Absolute Throws a House Party for Britvic

Press release from Absolute Post:

London -- Absolute [1], BBH and Pretty Bird joined forces to deliver “A Bottle of Togetherness,” creating a world where dogs and cats can resolve their differences over a bottle of Britvic J2O. BBH enlisted Absolute and Pretty Bird Directors the Daniels to turn a house party into a wildly entertaining spot featuring rival animals thrown into normal human situations, united by their drink of choice.

The new ad captures a typical house party scene as a group of dogs show up to a party full of cats. As the cats begin to encroach on their unwanted guests, the tension is broken by a four-pack of J2O, leading to a night of dancing, hook-ups and hilarity. The feel good spot even explores an unexpected romance that blossoms between a dog and a cat. All is right with the world, until a mouse shows up to the party…

"We first cast our office dogs Alfie and Larry to test different compositing techniques that would combine human bodies with animal heads,” explains Absolute Producer Dan Bennett. “Then we were very involved in the editing process, helping to select the dog and cat performances that best suited the movements of humans.”

Absolute Flame Artists Phil Oldham and Michael Smith attended the shoot in East London to assist and supervise the shots for VFX. The team initially intended to shoot the cat and dog heads in-situ as plates, however some of the animals were too big to fit on set. Ultimately a green screen studio was constructed and they captured the heads using two cameras shooting simultaneously from different angles.

“Ask any flame artist what they find to be the most challenging and they will say head replacements,” says Absolute Flame Artist Phil Oldham. “That, combined with the fact that you can’t get a dog or cat to take direction, was no small feat. Thankfully BBH and the Daniels were trusting and are both incredibly well versed in visual effects. No explanations were necessary and they pushed for the very best result, as they always do.”

Working closely with the agency and production teams, Absolute used a mixture of compositing live action and CG augmentation to create the scenes and characters. Flame, Nuke and Final Cut Pro were the main platforms used.

Absolute and BBH have worked together numerous times over the past eight years, previously partnering with the Daniels on Weetabix “Dancer.”