Xiaomi South Africa ‘Xiaomi: Ludumo – The Miracle Man’
IDIDTHAT Craft Awards November 2024 – View Showcase
ABOUT THE WORK
This is about the extraordinary display of the human spirit in ordinary places. Ludumo is a fighter in every sense of the word from what he used to do in the ring himself to how he survived a life changing event he was never meant to survive, and finally, to how he now channels it to other ring-ready fighters.
The stark look and feel, the visual balance of light and single-source darkness is meant to express this man’s life, the juxtaposed feeling of despair and hope. The Xiaomi brand itself preaches “Innovation is for everyone” and instead of creating an influencer campaign with big names, we felt that we wanted to champion innovation, light, and hope coming from a humble unknown figure who really embodies ‘extraordinary’. Ludumo’s story is about miracles and dreams, and it was a dream to listen, capture and create his story with him.
JUDGE’S NOTE
The craft here is the simplicity. We stripped this piece down to its bare bones and put Ludumo at the heart of it. The craft here also focused on how do we introduced this man’s life and tell his story in 3 minutes, while still making it compelling and sincere. We didn’t want this to feel cosmetic and award-pandering – we wanted it to feel honest. On the morning of the 1-day shoot, we filmed Ludumo as he unraveled the events of his life to us. He’s a man who’s only been in front of cameras for the soul purpose of fighting in a boxing ring.
There, he required brute force, bravado & persona – but here, in front of an intimate film crew of young strangers, he bared his soul. This created a sacred ground for us to shoot for rest of day. We wanted to honour the idea of hope. But his tears, his defeat, his joy, all these things you see in the film, these are real – and we crafted our film on that same vulnerability and faith he offered us. It hurts him every time he rehashes this story, but for this, he put himself forward to tell us all about the idea of hope and dreaming – and we honoured that idea visually.
The camerawork has no desire to be overly intricate – crafted simplicity was the vision. The sound design offers a visceral addition to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. The music guides the emotion and leaves you with nothing but a sense of hope when all is said and done. It’s swept together with a difficult-to-compose edit that seems straight-forward but required several hours of cutting, crafting and focusing on storytelling to make it all feel seamless and emotive.
