Leith London and London's Mustard created an unusual comedic reversal in "Blind Date" for Marie Claire.

An attractive young woman is waiting at a train station; she is approached by a somewhat more plain man bearing flowers. He says hello and she becomes visibly excited; when he extends his hand, she falls to her knees and begins kissing his groin area. Mortified, he begins whacking her with the bouquet and quickly and nervously extracts himself from the situation; a voice over plugs an upcoming "why some women are single" feature in the magazine.

"Blind Date" is a product of Leith creatives Paul Silburn and John Messum and director Cris Mudge and producer Jeremy McWilliams of Mustard.

"With these ads we wanted to get people intrigued about the magazine's editorial. I think we deliberately cast a guy who wasn't good enough for her, but who tries to retain a stiff upper lip," says Silburn. "It's that breakdown of the English reserve of the gentleman."

"We get sent a lot of scripts that are quite derivative, you read the first line and know where it's going; with this one you don't. If I'd seen it on TV and not shot it I'd have been gutted," says Mudge. "I tried to make it believable. Not that I know a lot of desperate girls, but you can believe her motivation, this one thing that always goes wrong so she can't get a boyfriend: she's too friendly."

During casting, Mudge says all comers had their own perceptions of why the woman was falling to her knees.

"I was looking for the balance between the anxiety at the start of the film and his disbelief. The idea is, he goes on quite a few blind dates so he can't believe how beautiful she is," says Mudge. "When she drops to her knees he changes, beating her away with the flowers. She is left abandoned on the floor with flower heads all around her, adding to the pathetic ending."

The spot was shot in London's Liverpool station; the DP was Luke Scott, sound was from Angell Sound and the editor was John Smith.

Webfiles:

Leith London > www.leith.co.uk

Mustard > www.mustardlondon.com