Directors Angus Kneale and Ben Smith of The Mill NY teamed on this spot out of agency RP3 in Bethesda, MD, which opens on a boy playing with his train set. His dad comes into his room and tells him it’s time for bed. But once the lights are out, the toys in the room come to life and proceed to build a city, the catalyst being the Norfolk Southern toy train.
Production Company: The Mill, New York Angus Kneale, Ben Smith, directors; Ian Bearce, exec producers; Nic Barnes, live-action producer; Boo Wong, VFX/post producer; Bill Pope, DP; Ryan McKenna, editor; Alex Trierweiler, assistant editor; Chris Bernier, project lead artist (CG); Jeff Lopez, animation lead; Tom Bardwell, lighting lead; Joji Tsuruga, FX lead; Zang Chen, Alex Cheparev, Maxime Cousseau, Sam Crees, Sean Curran, Justin Diamond, Stanley Ilin, Nicholas Johnnides, Christina Ku, Justin Kurtz, Jeffrey Lee, Paul Liaw, Ivan Luque Cuellar, Laurent Makowski, Justin Maynard, Ross Croble, Navdeep Singh, Hassan Taimur, Olivier Varteressian, Sauce Vilas, James Williams, John Wilson, Zhenting Zhou, CG; Kyle Cody, 2D lead artist; Erin Nash, compositor; Naotaka Minami, Corey Brown, shoot supervisors; Tim Haldeen, lead artist; Tom Losinski, Gap Sangpattharamatee, Jae Kim, Bryan Louie, Jane Ro, Morgan Schweitzer, design; Damien Van Der Cruyssen, colorist. Music: Human Audio: Sonic Union Steve Rosen,
The Best Work You May Never See: Blinkink Director Jack Brown Takes Us On A Teddy Bear’s Journey For Tekla
Blinkink director Jack Brown created this stop motion film to tell a handmade story for Tekla’s holiday campaign.
Established in Copenhagen in 2017, Tekla was born from a desire to bring modernity and freedom of expression to the homeware category. As a brand, it rejects rapid trend cycles by designing for longevity, with an uncompromising focus on quality and responsible production. Brown’s use of stop-motion animation, using only Tekla fabrics, places both the brand’s story and its values front and center.
The film takes us on the journey of a teddy bear exploring the enchanted interiors of the Tekla Copenhagen store. The vibe feels dreamlike and the addition of stop motion adds a tenderness to the film. Inspired by the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, the campaign features iconic figures and nods to his fairytales; the towering mattresses of The Princess and the Pea, the magical umbrella of The Sandman, and the floating luggage of The Flying Trunk.
Brown said, “What an amazing little project this was, and for such a great brand. Tekla was such a cool client to work with. I suggested making the whole ad out of their fabrics and within 24 hours, there were boxes of beautiful fabrics being delivered for us to cut to pieces. Everything you see is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper and all hand cut, stitched and animated by a very small team of very talented people. Anita Bruvere was the lead builder and animator and did such an amazing job of turning all these tiny pieces of fabric into a magical world.”
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