Don't laugh at her! The French photographer Bruno Dayan was shushing two young crew members who were snickering while his subject, the actress Olga Kurylenko, flapped her arms in an effort to stay upright. It wasn't her maroon stilettos that were giving her trouble, it was her pose. For the main image in a new campaign for Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Dayan had positioned Kurylenko, a Ukrainian-born beauty, in midstride in the lobby of the luxury hotel chain's Chicago location. A bellhop, who had been yanked into the shot by Dayan from the curb outside, stood 20 feet behind her holding a luggage cart. To Kurylenko's left stood a male model in a velvet dinner jacket whom she was supposed to "notice" as she breezed by. Kurylenko took two deep breaths and made eye contact with the model as Dayan's flash started again. "Beautiful," he barked. No, no, no, relax your mouth. Not too sultry. Kurylenko, a 33-year-old actress who gained notoriety as the Bond girl Camille Montes in "Quantum of Solace," had arrived the night before from Paris to take part in the campaign, which consisted of quite a bit more than the main photo shoot. The hotel brand had commissioned the British-born, Brooklyn-based author Simon Van Booy, winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, to write a story to run online and supplement the shoot. It's the latest in a string of attempts by brands to create campaigns that feel more like entertainment than ads. See, for instance, Dolce & Gabbana's new fragrance campaign with Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey featuring still photography by Peter Lindbergh and a "Martin Scorcese picture" called "Street of Dreams," or Salvatore Ferragamo's episodic online rom-com, "Walking Stories," starring the British actress Kaya Scodelario. "Companies are scrambling for online content because it's the future," Van Booy said. Having artists work with businesses to create something original is really refreshing. Titled "The Escape Artist," his tale follows a young couturier as she seeks to return a lost manuscript to its (handsome) owner, using various hotel amenities (lobby, spa, luxury suites) as backdrops. Kurylenko spent most of the day, back in September, with a video production team staging different vignettes from the story. The print ad in the lobby with Dayan was the last piece of the multiplatform puzzle. "It's such a luxury to work this way," Kurylenko said. Usually you just sit there and smile, but there's a whole concept behind this. In the morning, with her hair pinned up in rollers, the actress had sat down with Van Booy to discuss the couturier character he had sketched for her. "I'm trying to tap into her personality so I can hit a vein," Van Booy said. I know she played piano as a child, but I don't think she knows I know that. So I'll link things like that to bring real emotion to the story. He stood to the side for much of the shoot, jotting down details that would help him fine-tune and edit the story that evening and in the following days. I finish all my books and stories in hotels. You get food, stationery, inspiration," he explained, then added, "Wes Anderson is also obsessed with hotels."