The North Face: Lhotse
Creative Direction
Video Branding
In-Film Graphics
Animation
Custom Map Design
Client: The North Face
Production Studio: TopTop Studio
Lhotse showcases the journey of making first descents on the infamous Lhotse Face, located in the Everest range. The film's geographic location and altitude posed a unique challenge for the filmmakers, rendering the use of drones and helicopters for filming difficult, if not impossible. Instead, the film had to rely heavily on the accurate portrayal of the Everest range through graphics alone. This created the unique opportunity for us to art direct each shot to show exactly where the athletes were at each moment in the film.
We worked closely with the filmmakers to design various representations and styles of what the range could look like in a fully CG environment and ultimately moved forward with a highly treated graphic style while still giving justice to the massive scale of the range itself.
The film was a huge success landing over 2.8 million views and earning several accolades including 2019 Vimeo Staff Pick, 2019 Vimeo Nomination, 2019 Powder Awards Best Documentary, and others.