The 2008 Honda Fit may be small in size but it’s big on looks. RPA, Santa Monica wanted to express that in a quirky way and accomplished that with “Eyes,” a 15-second animated spot created by a52, Santa Monica’s Andy Hall for online distribution that was released last week.
In the broadband video, viewers are taken into a surreal world where gigantic eyeballs chase cars through empty streets. A voiceover says “Speedy eye-catcher. The Fit from Honda; the Fit is go.”
In addition to creating a compelling story in 15 seconds, one of the other challenges was to maintain a visual style that was introduced last year in a spot titled “Food Chain” when the Fit was first unveiled to consumers. The spot featured cars eating other cars and at the end the Fit eats a huge SUV, related Curt Johnson, associate creative director/art director. RPA. “The city in the background was created by a52 so we had the idea for the rolling eyeball spot this year to actually put this car chase on the streets of that city that they had created,” Johnson said.
“a52 has become the agency’s go-to company for projects like
this,” added Gary Paticoff, senior VP, executive producer, RPA. “We’ve had a very successful relationship from which we have produced some high concept as well as highly visual projects. The Honda Super Bowl ‘Mudflap’ commercial and last year’s launch of the Honda Fit campaign have been among the most recent. Andy and his group continue to raise the bar on every project.”
For the current campaign, another animated commercial, “Gas Mileage,” also debuted online. The spot features the Fit passing by several gas stations to show off the fuel efficiency of the vehicle.
“The assignment from the agency was to create two 15-second spots for the Internet, based upon storyboards they had for the Honda Fit campaign,” explained Hall, director/3D and VFX supervisor for a52.
“From there, I was given a lot of freedom in terms of style and choices, which really made them a challenge. After our initial conversations, we collaborated and produced two spots: ‘Eyes,’ influenced by the classic 70’s car chases in movies like Bullitt and The French Connection, and ‘Gas Mileage,’ for which I drew inspiration from the classic 60’s postcard photography representing the nostalgia of Route 66.”
Based upon Hall’s ideas for each spot’s visuals, he and pre-vis/CGI artist Dan Gutierrez created pre-vis templates for each. “Dan really brought some nice flourishes to both pieces,” Hall said. “For ‘Eyes,’ concept artist Darren Gillford used references Andy pulled to create a look for the slightly surreal world in which eyeballs chase cars through empty streets. For ‘Gas Mileage, CGI artist Max Ulichney went out to Joshua Tree, Calf., to take a variety of reference stills, which were used as backdrops for the desert environment.
Working with those visual cues, additional a52 CGI artists built out the environments for each spot, handling modeling, texturing, and lighting in Maya, using Mental Ray for rendering, and Adobe Photoshop for additional 2D imaging. James Pastorius worked in Shake to composite the many layers of CGI renders, and those composites were passed along to Flame artists Pat Murphy and Kirk Balden for final compositing and color-grading.
Johnson pointed out that working with the team at a52 was rewarding. “It seemed like every time we saw their work in progress we would say that’s great, just keep going. There were really zero changes. They did a terrific job. All we had to do was stay out of the way.”
The spots broke online on U.S.-targeted mainstream newspaper sites and metro funky sites, such as ManiaTv, where Honda sponsors the Daily Independent Show. The show celebrates the best underground entertainment.
Although both spots were destined initially only for Internet distribution, Hall and his colleagues produced each in full HD resolution and the client and agency decided to also release them on cable. At RPA, Paticoff and agency producer Nick Rogoff worked with the creative team of Johnson and associate creative director/ copywriter Todd Carey, overseen by creative directors Joe Baratelli and David Smith. A52’s team also included executive producer Mark Tobin and CGI artists Kirk Shintani, Eli Guerron, Paulo de Almada and Adam Newman.
Original music for both spots was composed by Elias Arts. Sound design was courtesy of 740 Sound Design, Santa Monica, and each spot’s final mix was mastered at Margarita Mix de Santa Monica.
FCB Stays Atop The One Club’s Year-End Global Creative Rankings
FCB ended the year repeating its top positions in The One Club for Creativity’s Global Creative Rankings, with FCB New York again crowned Global Agency of the Year and FCB Global finishing as Agency Network of the Year for 2024.
The annual worldwide benchmark report is a comprehensive ranking of agencies, brands, countries, and individuals based on points earned from winning entries in The One Club’s eight global, regional, and local awards shows: The One Show 2024, ADC 103rd Annual Awards, Type Directors Club TDC70 competition, Art Directors Club of Europe ADCE Awards 2024, ONE Asia Creative Awards 2024, and The One Club Denver, San Diego, and Miami chapter 2024 awards programs.
“The Global Creative Rankings is the industry’s most comprehensive and transparent ranking,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “There are no secret weightings in calculating the rankings, and unlike others, it’s not hidden behind a paywall. As the industry’s foremost nonprofit organization for the global creative community, The One Club is in a unique position to provide this free, definitive measure for global creative excellence to everyone in the industry.”
Highlights of the Global Creative Rankings 2024 are below.
Global Agency Rankings
FCB New York
Rethink Toronto
McCann New York
TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles
Serviceplan Germany Munich
Dentsu Inc. Tokyo
FCB Chicago
Marcel Paris
VML New York
Ogilvy PR New York, Publicis Conseil Paris (tie)
Independent Agency Rankings
Rethink Toronto
Serviceplan Germany Munich
Wieden+Kennedy Portland
Brand-Side Agency... Read More