www.sebastiannevols.com

Creative Brief

As part of the Royal Opera House’s Autumn/Winter season campaign, director and photographer Sebastian Nevols was commissioned to produce a short cinematic trailer for Cinderella, working in collaboration with the Royal Ballet. Little Shadow joined the production to provide VFX expertise, helping to realise a dreamlike vision that echoed the emotional pulse of the performance: transformation, enchantment, and the relentless ticking of time.

Our Approach

The trailer unfolds as a sequence of slow, expressive visual beats-a ballerina suspended in a liminal space of mist, particles, and timepieces. Our role began with on-set VFX supervision, ensuring plates were clean for extension and aligned with post-production needs. We later handled compositing, environmental FX, and clean-ups to create the magical atmosphere envisioned by the creative team.

Time played a central thematic role. We composited a series of floating clocks with animated hands, counting down in asynchronous rhythms. Particle FX and volumetric light were layered to accentuate the dancer’s presence while framing her in a visual world that was both dynamic and delicate. These elements were carefully integrated with DOP Lorenzo Levrini’s moody lighting and Elle Mikkola’s design language to keep the style elegant and tonally in sync with the Royal Ballet’s sensibility.

Using Nuke and After Effects, our team built the layered compositions in a modular way, enabling the editor to iterate on pacing while maintaining fidelity to the original visual concept.

The Results

The trailer was released as part of the Royal Opera House’s seasonal promotional content, capturing the romantic surrealism of Cinderella with a modern visual approach. Our FX helped underscore the story’s themes and contributed to a visually cohesive campaign across print, digital and moving image.

Thank you to Sebastian, Tony Pipes and Lara Cappelli @laracappelli, for the opportunity to create work for these incredible productions.

This Opera features outstanding talent Gordon Bintner @gordonbintner and Eliza Agrosoaie @ellizagrosoaie

Thanks to the brilliant team!
Editor – Ruairi Watson
DOP – Lorenzo Levrini @lorenzolevrini
Art director – Elle Mikkola @ellevoila
Colourist – Karol Cybulski @imkarol.colour
Retouch – Karl Hugill @onewhitechair
BTS – Mishike Fostik @mr_fostik
@crxss_agency