Cuppa Coffee was recently chosen amongst Ontario’s top animation and production houses by Ogilvy to help promote Service Ontario with a spot titled Life of Cards.
Press Release from Cuppa Coffee
Cuppa Coffee was recently chosen amongst Ontario’s top animation and production houses by Ogilvy to help promote Service Ontario with a spot titled Life of Cards. The spot, which sees the main characters literally pop up out of a paper birth certificate and journey through life, tells the story of how Service Ontario is with us through the many important moments of our lives -- from birth certificate, to health card, to driver’s license and finally, a marriage certificate as the couple begins the cycle anew. “Ogilvy met this challenge in a brave and interesting way,” explains producer Dave Beatty. “They asked us to tell this story through stop-motion animation -- not regular stop-motion animation, but through three dimensional paper cutouts that move through a real world. That’s what makes this spot so unique.”
To solve the issue of animating to scale, the government issued cards were blown up to two by three feet, and a massive thirty-six foot set was designed and built with oversized windows and key props built to scale. The most challenging part of the process was taking the 3d characters and turning them into 2d cutouts. It takes one animator 8 hours to do one second of cut out animation. It took three weeks to shoot the 30 second commercial, utilizing over 1,700 cut outs.
Only Ontario production suppliers were approached and used in the making of this commercial, including the music, which was supplied by Toronto-based artist Andrea Koziol. “The campaign was a terrific opportunity for us. In partnership with Ogilvy and a dedicated team from the Government of Ontario, I am happy to have been part of the creative force that produced such a beautiful and memorable spot,” said director Alex Gorelick. For Cuppa Coffee President and Executive Producer Adam Shaheen, it was an honour to be selected for the project. “Ontario is full of animation studios and production companies that are more competitive than ever,” he explains. “I consider it a testament to the great work we do that Ogilvy selected us to meet a complicated challenge and that my studio continues to be awarded wonderful opportunities such as this.”
"Working with Adam Shaheen and the Cuppa Coffee team on this stop motion project for Service Ontario was a complete pleasure from start to finish,” according to Tessa Waisglass of Ogilvy. “I love it when a supplier makes us producers look good, and they did that in spades. Our clients were thrilled with the end product and the process was seamless throughout."
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
