Philips Norelco recently re-created its long-running, stop-motion holiday commercial from the early 1990’s. Santa’s epic ride over the snow-covered hills is now accomplished atop Philips Norelco’s state-of-the-art SensoTouch 3D rechargeable electric razor.
Walton Isaacson created the :30 and :15 commercials that pay homage to the success of the original campaign. Originally conceived as an interactive campaign, upon seeing the early results of the melding of classic stop-motion work with the modern tools of 3D animation and compositing, the Philips Norelco marketing team decided to include the commercial into their 2011 holiday broadcast schedule.
Walton Isaacson Senior Creative, Andrew Holton, and Designer, Diana Litavsky, along with freelance producer Nathan Brown of Nathan Brown Productions contracted re:think studios to modernize the revered campaign.
re:think studios Director of CGI, Brian Bullock, remarked on the process, “For this campaign to be successful, the imagery had to be very respectful of the look and feel of that classic campaign. Normally, we’d have created an entirely CG spot, but for this, we wanted to respect the physical camera as well as the artistry of stop-motion modelers so we began to think of ways to build upon and supplement the craftsmanship of stop-motion filmmaking.” He continued, “To that end, we enlisted the talents of the award-winning BixPix Entertainment in Burbank, CA, who fabricated the sets and a cast of characters in record time — and simply amazed everyone. Bix Pix’s Drew Hodges directed and animated all the stop motion in their Burbank studio, zipped the files to us overnight, and from there we went to work modeling and animating the 3D razor, creating all the matte paintings for backgrounds, fashioning elements that helped bring the scenes to life, and finally editing, compositing and lighting the final piece. I have to say, with our company so focused on high-end 3D design, modeling, and animation, finding ourselves working on a stop-motion piece was a blast for everyone including re:think founder, Jessica Simmon, who edited and assembled the final composite, as well as the folks at Another Country, who did a fabulous job with the sound design. Our hope is that next year we have the time to further push the boundaries in melding these disparate disciplines because we all had a ball with it.”
Kelli Bixler, Executive Producer/Owner of Bix Pix Entertainment, Inc, adds, “Bix Pix is thrilled that Brian saw the value of re-creating this classic gem in stop-motion animation. His call, just three short weeks ago, set our studio in HOLIDAY MODE 24/7! Not only was bringing Santa to life great fun, but we got to introduce two new characters to this quintessential campaign — Santa’s Elf and Reindeer, who just so happen to both be in need of a good shave … From client, agency, to our partners at re:think, Bix Pix couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present!”
Credits
Client: Philips Norelco
Product: SensoTouch 3D Razor
Title: Santa Has a New Ride :30
Agency: Walton Issacson
Senior Creative, Andrew Holton; Designer, Diana Litavsky; Producer, Nathan Brown
Production Company: re:think studios
Director of CGI, Brian Bullock
Stop-motion company: Bix Pix Entertainment
Stop-motion Director, Drew Hodges; Stop-motion executive producer, Kelli Bixler; Editor/Compositor, Jessica Simmon; Lead 2D Designer, Michelle Timpone; CG Artists, Cory Irin, Drew Parks, James Matthew Taylor
Audio: Another Country Sound
About re:think
re:think focuses on creating photo-real CGI and is aiming its efforts at commercials, feature films, interactive content, mobile content, events and whatever display requires magical and complex imagery. The company is headquartered in Chicago at 955 Fulton Market.
re:think was founded in November of 2010 by Brian Bullock (former CGI Director at Sol Design) and Jessica Simmon (former Cutters editor.) The company’s portfolio includes CGI work on the Emmy-nominated spot “I Run” for Team World Vision (Nathan Brown Productions), the Addy Award winning interactive piece “Zero” for Herman Miller (Fairly Painless Advertising), Trek’s 2011 international flagship spot (Aurum), and the Singha Beer global account (GERTRUDE).
Website: www.rethinkpost.com
About Bix Pix
Kelli Bixler is Executive Producer/Owner of Bix Pix Entertainment, Inc., a studio that works in animation, primarily stop-motion mix media, using a cornucopia of materials, where inanimate ideas come to life. The award-winning studio creates for television, feature films, music videos, web content, and commercials. Bix Pix Director, Drew Hodges received his first EMMY® for “outstanding character animation” just this year.
Website: www.bixpix.com
