-def, cinematic footage. And Adriaan handled the Video Edit himself, speeding up the process, as he could easily relay the fashion film’s narrative. Our Photographer Tyrone did a wide selection of his top picks, and client then whittled these down, before he proceeded with the Edit, Grade and Crop.