Fell, McGrann & Clough on Making a Model Xmas Ad

Sam Fell, director, Passion Pictures

What appealed to you about this year’s Sainsbury’s script?

Two things really: the idea of an everyman telling his story through a song, then the central idea that time is our greatest gift. 21st century life is such a rush, but why? Ironically I’ve been working like a madman to get this done so haven’t actually been giving much of the greatest gift to my own family!

And what was it about your own treatment that the agency liked?

Andy [Clough] and Rich [McGrann] already loved the craft of stop-frame.  I showed them a complete and believable animated world for this man Dave and his family to live in – unique and fantastic but British and recognisable.  His house, his neighbourhood, his neighbours, the train he gets to work and the commuters, the factory he works at, the town centre he shops in.  I didn’t just want to tell their story, I wanted to create a world that was uniquely theirs.

Did you feel a lot of pressure to deliver given Sainsbury’s past two Christmas ad successes (and the ‘Super Bowl-isation’ of Christmas advertising in general)?

I’ve directed movies with budgets over $50 million for major US studios for worldwide audiences so I’m quite used to pressure.  I really believed in the incredibly talented and committed team we had gathered, so it was really a matter of living in the moment and going at it full tilt.

How did directing a commercial of this scale differ from your experience of directing feature films like ParaNorman?    

It was in some ways harder than ParaNorman.  We had to conjour up a whole stop frame pipeline from freelancers, shops and bought and hired kit.  At Laika [Studios] there was already a studio in place that had just made Coraline so we were building on a proven pipeline.  On this project we had to create 26 characters and 15 locations and develop from scratch a 3D rapid prototype facial animation and printing system. That amount of sets and characters would pretty much cover half of a movie but in a movie you get months of shooting out of a few characters in a location.  In this we were constantly setting up beautiful, meticulously dressed sets and characters then shooting for five seconds, throwing them away and moving onto the next set up. It was exhausting!

This was an enormous project with many different specialists involved from model-makers to stop-motion and CG animators… Tell us about that side of things and how you worked with the different teams to bring the story and characters to life?

The client was very keen to show a diverse Britain, so within the budget we had for 26 characters we had to create as wide a range of ages, genders, ethnicities as possible.  A very talented lady called Margaux Zinser designed the characters – we had tried out a number of designers in the pitch already and Margaux showed she had a great touch for observation and humour.

I had always wanted to work with McKinnon and Saunders who are the most amazing puppet makers.  I wanted every character in the world to be unique and special and didn’t want to have ‘generic background’ people.  McKinnon’s love doing quality work so they really dug in and delivered on that ambition – their attention to detail is second to none. Andy and Rich were fans of the colour printed faces we used on ParaNorman and I wanted to deliver that.  It was probably a bit of a crazy decision given that it was such a completely untested technique over here.  Through sheer hard work and determination the CG team at Passion in London, the puppet makers at McKinnons in Manchester, and the rapid prototype guys at 3D Print Bureau in Stoke on Trent pulled the whole thing together.  They went from R&D right through to creating 1,500 full colour, perfectly registered faces on 26 characters in a matter of three months. Respect!

I wanted to make Dave’s stop-frame world have the feel and charm of a drawing.  I was incredibly lucky to meet Andy Farago of Clockwork Frog.  He’s not only a very talented production designer but also an experienced builder.  He made drawings of Dave’s neighborhood that were full of charm and humour and defined the wonky style of the world.  From there his expertise as a set builder really paid off as he was able to direct his team to build the whole world in this organic style with very little 2D design approval.

For the shoot I wanted to have people with movie experience.  I called on some old friends and some talented folks I’d known about. My DP was Frank Passingham – he had just finished Kubo and the Two Strings. He was ably complimented by a very talented lighting cameraman, Malcom Hadley, who had worked on the Tim Burton movie Frankenweenie.  Animation veteran genius Jeff Newitt who was my head of animation on Flushed Away fancied getting his hands on a puppet.  Andy Biddle did some amazing work on ParaNorman, Gary Cureton I knew from Chicken Run days and Ange Palenthorpe had always been someone I wanted to work with.  One thing I’ve learned is that you’re only as good as your team - with this bunch I felt confident we could deliver on the huge promises we made in our pitch.

Post was completed between Passion Studios in London and UPP in Prague.  There was a lot of clean-up on rigs and the seams on the printed faces.  For the wide exteriors some fairly extensive compositing of full scale sets, miniatures and matte painting.  It was our first outing with UPP and they proved to be a very dedicated and talented bunch.

The ad features a large cast; which were the hardest characters to ‘flesh out’ from the page and which characters transformed the most from the initial concept?

Dave, since he was the hero was obviously the most sophisticated puppet and took the longest time.  But each character presented unique challenges to the puppet makers -- making a short round man who could twerk, sculpting afro hair, building a fat terrier who could bound around like a loony...

How long did the production process take in total?

From storyboard to final sound it was seven months. Four months prep, two months shoot, one month post. 

And how much was shot in camera versus added later in post?

I’d say 90 per cent is in-camera, old-school stop-frame animation – we added the exterior skies and extended the wide shots with matte painting and miniatures. We populated the wide shopping street by scanning the puppets using photogrammetry.  Then putting basic rigs in Maya, we had 12 hybrid puppet/CG characters who we animated in cycles and filled the streets with. 

What was the most challenging aspect of the job?

Just the sheer scope and scale of it – the number of sets and characters.

And the most rewarding?

The fact we pulled it off. Sitting back at Air Studios watching the final picture and listening to Matt Dunkley’s arrangement of Bret [McKenzie]'s song being played by the orchestra.   

Richard McGrann (below, left) and Andy Clough, creative directors, AMV BBDO

How and when did you first come up with the idea?

Boxing Day last year, when faced with a giant pile of washing up, an even bigger pile of Lego, new babies on the way and a deadline the second day back in January.

Was the plan always to go down the stop-motion route?

The story and the medium go hand in hand. An ad about missing your family would have been too downbeat, and the cloning [would have been] too sci-fi if it was filmed. We’ve grown up with animation, and our kids love it too. There’s a lot of CGI animation on TV because stop motion is so difficult to do. But you can feel hands-on every detail on the screen. The craft [is what] makes it feel so special. 

Why did you think the concept would resonate with the British public?

It’s a basic, human truth. Everybody wants to spend time with the ones that they love, but there just isn’t time in modern life to do everything. I know I could do with a clone, even if it was just to change the baby’s nappies.

Who or what inspired the central dad character?

We saw many concepts for Dave but we imagined him always rushing around, so he’d be a bit skinny but with a 'daddy paunch'. He needed distinctive features that would easily be transferable to a Dave-toy. His hair, glasses and pinkish nose were designed as a unit.

There was a phenomenal level of craft involved with multiple sets, models, stop-motion and CG animation. Why was Sam Fell the right director for the job and what did model-makers Mackinnon & Saunders and the team at Passion bring to the project?

We loved ParaNorman, which Sam directed. His understanding of the medium, the way characters move and the world they live is incredible. With Passion, he produced the best pitch document we had ever seen. It was so detailed it formed the best part of the pre-production.

Mackinnon and Saunders are best in the world. That’s why they’re the go-to people for Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. Every tiny detail was taken care of, from the working clasp of Dave’s watch, to the sweat patches under his boss’s arms.

The accompanying song was penned by Bret McKenzie and performed by James Corden – at what stage did they get involved in the project, and how much did the lyrics dictate the visual narrative and vice versa?

We had the idea of 'The Greatest Gift is Me' and the bones of a song, but Bret’s influence was transformative. There’s a reason he won an Oscar for The Muppets. Both Sam and Bret were very collaborative in balancing the song, the storytelling and the visuals. I’ve lost count how many times we recut the boardamatic and amended the lyrics, but everybody wanted to get it just right. James was chosen because although he can sing, he still has an everyman quality. It was important Dave’s performance wasn’t too polished.

Why is the campaign’s message a good fit for Sainsbury’s as a brand?

“Christmas is for sharing” has been central to the message of all the great AMV Christmas ads for Sainsbury’s, from sharing a chocolate bar with the enemy, to sharing Christmas with friends in need. This execution amplifies the importance of sharing time with your loved ones. Time’s a gift Santa cannot bring.

Given the success of Mog last year, and the increasing ‘Super Bowl-isation’ of Christmas, how much pressure was there to come up with a blockbuster ad?

Although there was pressure to produce a successor to 1914, Mog and Christmas In A Day, we had mark the end of a great 37 years between Sainsbury’s and AMV.