Contre-jour

A jewellery film held in one still frame, lit by a single beam of daylight.

Year: 2026
Location: Dubai
Disciplines: Creative direction · Art direction · Film
Role: Concept, art direction and film

Pencil storyboard of three vertical panels: a woman in a gown checks her watch, then two black panthers walk the same line in front of a red curtain — The storyboard: three crossings, one frameProcess

The brief

Can the order in which each piece meets the light carry a jewellery story on its own, with no words and no voiceover? We told it in one sequence: a woman, then two panthers, crossing the same beam of daylight.

In the lightConcept visual

Sketchbook page: three pencil studies of a woman turning her wrist to look at a watch, and a study of a black panther's head in a jewelled collar — Gesture and character studiesProcess

A black panther with a heavy gold chain over its shoulders walks across a red lacquer floor, reflected below, in front of a crimson curtain — The second crossingConcept visual

The idea

Each piece is seen only while it is inside the beam. A woman in black silk walks into the light and stops. She turns her wrist to look at her watch, and the diamonds on the bezel catch first. A black panther follows on the same line in a gold and emerald collar, then a second in a heavy gold chain.

The stage is a wall of crimson velvet, a lacquer floor that doubles everything above it, and one shaft of daylight falling from a skylight just right of centre. One frame, eleven seconds, one unbroken shot.

Gloved hands in a beam of light: a gold watch with a diamond bezel on one wrist, a woven gold ring on the other hand — Watch and ringConcept visual

Pencil section drawing of the set: a skylight above a red curtain, one diagonal beam, a woman standing in the light and a low camera on a tripod 20 inches from the floor — The lighting sectionProcess

Close portrait of a black panther wearing a gold collar set with diamonds and two emerald cabochons — The collarConcept visual

The empty set: a shaft of light on a wet red lacquer floor, paw prints drying and a gold glint fading — After the last crossingConcept visual

The outcome

The light tells the story in its own order: the diamonds on the bezel, then the emerald collar, then the gold chain. Nothing else in the frame moves.

A vertical film made for the phone screen, with sound from the set only: heels on lacquer, silk, an animal's breath. Around it, a set of stills and the drawings that planned it.

Single take: 11s
Made for the phone: 9:16

Every glint has to be earned from the light.

Lanterns rising into a night sky over desert dunes, under a thin crescent

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