Director Chris Palmer of Gorgeous Enterprises teamed with Passion Pictures, Framestore and BBH on a yearlong collaboration which yielded this visually ambitious spot (:90, :60 and :40 versions)
promoting Barclaycard’s contactless payment service.
The piece begins with a confused dad, daunted by the prospect of choosing a toy for his son from a busy toy shop. That is until he meets a talking monkey called Mr B, who leads him through a world of living, highly competitive toys. From ‘little hairy bears’ to flirtatious dolls, he is guided through a postproduction landscape of shot multi-layered elements, including green screen live action, wind-up toys, puppeteered dolls, bears, pandas, remote-control cars, helicopters, transformers, and much much more.
Framestore’s Flame team led by Jonathan Hairman, composited layer upon layer of elements, carefully composing each shot. Once this was achieved, Framestore then set about the task of making Mr B talk. Using a second puppeteered head and a crafted script, Mr B’s new head was tracked, re-lit and fine-tuned into each shot to bring him to life.
Every viewing of the film will reveal another level of the huge detail all parties went to, each eye and mouth movement (even on out of focus characters in the background) has all been animated, and timed to frame accuracy. The project was a huge undertaking and involved a vast team of compositors, trackers and producers.
DGA Feature Nominees: Audiard, Baker, Berger, Corbet and Mangold
The field of feature nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards spanning two categories is set. Nominated for the DGA honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 are: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.
The DGA also revealed the nominees for the Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. The first-time narrative feature directors are: Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light, Megan Park for My Old Ass, RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys, Halfdan Ullman Tondel for Armand, and Sean Wang for Diddy.
“2024 has been a truly extraordinary year for storytelling--and today’s nominees have created audacious and unique films that expand the possibilities of cinematic excellence,” said DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “I am thrilled to congratulate all our nominated directors for their brilliant work, which is visionary, inspirational and speaks to the depth of the human experience. To be chosen by one’s peers is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement and what makes these nominations so very special.”
The winners will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8.
Here’s a fuller rundown of the nominees in both DGA Award categories:
THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 (in alphabetical order):
JACQUES AUDIARD
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
SEAN... Read More