Britain's Royal Ascot Horsetrack Stages a Race for Raindrops

And they’re off! Dropsy takes the lead, with Dripper coming up fast on the outside!

Now, watching raindrops slide down a window pane probably isn’t as thrilling as a day of thoroughbred action at England’s historic Ascot Racecourse.

Still, the woman stuck at home in this short film from creative agency Isobel seems to savor the soggy spectacle:

“The original client brief was to show off the racing at Ascot and demonstrate the love that people have for the sport,” Isobel creative partner Rob Fletcher, who directed the spot, tells Muse. “However, just showing a compilation of racing footage wouldn’t do Ascot justice.”

Instead, the team strove to “create something that really encapsulated the emotion behind the racing,” he says. “And with lockdowns starting to ease, we wanted to harness that excitement.”

The ad concludes by informs viewers, “The wait only adds to the drama.” It trumpets the return of the famous Royal Ascot event—with world-class racing amid much pomp and pageantry—from June 15-19, with reduced seating capacity, after last year’s cancelation. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain! (It’s in England, so bring those umbrellas, just in case.)

“The target is anyone who really loves racing and misses the exhilaration of actually being at the races, particularly followers of Ascot,” says Isobel account partner Sarah Humphreys. “These people frequently see racing content from both Ascot and other brands, so we wanted to create something that stood out, and connected with them on a more emotional level.”

To film the spot, Fletcher employed small tubes filled with water and glycerin. “It was tricky to set them off at the right time and took many attempts—especially hot and frustrating in our masks,” he says. “We shot separate glass plates, which allowed us to control the speed of the droplets in post” by combining footage to make it appear as if the drops were dribbling virtually neck and neck (or in this case, speck and speck) on the same pane.

CREDITS

Creative agency: Isobel
Creatives: Rob Fletcher, Chan Spencer
Account Partner: Sarah Humphreys
Account Director: Emily Powers
Account Executive: Lucy Tittensor

Production company: Isobel Productions
Director: Rob Fletcher
Producer: Amy Hansen
DOP: Jack Mealing
Camera Assistant: David Churchyard