Dougal Wilson had directed ‘Breathe,’ the new Fire Safety spot by COI to raise awareness about the threats of fire.  Shot in the underwater stage at Pinewood, the commercial shows a couple in bed unconsciously drowning in their sleep.  The ad was produced by Tim Page at Rainey Kelly and Matt Fone at Blink, MPC provided the post including compositing smoke effects and colour grading.

‘Breathe’ highlights the danger of inhaling smoke comparing it to drowning; ‘2 to 3 breaths of toxic smoke and you are unconscious.’  For the underwater shoot, the whole set was built and submerged in Pinewood’s underwater stage.  VFX Supervisor Ludo Fealy assisted the shoot and later combined passes of different elements to enhance the scene.  A ‘dry stage’ was used for the last shot, to film separately the couple in bed and the room filling up with practical smoke.  Smoke was added in post from MPC’s element library.  To retain the realism of the whole piece, Ludo was sent on a fire training course in Birmingham to understand the real dynamics of a room filling up with smoke.

Jean-Clement Soret added the final dream-like grade. Jean-Clement explains; 'we worked from a print, one of Dougal’s favourite ways of approaching grading, then matched some elements from negative to the print. We made sure the VFX dept had all the material necessary for a smooth ride.'

The ad will go on air from 5th October in the UK.