← All workFor beauty and fashion brandsProduction / 2026

Campaign production

Whole campaign worlds in weeks. A season of stills and motion from one brief, at a fraction of a shoot.

Campaign production2026
Les Passantes: Odile, Episode 01, the rollercoaster. 18 seconds, silentConcept

I build campaign worlds for beauty and fashion brands: the cast, the set, the light and every frame. It is fast: Odile’s character sheet and her first five looks took one afternoon. It is volume: one brief becomes a season of key visuals, stills and short films, cut to every format. And it costs a fraction of a full production. I direct it the way I have worked for 15+ years in beauty, fashion and retail, for M·A·C, Maybelline New York and Old Navy. It is made with AI image and video tools, Magnific among them, then finished by hand.

SpeedCampaign worlds in weeks
VolumeA season of stills and motion from one brief
CostA fraction of a full shoot
ForBeauty and fashion brands
ShownSeven worlds. Two of my own, Les Passantes and House of Extinction; five on brands, one of them produced
IHow I direct it

Directed, not prompted

Four rules every world is held to, before a single frame is made.

Odile at casting: red patent trench, pearls, white socks and Mary Janes, a skateboard at her side
Odile at casting, Les Passantes · Concept
  1. 01

    Cast before you shoot

    Les Passantes is cast like a film: 88 characters, Odile among them, each on her own casting page with a one line story. The House is cast like a model agency: six queens, one color each.

  2. 02

    Fix the codes, change one thing

    Odile has five codes that never change: the black bob, the red lip, oval sunglasses, pearls and white socks. Only the eyes change, a numbered look every episode, so she reads from a thumbnail.

  3. 03

    One impossible thing

    Everything is real except one thing: a swan hat at the laundromat, a giant lipstick on Fifth Avenue, your own skeleton at the museum. The characters never break. The world does the comedy.

  4. 04

    References from the archive, finished by hand

    I brief from art and fashion history, not the feed: Saul Leiter, Bill Cunningham and Jacques Tati for Les Passantes; Buster Keaton, Magritte and Guy Bourdin for Odile; Jean-Paul Goude and Eiko Ishioka for the House. The finish is by hand: end cards in my lettering and a face chart for every look.

IIWorld one

Les Passantes

In which everything is real except her.

My series of strange, beautiful women passing through ordinary city life, made for TikTok and Reels. I cast it like a film: 88 characters, each on her own casting page with a one line story and a run of episodes. She is the only impossible thing in the frame, and nobody makes a fuss.

The direction

Shot as if a stranger caught it on the street: a passerby’s phone, not a film crew, eye level, sometimes a long lens from across the street. Natural light and a muted city palette, so her one color does all the work. 8 to 15 seconds, one action, one beat, cut, and one glance to camera at the very end. Real street sound and a four note piano sting. My references: Bill Cunningham, Saul Leiter, Jacques Tati’s Playtime, Roy Andersson. The test: would a stranger believe someone filmed this? If not, I make it again.

Babette at the laundromat in a black coat, a white swan hat on her head, folding a shirt
BabetteConceptA Paris milliner who wears her wildest hats on the most ordinary errands.
Gigi, a pigeon in a pearl necklace, on the stone steps of a New York museum as people walk past
GigiConceptA New York pigeon in pearls with the best taste in the city.
Vesper, pale with a white bob, coral eyes and a sculpted white collar, holding a red lipstick
VesperConceptAn alien anthropologist studying human life. She gets every ritual slightly wrong and looks incredible.
Vitrine, a window mannequin in a pink coat, in a lit store window at night
VitrineConceptA Fifth Avenue window mannequin who comes alive when no one is looking. The comments dress her.
Model 9, a porcelain android with a black bob, at a makeup counter with a brush in hand
Model 9ConceptA porcelain android with perfect taste who quietly fixes the world, one detail at a time.
Galatea, a marble statue in a dark museum gallery, holding a compact up to her face
GalateaConceptA marble statue who comes alive after the museum closes, to do her makeup.
Loulou, a white borzoi with a black bow, sitting in the front row of a runway show
LoulouConceptA borzoi with a permanent front row seat. She has never once been impressed.
Rosette on a subway car, her head a bouquet of pink and white flowers
RosetteConceptA woman whose head is a bouquet. It changes every week, and she never explains it.
Séraphine in a white gown, her long train carried down the subway stairs past commuters
SéraphineConceptShe wears a thirty foot couture train everywhere, including the subway.
Personne: a camel coat, a black hat and gloves walking down a city sidewalk with nobody inside
PersonneConceptNobody is inside the clothes. The outfit walks the city by itself.
Lanterne at a flea market, her head a lit silk lampshade
LanterneConceptHer head is a silk lampshade. It lights up when she finds something she loves.
Bulle in a white draped dress, walking a crowded sidewalk inside a giant soap bubble
BulleConceptShe walks the city inside a giant soap bubble, perfectly calm.
Les Passantes, twelve from the casting · Concept12 images, swipe →

Babette, Episode 01

The Swan. One line on screen: Babette. Laundromat, Tuesday. She folds laundry in a swan and nobody inside reacts. The man beside her looks up at it, then back at his phone. She ducks the swan under the door frame and looks at us. Cut.

Through the laundromat window: Babette folds laundry in her swan hat
0:00 Wide, through the window · Concept
Inside the laundromat: the man beside Babette looks up at the swan
0:03 Medium, inside · Concept
Close: gloved hands fold a small towel as the swan’s neck dips into frame
0:06 Close · Concept
In the doorway: Babette ducks the swan under the frame and looks at the camera
0:09 Medium, doorway · Concept

Odile, the lead

Odile is ageless, a retired ballerina in a red patent trench who never speaks. Every episode she does a flawless look somewhere nobody could, the front row of a rollercoaster, a Vespa across Paris, a mechanical bull, then skates away. Each wardrobe is a season. Red Lacquer launches her.

Odile, look 001: chrome lids, a red lip and the black bob
Odile, look 002: a fine cobalt line on the upper lid
Odile, look 003: a saffron stripe straight across both eyes
Odile, look 004: bare lids with painted tears
Odile, look 005: a sharp black wing with a white inner corner
Odile, the numbered looks 001 to 005 · Concept5 images, swipe →
Odile in a red patent trench, pearls and Mary Janes, holding a skateboard
Red Lacquer · Concept
Odile in a cobalt 1980s suit with a giant white pussy-bow, holding a skateboard
Cobalt Power · Concept
Odile in a black velvet opera coat, satin gloves and knee pads, holding a skateboard
Opera Skater · Concept
Odile character sheet: front, three quarter, profile and back in a camel coat, with two close portraits
Odile, the character sheet: five codes that never change · Concept
Odile in her red trench astride a giant red lipstick in the middle of Fifth Avenue, yellow cabs and a crowd around her
Odile, one impossible object on Fifth Avenue · Concept
IIIWorld two

House of Extinction

In which six supermodels are reminded they are extinct.

A social series of supermodel drag queen dinosaurs, photorealistic and set in the 90s. Every queen is a supermodel first. Every episode puts her somewhere ordinary and quietly reminds her that she is extinct: her own skeleton at the museum, her ancestors in the gas pump, a cousin on the Thanksgiving table. She never flinches. Home is the Playhouse, a handmade set in one soft pastel palette, shot like a fashion story on film.

The six queens of House of Extinction posed together in the Playhouse: pastel painted plywood walls, a painted sky and a checkerboard floor
House of Extinction, the cast at home. Nobody is smiling · Concept
Tyra Saurus Rex in a cobalt bow gown and sequin tail, seated in the Playhouse living room
Tyra Saurus Rex · Concept
Linda Evangelisaurus, a brachiosaurus in powder pink tweed with pearls wound up her neck, by the Playhouse window
Linda Evangelisaurus · Concept
Kate Mosasaurus in a wet slip dress, lounging in a clawfoot tub in front of cardboard waves
Kate Mosasaurus · Concept
Cindy Crawfossil, a triceratops in lacquer red with a rhinestone frill, at the dinner table
Cindy Crawfossil · Concept
Terri Dactyl, a pterodactyl with a red beak, her wings a pleated white couture cape, above the bookshelf
Terri Dactyl · Concept
Velocirapture in violet latex and feathers, draped across a television set
Velocirapture · Concept

Episode 01

Her own skeleton. Tyra shoots a magazine cover in front of her own skeleton at the natural history museum, matching its pose exactly. Fifteen seconds, no dialogue: camera shutters, one gasp, a lounge harpsichord. The last frame matches the first, so it loops.

Episode 01, shot 1: close on the papier-mache T. rex skull as a flash pops
Episode 01, shot 2: Tyra in front of her own skeleton, matching its pose
Episode 01, shot 3: Tyra working the pose, the skeleton behind her
Episode 01, shot 4: a puppet field trip arrives at the rope and points
Episode 01, shot 5: Tyra profile to profile with the skull
Episode 01, shot 6: the close-up, framed like shot one
House of Extinction, Episode 01: six frames of a 15 second loop · Concept6 images, swipe →
IVWorld three

Maybelline New York

In which the idea comes first.

This one ran. As freelance creative director on Maybelline at Gotham and McCann, I came up with the concepts, then used AI as a tool to make the images: storyboards, video and product photography, so the team and the client could see an idea before it was shot. For SuperStay Lumi-Matte, luminous matte that moves became AI frames of the bottle in motion and in warm city light, worked through round after round from September to late October 2025. Then it went into production: the casting, the makeup and the shoot stayed with people, and the bottle was rendered in CGI for the film.

AI concept frame: the SuperStay Lumi-Matte bottle in a blur of motion over ribbons of foundation
Lumi-Matte, the bottle in motion, 2025 · Concept
Final Lumi-Matte product key visual: the shade range in motion
Final: the shade range in motion, 2026
AI concept frame: the Lumi-Matte bottle on a ribbon of foundation in front of a blurred New York skyline
The city, 2025 · Concept
Still from the final film: the bottle in CGI with a sweep of foundation in front of a city facade
Final: the bottle in CGI, from the film, 2026
Final Lumi-Matte key visual: Princess in a beige trench, the city in motion behind her
Final key visual, Princess
Final Lumi-Matte key visual: Tamar in an olive jacket, the city in motion behind her
Final key visual, Tamar

See the case study →

VWorld four

RW&CO

In which a cast drawn in marker comes back for the holidays.

I drew the RW&CO cast in black marker in 2020, one shopper at a time, and lined them up outside the store. In 2026 I brought the same cast back for the holidays as a short film, made with AI image and video tools.

The RW&CO cast sitting and standing on the RW&CO logo, a poodle and a dachshund at their feet
RW&CO, the cast on the logo · Concept
RW&CO storefront illustration in color: a cast of shoppers with bags and a poodle outside the store windows
2020: the cast in marker, the original illustration
The same cast outside the RW&CO store with red shopping bags
2026: the same cast, back for the holidays · Concept
RW&CO, the holiday film. 23 seconds, silent · Concept

See the case study →

VIWorld five

La Mer

In which the jar becomes a mountain.

A campaign world for Crème de la Mer, built on its origin story. Above the waterline the jar is a mountain to climb, with a summit seal and an expedition map. Below it the cream turns to iceberg and the sea becomes a museum.

The La Mer jar as an iceberg above an underwater world of jellyfish and coral
La Mer, below the waterline · Concept
La Mer, Mt. Crème, the film. 18 seconds, silent · Concept
Climbers roped together on a mountain of crème rising out of the jarSummit Certified seal pressed into the cream
The Mt. Crème expedition map
The climb, the summit seal and the expedition map · Concept

See the case study →

VIIWorlds six and seven

More worlds

In which the marks go out into the world.

Two more, from my case studies. The four Old Navy brand programs, each with its own set and cast, shot like a catalog. And Kenneth Cole Voice Wear: real tees, imagined casting.

Old Navy, The Edit: a stylist in pink cat-eye glasses beside a giant pink pen on a marigold set
Kenneth Cole Voice Wear: a woman with a silver bob in the Handle With Care tee at a downtown crosswalk
Old Navy, The Fan Shop: fans of every age in navy jerseys and denim on blue bleachers, waving foam fingers
Kenneth Cole Voice Wear: a DJ carrying a crate of records across the street in a Purpose Factory tee
Old Navy, The Culture Club: six people in navy and denim on a red carpet under a theater marquee
Old Navy, The Gift Shop: a family in matching Fair Isle sweaters inside an open gift box with a giant blue bow
Old Navy brand programs and Kenneth Cole Voice Wear, six frames · Concept6 images, swipe →

Old Navy, see the case study →Kenneth Cole, see the case study →

Concept

Les Passantes, with Odile as its lead, and House of Extinction are my own worlds. Maybelline New York is produced work that ran: its AI frames are the concepts it started from, shown next to the finals. RW&CO, La Mer, Old Navy and Kenneth Cole are concepts built around those brands. Every AI image and film on this page is labeled Concept; only the Maybelline finals are a produced campaign.

VIIIThe offer

Brief, timeline, deliverables

One brief in, a campaign out. Here is how a sprint runs.

01 / Brief

What I need from you

  • The product, and the one thing it has to say.
  • Who it is for.
  • Your references, and the ones you never want to see again.
  • Where it runs: social, site, retail, out of home.
  • Brand guidelines and any must-have shots.
02 / Timeline

A three week sprint

  • Week 1: the world and the cast. Casting pages, character sheets, the set and the palette. You approve one direction.
  • Week 2: the stills. Key visuals and the full set of stills, with two rounds of changes.
  • Week 3: motion and formats. Short films and silent loops, then everything cut to size.
03 / Deliverables

What you get

  • A defined set of key visuals.
  • Campaign stills for social, site and retail.
  • Short films and silent loops.
  • Every piece cut to every format, from 9:16 to out of home.
  • A character and world guide, so the cast looks the same next season.
Start a sprintBeauty and fashion

Send me the brief.

chris@studiosauve.com ↗See the portfolio