shelter.film: Meet the Ukrainian Production Company Behind A$AP Rocky's 'Tailor Swif' Video

“Video capture is generally not very complicated these days. But to bring it to the narrative in advertising with a high-quality cinematography or just the impressive art is not so easy,” says Zurasvili.

According to him, the company tries to express its creativity. For shelter.film, the process is about more than completing tasks and delivering projects—it's something that every team member truly enjoys.

“We are blessed to have the opportunity to be involved in projects with a social impact,” says Zurasvili. “We're always supporting new names and emerging talent, as real progress in our industry lies in people, not just tools. Working in international markets these days, we still involve top Ukrainian experts in every project (in person or remotely) to keep these gems of people around us and on track.”

As mentioned earlier, shelter.film has partnered with many leading companies in various industries. Advertising projects, by their very nature, take a lot of customer information into account. When we asked how the shelter.film team manages to preserve the artistic value of each promotional video, Albert Zurashvili answered.

“It may sound high, but we do everything possible to avoid compromises,” he says. “We don't over promise, but we over deliver and never under budget. So we're very simple about it — we can do it better within the budget or not. No one wants failures and we can anticipate and avoid them. It's not just a reputational risk – it's real damage to experts and the country's image on the world stage as a film and celebrity destination. So we are not choosing between commerce and art, I would say. We create commercial art.

“Over the last few decades, Ukraine has become a well-known destination for big brands and artists to film their best works. To make this happen, service production companies working with highly qualified experts have put years of sweat and passion into proving that this is the way to do it. After years of hard work and establishing the highest level of service in Eastern Europe, together with the most experienced crew, we started to see significant income for the country through all these projects worldwide. Many talented directors and other creative professionals are willing to bring their work to Ukraine or Georgia, as the level of achievements they achieve and the enthusiasm and participation of the crews is simply incredible.”

Despite numerous high-budget commercials and various projects, one of shelter.film's standout achievements is the A$AP Rocky music video. The concept for the video was developed by directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, a duo known for their work with many stars of the global music scene, including Coldplay, as well as brands such as Nike and Apple. Shelter.film has previously worked with these filmmakers on various projects, including a Dua Lipa music video.

“It was a free style of developing and polishing the details of each scene on the fly in a short-term and highly confidential manner,” says Zurasvili. “Most of the crew coming to the set didn't know who we were shooting and were surprised when they arrived. A few weeks later, A$AP and his gang came to town and we spent a few amazing days in Kiev shooting this crazy project, doing all the tricks possible and filming it on a Kodak 16mm camera. Working with film is always exciting as you don't see the end result until the material is developed and scanned. It was an unforgettable experience.

“Needless to say, there were tons of negotiations that took us more than half a year of constant discussion, but it was definitely worth it. One of the highlights for us is that we engaged an incredibly talented Ukrainian cinematographer, Denys Lushchyk, to shoot this music video.”

In one of the scenes of A$AP Rocky's music video, a famous scene from the 1977 film Miminoby Georgian director Georgiy Daneliya, comes to life. As Zurasvili explains, this decision was made by the directors. “It's a fantastic report from Georgiy Daneliya and I'm glad we have it there,” reports Albert. According to him, A$AP Rocky was deeply involved in both the filming and post-production stages, and the entire team worked to a high professional standard.

For the shelter.film team, visual communication is an art form and a unique way of telling a story. This approach is consistent whether they are working on a commercial or a music video. “Every form of art, even if it's commercial, has a time stamp,” says Zurasvili. “All great stories must be told. Art is about freedom of expression. I appreciate all the brands and artists who are brave enough to be on the cutting edge of history. The volume of your voice brings power and responsibility to those who trust and follow you. Positive change can only happen where there is responsible, kind and intelligent dialogue. As I said, we are happy to have our part in this and we always contribute with full responsibility.”