OLFACTORY BELONGING
For Givaudan, we imagined a film around a deeply contemporary question: in a world where we have never been more connected, how can we rebuild genuine human connection?
The project explores fragrance as a catalyst for social connection. Beyond personal expression, scent becomes a shared language, capable of creating recognition, emotion, belonging, and bringing people closer together.
The film follows this journey from isolation to collective experience. From a cold, urban and fragmented world, gestures, glances, bodies, colour and light gradually emerge.
A film conceived and produced with generative AI, not as the subject itself, but as a genuine creative and production tool serving art direction and storytelling.
Fragrance is generally associated with individual identity: what we choose to wear, what we want to express about ourselves, and the impression we leave behind.
But new practices, particularly among Gen Z, also reveal a much more collective dimension.
Olfactory preferences are discovered, discussed, recommended and shaped together. Around a fragrance, affinities, communities and shared references can emerge.
Fragrance is no longer only a way to express individuality.
It also becomes a way to recognise others and create a shared territory.
This is the idea of Olfactory Belonging that the film seeks to bring to life.
AN ART DIRECTION BETWEEN MATERIALITY AND EMOTION
The art direction is built around a deliberately sensory visual language.
Water, rain, skin, flowers, droplets, mist, particles, light and texture form a visual system in which each element can transform into another.
The first part of the film uses a cool, desaturated palette to convey isolation. As people move closer to one another, colour gradually emerges, materials become more organic, and movement becomes more fluid.
Fragrance then acts as an invisible thread connecting the different characters.
Not as a product shown on screen, but as a presence.
