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Trunk Animation Helps Land Rover USA Say ‘Thanks’

Trunk Animation’s Alasdair + Jock help Land Rover USA to make a 'thank you’ film, celebrating their 1 million fans on Facebook.

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Land Rover USA through Wunderman NY collaborated with Trunk’s Alasdair + Jock to create a film to thank their 1 million Facebook fans.

Wunderman NY approached Trunk Animation to make the ‘thank you’ film that celebrates Land Rover USA reaching one million fans on Facebook. Award-winning directors Alasdair + Jock had a creative field day working with Wunderman, noting, "The agency were great, they were really up for developing ideas and pushing the boundaries with us!" With their combination of style, flair, passion and wit, the guys put together a beautiful film that we’re all really proud of here at Trunk.

Over recent months Land Rover USA has been engaging their Facebook fans and asking them to submit photos of their lives with their Land Rovers. These were used as the basis for the storyline created by the guys at Trunk in close collaboration with Wunderman’s creative team. The film charts a journey from New York to the Grand Canyon through iconic American landscapes including the Florida Keys, the Great Lakes, the Grand Prairies, the High Rockies, and the amazing Monument Valley. Celebrating the vast continental reach of Land Rover owners and fans.

The film uses a wide variety of techniques including stop motion, pixillation, CG and digital montage to pull together all the fans’ photos. The entire film, which has been collaged together from hundreds of photos, has the feel of a rostrum shot multi-plane, but as everyone’s shooting digital, without too many actual printed photos! A number of beautiful set pieces stand out, such as the vast landscapes collaged together from multiple fans holiday snaps, and the fans pet photos changing in the key ring, including not only loads of dogs, but a parrot on a steering wheel as well!

All the stop motion and pixilation sequences for the short were shot in London, whilst the stills of the actual vehicles were shot in NYC. As Trunk found out, the US models are subtly different from the UK one’s which meant a lot of magic comping from Al and the team at Trunk’s studio. Notable comping successes are definitely the gloved hand changing gear, and the muddied boot pumping the ‘gas’!

The guys at Wunderman also organised a stills shoot of the new Land Rover range, which was used to texture map and inform the CG elements in the film.

And although a plethora of software was used Alasdair’s favourite bit was still watching Jock creating the muddy boot for the pixilation shoot that involved a large pot of Nutella, a handful of straw and some loose tobacco! The final frames of the 75-second film show the night sky above the Grand Canyon spelling out Thank You in classic Alasdair+Jock style, as a time lapse sky provided by Andy Hague flickers in the background.

The wonderful music was composed by Trunk’s long-time collaborator Ivan Arnold and the sound design and mix by all-time favourite sound genius Barnaby Templer at Fonic.

An aspect of the job that excited all of us at Trunk was the development of the entire concept and execution of the film based around the fans submissions, which charts a new era in the use of social media, and although there are many bridges to cross with a project like this, Richard at Trunk Notes “ The interaction of Land Rover’s Facebook fans not only drove major elements of the creative process, but will also provide the audience for the film. And I think that this cyclical arrangement, although often fraught with difficulties, will certainly lead to many more collaborative projects between clients, agencies, production companies, and most importantly audiences! We can’t wait to see what happens when Land Rover USA hits 10 million likes.”

Source: Trunk Animation

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.

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