Combining stock footage and elements shot expressly to look like stock was not quite new to director Bruce Dowad. In fact, when Dentsu, Toronto approached him about Lexus "Moments", it was partly because they had seen his "They Invented" spot for Mercedes that used similar techniques. "We knew Bruce could do the stock feel," says Glen Hunt, creative catalyst and self-described 'accelerant' at Dentsu. "When approached he said, 'If I've done my job, it will look like I've done nothing'. He's willing to forgo ego."

The ad shows a series of projected "captured moments". With the VO riffing on all manner of moments (long, short, joyful, passionate), images appear complimenting each idea. The choice of visuals is inventive and iconic, with the result looking like news reels and home movies. The screen becomes lines on the road, reveal car, end spot. A bit less than half of it is stock.

"I went through a lot of stock and selected pieces that would be cohesive. I was looking for a certain compactness in terms of frame and quality," says Dowad. Although the script remained fixed, how much stock would be used and what needed to be shot evolved; a bit of a 'find what you can and see what's left' approach.

Dowad did the stock sourcing in concert with the staff at School Editing in Toronto who would then pass along selects to the agency. "'Cat' can be a lot of things; from kitten to lion," says Hunt. "Words are not good enough to describe abstract ideas so we were given lots of options, which would tweak ideas."

Dowad concerned himself with finding stock that conveyed "a range of human experience and emotion encapsulated in a moment." He was also concerned with making his own shots blend in. "Stock is spontaneity and our shots had to have that same quality. It had to feel like it was all coming from one perspective."

Although many sources were used to find stock, one shot came out of Dowad's back pocket. For "moments you'll never forget", an elephant holds up a man with his trunk. "That was someone Bruce knew. He'd shot it on a camera phone," says Hunt. "Just goes to show, where you find it you'll never know."

Bruce Dowad Associates> www.dowad.com
Dentsu> www.dentsu.com