The brief for Rexona/Sure was a simple one: Create a spot to air in Europe and the U.K. for the deodorant (known as Rexona in Europe and Sure in the U.K.) that speaks to regular blokes who like to get together and go to soccer games.
With that directive in mind, as well as the fact that it is a World Cup year for soccer, Lowe London creatives Lee Goulding and Tom Hudson, creative head/art director and creative head/copywriter, respectively, started thinking about what men act like when they gather to watch a game (whether it is soccer or another sport), and they came to this conclusion: “We’re a bit like wild animals,” Hudson said, musing, “Our most primitive instincts come out. We paint our faces funny colors, and our most tribal behaviors are exhibited.”
And from that observation came the decision to dramatize, through a visual metaphor, how men morph into animals on game day.
But was it doable? “That was the first question we had,” Goulding shared, noting, “Nothing is impossible anymore, but we wanted this to look realistic.”
Assured by Framestore CFC, London, which has developed a reputation for creating photo-real creatures of all sorts, that they could get the job done, Lowe London brought the visual effects company on board to execute “Go Wild” with director Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, which produced the project in conjunction with Independent Films, London. Explaining the decision to hire Murro, “We weren’t looking for a great animal guy, we were looking for a great ad guy–someone who could tell a story,” Hudson said.
Apparently, Lowe London teamed the right visual effects shop with the right director judging by the result–a :60 titled “Go Wild” that captures the energy and enthusiasm of sports fans. Set on game day in a big city, the fans have all turned into animals–literally–as they make their way to see the big match-up either at the stadium or a local bar. Among the animal activities: There are chimps swinging from traffic lights and swarming a ticket office, an orangutan hanging out of the window of a taxi, bears growling at each other while playing a game of table soccer and sea lions flooding a subway platform and exchanging words with a group of hyenas crowded onto a subway car.
“Chicken Payback,” an infectiously goofy tune recorded by the British band The Bees, was chosen to accompany the visuals. “It had the right spirit, and a great sense of fun and rocked along at a good beat,” Hudson said.
Andy Humphreys of 750mph, London, created a sound design track full of animal sounds for “Go Wild” and did the final audio mix.
WILD MAN As for the visuals, Murro (who was out of the country and unavailable for an interview at press time) and DP Tony Irwin traveled to Buenos Aires (chosen for its European look) to shoot back plates for the spot. BenitoCine, Buenos Aires, provided production support.
Framestore VFX supervisor/Inferno artist Stephane Allender and Andy Boyd, head of 3D commercials/CGI supervisor/technical director, accompanied the production team to Buenos Aires and also monitored the subsequent live action shoot at Universal Studios Stages, Los Angeles, where 11 live animals were shot in front of a blue screen in lighting conditions that matched those of the plates shot in Buenos Aires.
“We were kind of holding our breath on the L.A. shoot,” Boyd noted. That’s because no one was sure what kind of performances they would get from the animals. While one of three chimps brought to the set was not in the mood to perform, and the hyena was a little nervous at first, the animal actors eventually came through. Boyd was most impressed with the bears. “One of them even sat on a couch,” he shared.
Once the live action shoot was done, the artisans at Framestore CFC were able to assess how much work they needed to do in terms of visual effects. Ultimately, they cloned the 11 live animals shot in front of green screen into 137 creatures, then added an additional 302 purely CG animals.
The team relied on Houdini software as well as proprietary software (a plug-in created in-house for Renderman) to create the 3-D animals. It was painstaking work. Given that in some scenes, the 3-D animals were sitting next to live animals, the pressure to make them look real was that more intense, Boyd pointed out.
The team from Framestore CFC did its homework, by the way, venturing to the Chester Zoo, five-and-a-half hours outside of London, to study and film various animals. “We were quite lucky. Some of the animals, like the mandrills, are such posers that as soon as they see you with a camera, they just come out, and they smile. They love the attention,” Boyd said.
Framestore CFC’s artisans labored for months (the company worked on the project for a total of five months from receiving the brief to completion) on the project. According to Boyd, Murro’s mandate was that the animals in the spot–whether live action or CG–be energetic and lively but natural. “Noam didn’t want the ad to feel like it was animals from the circus,” Boyd said.
And it doesn’t. Hudson and Goulding were thrilled with the final spot. “It’s one of those spots you can watch again and again and again,” Hudson said. “There are so many lovely moments.”
