To launch the BBC’s coverage of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, BBC Creative and Blinkink have partnered to create “Extreme by Nature,” a mixed media animation that brings to life the intensity of the competition through the harsh worlds of ice and snow.
Directed by Balázs Simon via Blinkink, the gritty piece combines in-camera effects and post with intricate stop-motion animation, with entire scenes 3D printed frame-by-frame. As well as running as a trailer across channel junctions and online, the animation will feature as the title sequence for The Winter Olympics Games, which first airs on Friday, February 4, across the BBC.
Credits
Client British Broadcasting Corporation/BBC Winter Olympics James Cross, Tim Jones, Reuben Dangoor, creative directors; Stuart Gittings, creative; Liz Dolan, producer. Production Blinkink, London Balázs Simon, director; Bart Yates, exec producer; Alex Halley, producer; Rebecca Little, producer; Theo Cassels, production manager; Max Halstead, DP; Andy Biddle, stop motion animator; Andrew Spradbery, stop motion animator & rigger; Jennifer Kidd, art director; Beattie Hartley, art department assistant. (Toolbox: Volo motion control crane, Dragonframe, Maya, Houdini, Flame, Nuke) Studio Clapham Road Studios Daisy Garside, studio manager. Blinkink 3D Printing Jennifer Kidd, art direction, set dressing. Props Scale Model Studios Elliot Spencer Colley, clear prints. White Prints 3M BIC Janine Downs, Anastasis Constanti, Stephen Knowles; Georgina Kipling, 3D printing technician. VFX/Post GYAR Mate Barbalics, Andras Piroska, VFX producers; Aron Hargitay, VFX supervisor; Sandor Garaczi, head of CGI; Adam Marihazi, CGI lead artist; Zoltan Marko, Istvan Bori, CGI generalists; Bernadett Dian, 3D modeling; Robert Toth, rigging; Bea Ujj, Zoltan Zahorszki, Gyorgi Fabos, Zsolt Merey Kadar, 3D animation; Gabor Abbas, FX artist; Shahab Hosseini, lead compositor; Aron Nemeti, sr. compositor; Andras Pflum, compositor; Balazs Lublovari, Victor Miltenyi, Ivan Voros, clean up. Rendering Fox Renderfarm Postproduction Company Feature Films for Families Peter Barbalics, exec producer. Color Glassworks Jonny Thorpe, colorist. Sound Company GAS
How do you top one of the most viral brand videos ever made? Spoiler alert: you can’t. But when Dollar Shave Club tapped Zack Seckler to direct a new campaign to revive the absurdist humor of its iconic launch video, he knew he had a rare opportunity to create something special.
The brief was simple: introduce the concept of a physical “Club” that people would love to join while showcasing Dollar Shave Club’s products and embracing the weird. From script to direction and post, Seckler--an alum of SHOOT’s 2021 New Directors Showcase--was invited to help sculpt that vision.
The result is this “Welcome to the Club” spot which invites us to join a unique, seemingly exclusive but in reality an accessible and affordable fraternity of Dollar Shave Club members. But you need to know the password or more accurately, the two-word phrase--"shave money."
“The Club” campaign brings the brand back to its humorous roots, reflecting a new chapter after being acquired by Nexus Capital Management from Unilever in late 2023. The work takes Dollar Shave Club back to its disruptive beginnings and what made the brand a viral sensation from its inception in 2011.
