The creative stop-motion paper trail being strewn by director Jamie Caliri of Los Angeles-based DUCK Studios continues to impress, this time for a spot promoting Children’s Medical Center Dallas, one of the top 10 pediatric healthcare providers in the nation according to U.S. News and World Report.
Earlier notable endeavors by Caliri in this animation discipline include his title sequence for the Steven Spielberg-produced Showtime series United States of Tara. The 2D stop motion paper cutout tour de force–for which Caliri served as director/designer–won a primetime Emmy for main title design last year. Caliri also directed lauded stop motion paper cutout commercials for United Airlines–“Dragon” and “Heart”–which earned Annie Awards from ASIFA-Hollywood for excellence in animation in 2007 and ’09, respectively. “Heart” additionally garnered an ’09 AICP show honor for agency art direction (art director James Zucco of Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, Minneapolis). Fast forward to today and Caliri has taken on a Children’s Medical Center campaign for The Richards Group, Dallas, in which up actual patients’ stories are conveyed in pop-up storybook fashion, somewhat akin to the title sequence for United States of Tara. At press time, one of the three Children’s Medical Center spots had been wrapped with Caliri continuing to work on the other two.
Creative Jubilee
The finished commercial, “Jubilee and her Doll,” unfolds in pop-up style, telling us about a girl named Jubilee who was inseparable from her favorite doll. They smiled, hugged and went everywhere together. One day they went with mom to Children’s Medical Center where Jubilee found out she had cancer. She and her doll got scared but the doctor helped and together they fought the disease.
We see that when Jubilee lost her hair due to treatments, so too did her doll. When she didn’t feel like eating, her doll also lost its appetite. They did not smile for some time.
But one day Jubilee and her doll learned that the sickness had gone away. So they smiled, hugged and invited their friends–a host of other dolls-to a tea party.
The spot then ends with Jubilee, the real-life patient filmed in live action, closing the book on her story, which thankfully has a happy ending.
“Jubilee and her Doll” evolved from hand-drawn characters and backgrounds. The drawings were then cut out and filmed using in-camera stop motion animation. Production designer/illustrator Alex Juhasz did the drawings for the Jubilee spot.
Captivating discipline “We used a captivating creative technique to establish the storybook effect because this campaign is just that–captivating,” said Dick Mitchell, creative director/principal at The Richards Group. “Children’s is a world-class hospital. Through this campaign, we’re able to demonstrate the hospital’s expertise and commitment to patients in an unforgettable way.”
Viewers are directed to a website–childrens.com/stories–where they are able to learn about Jubilee, Adrian and Brooke, the patients whose respective stories are being told in each of the three commercials. Site visitors can also discover additional patients and experience more of the personal stories they have to share based on their time at Children’s Medical Center.
The details of Jubilee’s story show how much adversity she actually faced. She and her beloved doll endured six rounds of chemo therapy and multiple stem cell transplants to cure her neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops from nerve tissue.
Meanwhile the alluded to Adrian, a dinosaur lover, received a kidney from a “superhero,” and Brooke, the singing and dancing queen, got a very special machine that helps her heart beat. The two spots are titled “”Adrian the Dinosaur” and “Brooke’s Broken Heart.” All three spots are :60s with :30 versions.
Mitchell was part of an agency team that included chief creative officer Stan Richards, art director Andy Coulston, copywriter Jack Westerholt, producer Bridget Fontenot, and Tanya Pinto and Brian Loftus who handle brand management.
Production companies were spotmakers and DUCK, with Caliri serving as director and DP, sharing the latter role with Rod Lamborn. Paper engineer consultant was Colette Fu, with Anthony Scott and Scott Kravitz the animators. Paint/texture artist was Kathleen Lolley. Digital artists were Jesse Gregg and Andrew Zimbleman. Mark Medernach, Carolyn Bates and Richard Sven Shelgren of DUCK were, respectively, executive producer, animation producer and live producer.
Editors were Steve Beebe and Charles Jones of DUCK.
