Passion Pictures, the multiple-Oscar-winning international animation and film production company founded by Andrew Ruhemann, has opened an office in Melbourne to serve advertising clients in Australia and New Zealand.
The new studio will be run by executive producer Katie Mackin, who returns to her native Australia after spending 10 years in the UK working mainly at Passion’s London office as well as stints at other leading VFX houses. Passion Pictures’ London operation is headed by managing director/EP Alex Webster.
For the past two years Mackin has been collaborating with VCCP Sydney on its Compare the Market work from Passion’s London office and she is now producing films for the client in Australia, having shot three spots in Sydney in November. The first of those, “Undercover Sergei,” aired on February 15.
“Working on the CTM [Compare the Market] campaign highlighted an opportunity for Passion to expand into the Southern Hemisphere,” said Mackin, who is also keen to employ Passion’s pioneering skills in emerging animation techniques such as real-time puppeteering, pointing in particular to the #AskZlatan element of the huge ‘Risk Everything’ campaign that Passion partnered with Wieden+Kennedy Portland for last summer, when Passion created dozens of full-CG films on the fly with a 3D Zlatan Ibrahimovic responding to questions tweeted by the public. “The potential for that technology to be used in interactive advertising campaigns is endless. We can’t wait to see the ideas Australasian ad agencies dream up to use it.”
Passion Pictures Melbourne is a separate company from Passion Pictures Australia, the film company run by Sophie Byrne since 2003.
