The Australian Navy bends reality to help recruits see what their shipmates can’t in new campaign via VMLY&R Australia and Cadre

Drone pilots in the Australian Navy are the eyes of the ocean. To connect potential new recruits to the role, VMLY&R and production company Cadre bent reality to demonstrate how they see what their shipmates can’t.

The surreal images were created by combining over 50 images with photoreal CGI assets.

Cadre’s senior producer, Sigi Eimutis, says it wasn’t as simple as bending a piece of paper: “We had a number of challenges to solve. Elements that would normally fall off into the distance were now perpendicular to the camera and therefore closer to the viewer. So, we had to balance perspective and proximity. Not to mention create a bend in the landscape that allowed the ocean to work in harmony with the land.”

The images were crafted by sourcing dozens and dozens of individual high-resolution photographs, ensuring that scale and lighting was consistent in each image, and then stitching them all together with intricate photo retouching.

Every element was positioned with painstaking detail to trick the viewer into thinking that the image was bending, resulting in landscapes with a surreal twist.

Says Robyn Bergmann, creative director VMLY&R: “We loved working with our client partners and Carde to craft this work in a way that will connect with our audience of future Drone Pilots.”

Navy Brand Portfolio Manager: Anjali Bakaya and Jess Goggin
Navy Senior Marketing Officer: Liam Walford

Creative Agency: VMLY&R
CCO: Paul Nagy
Group ECD: Jake Barrow
Creative Director: Robyn Bergmann
Creative Director: James Wills
Designer: Simon Gray
Designer: Lewis Brown
Executive Producer: Rachel Rider
Senior Producer: Maria Barowski
Account Director: Meaghan De Laurier
Senior Account Manager: Gabrielle Sandel

CADRE
Creative Director: Pat Da Cunha
Concept Art/Retoucher: Rhys Griffiths
3D Artists: Dan Rogers, Alan Do, Duncan McDonald, Nathan Juno
Producer: Sigi Eimutis