Definely: Contract Rage
for
Definely
With
Stroud
Definely is a suite of AI tools designed for reviewing complex legal paperwork in Microsoft Word, helping lawyers to stop fighting their own contracts. Studio Stroud agency brought us punchy, comedic creative for a 30 second film alongside 15 and 6 second cutdowns for social and event activation: a Manhattan lawyer drowning in Ctrl+F, copy-paste and a printer that won't stop. With 16:9, 9:16 and 4:5 crops in mind, we shot everything in a single day on our Virtual Production stage, rendering the New York City skyline live on the LED wall behind the action.
Director Jon Stroud wanted Manhattan in February, without flying anyone to NYC or vice-versa - so we brought NYC to Leeds, recreating the high-rise skyline on our LED wall as backdrop for two contrasting offices. One, the chaotic desk of a lawyer driven to the edge by unwieldy word processor tools; the other a scene of calm and confidence, where his colleague breezes through her paperwork with the help of Definely.
Shot in 8K and cleverly framed so that every beat could be reframed for 16:9, 9:16 and 4:5 aspect ratios without awkward pan-and-scan cropping, our Motion Control Cinebot handled the precision macro close-ups while the rest played out in elegant wides, allowing the story to be driven by performance and action. For the climactic moment where our hero takes baseball bat in hand to smash his keyboard into oblivion, the framerate was cranked to 240fps for a super slow-mo money shot.
Cut to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, the edit works in tandem with carefully mixed sound design to build anticipation and tension - every Ctrl+F keystroke, every mouse wheel scroll, every whirr of the printer adding to the sense of mounting frustration until that cathartic swing of the baseball bat. With a little VFX magic, this slow-motion scene pulls focus to computer generated “stunt doubles” of the lawyer’s dreaded Ctrl and F keys as they soar towards the camera.
In order to hit the Legal Week event activation deadline, we had only seven days to complete the entire post-production process before final delivery - including edit, VFX, colour grade and sound mix for the 30s, 15s and 6s edits in three different social crops. We worked closely with the director to make that happen, ensuring work was reviewed and amends actioned as quickly as possible, ultimately dropping the full asset library to the client with time to spare!