Grohe Elephant

Advertising campaign for the German fittings manufacturer

GROHE, the largest exporter of bathroom fittings worldwide and the largest fittings manufacturer in Europe, hired Living Films to coordinate this interesting still shoot. The idea in the drawing by Art Director Sebastian Kaiser from Grey Worldwide looked simple enough: Elephants spraying water in a lake situated in front of a mountain backdrop. But simple jobs often prove to be the most difficult ones.

During extensive location scouting in Northern Thailand with producer Mark Cumming (Shoot Logistics) we realized that it was an impossible task to find a lake shallow enough for the elephants to stand in and clean enough to represent a sparkling shower.

We decided to make a "comb:" Shoot the backdrop at one place and the elephants at another and later combine the two, using Photoshop, into one stunning picture.

The elephants we had found on a beach on the island of Phuket.

For the backdrop, we finally decided on the limestone cliffs at the Ratchaprapha Dam in Surat Thani Southern Thailand. We had great weather and the limestone cliff setting proved to be a truly dramatic backdrop for the elephants. For the crew it turned out to be an unforgettable experience to travel by boat at night on the 70 Km long lake and reach a quiet location before dawn, listening to the sounds of a tropical jungle in Southern Thailand waking up.