VFX house Framestore has helped to create a purple army of ‘;Joyville workers’; for Fallon‘;s latest ad campaign on behalf of Cadbury. The TV ad, directed by Tom Kuntz, celebrates the launch of Cadbury’;s new Bubbly bar.

For the campaign, a VFX team led by Ben Cronin (2D) and Robert Kolbeins (CG) used techniques to add scale, support the ad’;s narrative and “lift Kuntz’;s quirky vision to the next level,” according to Framestore. 2D work included green screen compositing, clean up and compositing of in-camera art-department plates. The CG department was tasked with creating zeppelins, chocolaty parachutes, air-bound men and flying cars.

The team used references from Werner Herzog’;s The White Diamond combined with Buckminster Fuller’;s Dymaxion car as a starting point for R&D. Once the look-dev had been narrowed down and approved by Kuntz, work began on building a “mother zeppelin” which went on to set the design for the ad’;s many other elements. In total, the CG team crafted more than ten zeppelins and hundreds of hand and procedurally animated chocolate parachutes. They also recreated live action inflated men and cars in CG to match the plates.

Kuntz collaborated closely with the CG team to establish specifics like the mechanics of zeppelin’;s gondola and extras such as ropes, propellers and Cadbury’;s livery.

The production’;s most technical challenge (apart from completing an immense amount of work in four weeks from plates) was to make Joyville workers feel as though they were really high up and give scale to the fleet.
The film was shot in a wintery Richmond Park by Lasse Frank with Framestore’;s colourist, Steffan Perry, to grade the film with the halcyon feel of a lo-con print. The agency was Fallon and the production company was MJZ. The agency producer was Sasha Mantel
with Kuntz directing.
Producers were Debbie Turner & Suza Horvat.