This stop-motion animation public service commercial turns a new creative leaf, making an eloquent case for preserving and protecting forests and their animal inhabitants. The initial concept for the ad came from a children’s art book titled Look What I Did With A Leaf.
"The book featured a variety of forest animals rendered entirely from leaves—leaves of various size, shape, species and color," said the spot’s director, Chel White. "The agency [Bozell, Chicago, which has since become Campbell-Mithun] hired the book’s author, Morteza Sohi, to create the prototype animal designs of an elk, brown bear, mallard, woodpecker, wild turkey, pike and a butterfly. We then took his designs and recreated them in a form that could be animated in stop motion."
White noted that he also felt "it was important to put these leaf animals in a world that was fully dimensional, with interesting transitions from one scene to another. The intention was to create a kind of moving 3-D diorama."
In the :30 "Forest Art," we see leaves move to create different animals—first a deer, then a fish, which is joined by other fish, followed by ducks in flight, a turkey strutting about and a woodpecker pecking away at a tree. All these creatures are seen in an animated natural forest setting.
"I wanted the animation to have an organic flow to it, with a hand-made feel, and not be overly slick or high-tech," White related. "The fauna, flora and background elements—everything you see on the screen—are made from actual leaves, pine cones, branches, et cetera."
The spot, which also comes in a :15 version, concludes with a kaleidoscope of imagery in which butterflies giving way to trees and other greenery. Then a super appears to identify the sponsor—the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)—accompanied by the slogan, "Growing tomorrow’s forests today," and a Web site address (www.aboutsfi.org).
The SFI program is a comprehensive system of principles, goals and performance measures developed by professional foresters, conservationists and scientists that combines the perpetual growing and harvesting of trees with the long-term protection of wildlife, plants, soil and water quality. There are currently 107.8 million acres of forestland in North America enrolled in the SFI program, which was developed by the American Forest & Paper Association.
The spot was produced by Curious Pictures, New York, and Chel White Films, Portland, Ore. (White has since become partnered in Bent Image Lab, Portland, with director David Daniels and executive producer Ray Di Carlo.) David Starr executive produced for Curious, with Karen Bianca serving as producer and Viet Luu as assistant producer. Cheryl Donnay was unit production manager. The DP was Mark Eifert, who shot the project at Chel White Films. Animators were Aaron Brown and Bartek Prusiewicz. Design artists were Julie Orser, Cynthia Lahti and Eric Stotik. Storyboard artist was Steve Conser.
The agency team consisted of creative director Mike Powell, art director Laura Zynda, copywriter Tim O’Brien and producer Tracy Heropkie.
Editor was freelancer Cam Williams who cut the spot at DownStream Digital, Portland. (He has since become a staffer at Vinton Studios, Portland.) Colorist was Jim Barrett of DownStream Digital. Flame artist/ online editor was Mike Quinn of Mission Control, Portland. Audio mixer was Michael Mason of Chicago Recording Co.
Music composers were David Baron and Lindsay Jehan of Edison Music Corp., New York. Baron also served as sound designer.
