TOPMIND: Twenty Years in the Blink of an Eye

How Olive Tree Films turned a technology company’s twentieth anniversary into a two-minute human story, combining real imagery with AI-generated images in the first film of our studio to use the technique.

A first for us

This was the first Olive Tree Films production to incorporate AI-generated imagery.

Technique with a purpose.

Camera crew gathered around a cinema camera rig with a matte box

The challenge: twenty years in two minutes

An anniversary creates an abundance of material: events to remember, milestones to recognize, people to thank and a future to describe. TOPMIND wanted to celebrate its twentieth anniversary with a film that could give all of that an emotional shape in just two minutes, without turning it into a list of corporate milestones. Two minutes also meant that every second had to earn its place: there was no room for a sequence that did not serve the idea.

Three demands had to live in the same film. The history needed an organizing idea. Innovation had to be part of the expression, because TOPMIND’s work is technological change. And the tone had to stay close to people, because the company’s story is also a story of relationships. A conventional anniversary video could handle one of these. The brief asked for all three.

That called for a creative partner, not only a production company: a team able to find the idea, define the emotional direction, choose the audiovisual language and carry it into a finished film.

Cinema camera and external monitor on a dimly lit indoor film set
Film crew recording plated food with a cinema camera while a crew member holds a reflector
Wide view of a film crew in a large production studio with a ceiling grid, lights and ladders
Cinema camera with a matte box ready on a film set, with crew and lighting stands behind it

The insight

Twenty years
in the blink of an eye

Time as the story

Everyone knows the feeling of looking back and wondering how so much time has passed. That feeling became the campaign, “20 anos num piscar de olhos”, and it gave a technology company a way to talk about change through something every viewer has felt.

years of history
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customer brands named
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OTF film with AI imagery
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The idea: let the technique express the brand

The concept brought the personal and the institutional together. Time gave the film its emotional entry point. Transformation connected it to the brand: in two decades, technology changes what organizations can do and what people expect from them. Relationships gave the anniversary its human meaning. In our team’s account, Caroline Mendonça’s reading of the campaign reaches into impermanence, vulnerability and the ability to embrace change.

Then came the production choice. We proposed incorporating AI-generated imagery into the film, alongside real images. A technology company’s anniversary was a relevant place to explore an emerging creative tool, and a story about transformation gave that exploration a purpose. The goal was a single visual and emotional language, so every image, whatever its origin, belonged to the story.

Using a new tool for the first time on a client film is a responsibility. We treated it as a creative decision, not a novelty: the concept came first, the role of the generated imagery was defined by the story, and every image had to pass the same test as the real ones. Does it belong here? Does it carry the feeling of time passing?

TOPMIND:
Anniversary film

“20 anos num piscar de olhos”, in English roughly “20 Years in the Blink of an Eye”: a two-minute anniversary film created and produced by Olive Tree Films, combining real imagery with AI-generated images to tell twenty years of change through the people and relationships behind them. TOPMIND presented the film publicly in its own announcement, and the production announcement credited it to our team.

The trailer is public. The full film is available on request.

The scope: one film, end to end

What TOPMIND commissioned and what we delivered, as recorded in our team’s account and in the public announcements.

01.

Objective and audience

Celebrate TOPMIND’s twentieth anniversary with its clients, partners and team, expressing innovation with a human-centered tone.

02.

Video and format

One conceptual anniversary brand film combining real imagery with AI-generated images.

03.

Duration

Two minutes.

04.

Our services

Creative strategy, storytelling, audiovisual production, cinematography, generative AI imagery and post-production.

05.

Customer participation

TOPMIND customers took part in the campaign, including Nestlé, Nivea and Mosaic, as well as Hospital Santa Catarina, named in TOPMIND’s announcement.

06.

Channels, versions and shoot

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Augmented, not automated

Our team’s account uses Caroline Mendonça’s idea of Augmented Intelligence to explain the approach: human intuition and creativity working together with the capabilities of AI tools. Generating an image is one activity. Deciding whether it belongs in a brand story is a different, human judgment.

Someone had to understand why the anniversary mattered, decide that a reflection on time could express it and judge how each image related to the brand and the feeling the film needed. Those decisions gave the generated imagery a place inside an authored film. The film was not generated end to end, and we do not name tools or claim savings that were not measured. The technique served the story; the story came first.

Clutch Champion award, Fall 2023
Clutch Global award, Fall 2023

Who did what

The process: idea first, technique second

TOPMIND brought its history, its values and its customers. We created the concept and produced the film, from the first idea to the final cut.

Created and
produced by OTF

Real and
AI-generated imagery

  1. Understanding

    TOPMIND’s communication challenge and values, including its spark in the eyes.

  2. Concept

    Twenty years in the blink of an eye: time, transformation and relationships.

  3. Storytelling

    An emotional direction for two minutes, built on one central metaphor.

  4. Production

    Cinematography and audiovisual production, with AI-generated imagery added.

  5. Post-production

    Real and generated images joined in one visual and emotional language.


The experience: a client who told the story too

The clearest record of how TOPMIND saw the project is its own. The company published a campaign announcement describing the combination of real and AI-generated imagery and connecting it to a human-centered way of expressing innovation, with CEO Sandra Maura and marketing coordinator Rodolfo Costa discussing the approach. A day later, a production announcement credited Olive Tree Films with creating the film.

For a client to explain the creative choice in its own words is a strong sign of alignment: the idea we proposed became the way the company chose to present its anniversary to the market.

For our team, the project also connected to a broader conviction. Silas Oliveira, our co-founder and CEO, relates the use of AI to the culture of innovation at Olive Tree Films: an interest in making production processes more intelligent and reducing repetitive work. On this film, that interest found a real brief, a real client and a clear creative purpose.

Customers in the story

Twenty years of relationships

An anniversary can be told through the company alone. This one also acknowledged the circle of clients and partners built over two decades. TOPMIND customers took part in the campaign, and TOPMIND’s announcement also names Hospital Santa Catarina. Their presence turned an internal milestone into a shared one: twenty years told through the companies that were part of them.

Three silhouetted crew members in caps checking a camera and a small monitor

Food and beverage

Nestlé

One of the TOPMIND customers named among the campaign’s participants.

Film crew and camera equipment seen through a dark entrance to a lit sound stage

Personal care

Nivea

A TOPMIND customer that took part in the anniversary campaign.

Cinema camera set up in a bright interior while the crew works around a table and chairs

Agribusiness

Mosaic

Another participant, adding to the shared dimension of the story.

The results

One film.
Two milestones.

20

years of TOPMIND history, celebrated in a two-minute film.

1st

Olive Tree Films production to incorporate AI-generated imagery.

These are the supported outcomes: a completed anniversary film, a production approach aligned with the brief, the participation of customers and a new creative resource for our studio. No reach, engagement, sales or brand-lift figures were measured, so we do not claim them. The milestone is also precise: a first within our own work, not a claim to the first AI-assisted corporate film anywhere.

Beyond the numbers

What the project left behind

Two minutes held two stories: a company looking back at twenty years, and a creative team opening a new chapter in how it tells stories. For organizations marking a milestone, that is the capability the case shows: finding one idea that makes a history meaningful, and giving it the right audiovisual form.

Film crew under a large overhead diffusion panel, surrounded by black flags and studio lights

For TOPMIND

An anniversary asset

A finished film joining the brand’s history, its relationships and its innovation positioning.

Crew members watching a camera monitor beside a bright window on a film set

For our studio

A new creative resource

AI-generated imagery used in a real client film, with a defined brand context and purpose.

Front view of a cinema camera with a matte box and monitor, with backlit crew behind it

For the market

A public record

The client’s announcement and the production credit document the concept and the approach.

Related work and formats

Where this case connects to the rest of what we do.

Questions about this case

Short answers for brands considering AI in video production.

How does Olive Tree Films use AI in video production?

As a creative resource inside an authored film, not as a replacement for the story. In the TOPMIND anniversary film, our first use of the technique, AI-generated images were combined with real imagery, and every image had to serve the concept and the emotional direction defined by our team.

No. It is a hybrid film that combines real imagery with AI-generated images. Our team created the concept, the storytelling and the emotional direction, and handled cinematography, production and post-production.

Because it fit the brief. TOPMIND works with technological change, and the film was about transformation over twenty years. Using an emerging creative tool gave the company’s innovation positioning a concrete expression, while the story kept the focus on people.

Two minutes. The challenge was to hold twenty years of history, a commitment to innovation and a belief in human relationships in that time, which is why the film is built on one central metaphor instead of a list of milestones.

TOPMIND customers including Nestlé, Nivea and Mosaic, according to our team’s account, and Hospital Santa Catarina, named in TOPMIND’s own announcement. They took part in TOPMIND’s campaign; they were not separate clients of ours for this project.

It is how Caroline Mendonça, our co-founder and creative director, describes the approach: human intuition and creativity working together with the capabilities of AI tools. People decide what the story means and which images belong in it; the tools expand what can be shown.

Not necessarily, and we did not measure it on this project. Our interest in AI is part of a broader effort to make production processes more intelligent and reduce repetitive work, but for the TOPMIND film the supported result is creative: generated imagery integrated into a story that needed it.

That the technique is only as good as the idea it serves. On a real client brief, with a defined brand context, generated imagery became one more resource in our production repertoire, and the creative direction stayed where it belongs: with the people telling the story.

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