By EDITOR
In an era when artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the creative industries, one of advertising’s most prestigious awards has gone to a commercial that achieved its remarkable visual effects the old-fashioned way – through human ingenuity, craftsmanship and meticulous filmmaking.
For Cape Town’s Bev Wynne, founder and Executive Producer of Gatehouse Commercials, being part of the team behind the Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning Your Way Out for Coinbase represents the pinnacle of a 40-year career.
The commercial won top honours: the Grand Prix for Film Craft at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It’s also received a Primetime Emmy nomination, a rare achievement for an advertisement.
“Cannes Lions is the biggest stage in our industry globally,” says Bev. “It’s where the best advertising work from every country is judged against each other. Winning a Grand Prix, which is awarded to only one entry in each category, is genuinely considered a career high point.
“Our film won the Grand Prix for Film Craft, which is particularly meaningful because that category judges the actual filmmaking – direction, camera work and execution – rather than just the concept.”
Gatehouse Commercials, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, provided the production services that enabled the ambitious international shoot in Southern Africa.
“My role is as a service producer: I’m not developing the creative idea itself, but making it physically and financially possible to shoot here,” she explains. “Most of the work I do is facilitating productions that come in from overseas and turning their vision into a shoot that actually happens on the ground.”
That means overseeing budgets and schedules, sourcing local crew, arranging locations and permits, co-ordinating casting, and solving countless logistical challenges on set.
What distinguished Your Way Out from many other productions in today’s environment was its commitment to practical filmmaking.
At first glance, the commercial appears to have been created almost entirely using computer-generated imagery. It resembles a pixelated retro video game. In reality, however, almost everything viewers see was physically built and filmed.
“The agency gave us a strong no-AI mandate from the outset,” says Bev. “Even though the finished film looks like a pixelated video game, none of that was done digitally afterwards. It was all built and shot for real.”
Bringing that vision to life required remarkable planning and craftsmanship, including constructing two 80-metre sets, building and shooting miniatures, and filming on location in Cape Town – all physically crafted to create that video-game aesthetic in camera, rather than adding it afterwards.
The result is a film that demonstrates how practical effects can still surprise audiences in an age increasingly dominated by digital technology.
“It’s an enormous logistical and technical undertaking to pull off practically what most people would assume is done on a computer,” Bev says. “I think that’s exactly why it stood out to the Cannes jury in the Film Craft category, which rewards that kind of filmmaking craft and ingenuity.”
For Bev, the award is also recognition of South Africa’s world-class film industry and the highly skilled technicians and craftspeople who have helped establish Cape Town as a leading international production destination. “The crew base here has grown up alongside decades of international productions, so you’ve got camera, grip, lighting and production crews who work to the same standard as anywhere in London or Los Angeles,” Bev comments.
“Cape Town has become one of the most sought-after production hubs in the world for international advertising,” she says. “The light and landscape diversity is extraordinary. Close by you’ve got ocean, mountains, desert-like terrain and city, so a director can get several completely different looks without leaving the region.”
Bev’s own career began more than 40 years ago when she answered a newspaper advertisement for a ‘Girl Friday’ at a production company. After starting in feature films, she found her niche in commercial advertising, where shorter production cycles offered a better balance while still delivering the creative challenges she loved.
Looking back on Your Way Out, she is immensely proud of the achievement.
“I’m incredibly proud of what everyone accomplished,” she says. “This project proved that, even in an age where AI is transforming the industry, extraordinary results can still come from people building, crafting and solving problems together. That’s something worth celebrating.”
At a time when so much creative work is being generated digitally, Your Way Out stood apart by demonstrating that human imagination, technical skill and collaboration remain capable of producing work that not only captivates audiences but also earns the advertising industry’s highest honours.
