Setting the swimmers among the sharks

Together with high-end production and facilitation company Reeleyes Film (think Monsieur N, Wah-wah, Lord of War, Rainbow Warrior), Murray set about translating a board that is both small and intimate and then epic and expansive into a 45 second piece of communication and storytelling magic.

The commercial features swimmers of all ages and races preparing and embarking on a long distance swim. To create the look in a pool was not an option for Murray, who stressed the believability - and therefore success - of the commercial would be dependent on the realism of an actual swim out at sea.

False Bay was selected in consultation with Peter Bales and Carina Bruwer from the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association as the best location, due mainly to the warmer water. With winter fast approaching and the continuous threat of great whites, Murray and Reeleyes producer Teri-Lin Robertson set about the meticulous planning and shooting of Vital's great 'swim'.

The weather gods played along, the johnnies played elsewhere and DOP Vicci Turpin conspired to create visuals that turned a 'what if...' idea into a powerful piece of communication.

The result is a commercial that embodies all Vital's intrinsics and extrinsics - health, strength, purity, vitality, goodness, wholesomeness, family, community.