De Sousa proves his 'toughness'

Grant has been the winner of many prestigious awards in previous years, specifically for his PSA pieces 'Conflict Diamonds' and 'There's no going back'. He can now count among his achievements, numerous Vuka awards, a Cannes Young Director Award as well as a United Nations Department for Public Information award from the New York Festival. On top of this Grant has recently been shortlisted for 'Conflict Diamonds' for the upcoming Human Doc. International Film Festival in Warsaw.

This year Grant and Blue Panther Films have delved into the auto industry. Together with Nissan, Grant has directed a new very entertaining commercial called 'Tough City' for the Nissan Navara range.

The Nissan Navara is perfectly embodied in Grant's 'Tough City' commercial. The intention behind the ad was to demonstrate the full range and abilities of the new Nissan Navara; in essence, that it is a 'tough' car. The commercial is guided by leading man, Ashley Dowds, who takes the viewers on a tour through Tough City. Despite the extreme situations present in the ad, everyone is cool and easy-going, portraying the idea that being tough, for them, really is a way of life.

The commercial was shot over a period of two days in the suburb of Summerwood Housing Estate in the Western Cape. The houses in the street were ideal for the perfect suburban lifestyle that is shown in the background to the 'toughness', but, the roads in Summerwood were simply not tough enough for 'Tough City'! Grant and his team therefore had to duplicate the set with a proper off-road track built by a 4x4 specialist to showcase what the Navara can really do. During post-production, the two scenes were comped together to achieve the perfect balance of suburban bliss and extreme toughness. This was done by the fantastic Black Ginger Team.

"There were numerous challenges presented to Grant and the production team. Therefore, an intense pre-production process was vital. Every scene had to be rehearsed beforehand, which allowed for a very smooth running shoot; except for the fact that there were two uncontrollable variables - the Cape Town weather and a wild bull running amok on set," states Producer Warren Meltz.

From an Art Director's point of view they certainly pulled out all the stops to create a city that was fit for the Navara image. No small detail was left undone. This was done under the expert eye of Art Director, Leon Morland.

As proud Producer Warren Meltz carries on to say, "Grant's attention to detail to each and every aspect - cast, location, art department, animals, SFX & stunts, a technical post production process and therefore shoot, was formidable, which certainly proved himself to be a diverse director, able to meet any challenge put forward to him."

Thanks to the Nissan commerical, not only was the community of Summerwood Housing Estate brought closer together, but so too were the crew. The set was described as having 'a good ethos', with great people and a calm atmosphere. As Grant says, "This was the most challenging, and yet the best shoot I have ever done."

Grant has achieved new grounds as a director with his work on 'Tough City'. For this he has many people to thank, in particular Nissan Navara's product manager Ross Garvie as well as TBWA's Creative Director, Adam Weber; Art Director, Miguel Nunes; Copywriter, Jared Osmond and agency producer Jerry Mohale Sekhwela. He would also like to thank his production crew: Producer, Warren Meltz, Line Producer, Lawrence Goodman, Production Manager, Rob Lewis and a big thank you to DOP Manoel Ferreira whose calm and professional tempremant and meticuolous eye were invaluable during the course of the job.

Last, but definitely not least, he thanks the rest of the crew who "went the extra mile", to make this the most enjoyable and memorable commercial of his career thus far.

View the spot here.

Written by: Olivia Maurel and Clodagh Quinlan