Another awesome and beautifully lit panoramic adventure from Hornet Director Peter Sluszka, creator of equally dynamic spots for Range Rover and PNC. This elaborate build out is for Permanent TSB, a leading Irish bank, and kicks off their new campaign which will be ongoing. The warm, engaging tapestry of characters and actions read like a classic storybook, going above and beyond the call of any ordinary commercial. Many will be grabbing their magnifying glasses to not miss a gorgeous detail. Read on as the Director graciously provides us with some more rich details from the production end.

Director Peter Sluszka:

As this spot was for Irish broadcast, the first priority was creating a distinctly Irish feel, especially in the landscape and architecture. While the towns of Dingle and Westport were our primary references, the opening time-lapse of the countryside received the most scrutiny prior to the shoot. We had to get everything from the hay bales to the GAA pitch (Gaelic football) spot on.

To make our town feel fully populated we created over twenty original characters and a dog. I wanted to maintain a textured, sculptural feel throughout so we kept a lot of the tool marks in the final sculpts and hand painted every head. Quite a few characters had full replacement heads as well. It was the only way to make them expressive enough while maintaining their design integrity when jaws had to drop or cheeks had to stretch into a smile. Heads were sculpted in Chavant and cast in plastic and bodies were a mix of cast foam latex, silicone, and foam build-up.

Every character had a custom designed and tailored outfit as well, although we had to remove the farmer’s sweater when he drove the tractor because it violated safety regulations for operating heavy machinery (no, I’m not kidding).

The shoot took about 2 weeks, preceded by approximately 7 weeks of design, boarding, and fabrication. I should mention that this first spot is the introduction to the town and its denizens but we shot three more simultaneously, often running 4 sets at a time- definitely a hectic and grueling shoot. Look out for more spots featuring surfers, a sleazy real estate broker, and a fire conjuring teppanyaki chef.

Everything was animated on Canon SLR’s shooting raw through Dragonframe. Motion control was shot on a Gazelle, with compositing and post done primarily in Aftereffects and Final Cut.

Thank you so much for your time, Peter! Seems you really make the best of it, amazing production for 2 weeks!! We eagerly anticipate further reveal of this charming, disarming and delightfully quirky populace!

CREDITS
Director: Peter Sluszka, Hornet Inc.
Executive Producer: Jan Stebbins
Producer: Zack Kortright
Shoot Producer: Joel Kretschman
Editor: Anita Chao
Director of Photography: Ivan Abel
Motion Control Operators: Anthony Jacques and Don Canfield
Motion Control Tech: Drew Cerria
Gaffer: Michael Yetter
Best Boy: Casey Wooden
Electric: Jarrod Kloiber
Key Grip: Jeremy Rodriquez
Best Boy Grip: Chris Angarone
Fabricators: Sal Denaro, Michael Lawrence, Kerry Coutu, Peter Erickson, Connie Chan, Sally Thomas, Samantha Smith, Melissa Chow, Maxwell Sorenson, Michaela Olsen, Janet Kim, Tim McDonald, Elise Ferguson
Animators: Matt Somma, Kevin Coyle, Matt Christensen, Adam Pierce, Tom Gasek
Production Assistants: Dean Ford and Tim Kuhl
Storyboard Artist: David Zung
Set Design: Jeffrey Thompson
Character Design: Robin Joseph
Lead Compositors: Peter Fink and John Harrison
Compositors: Allison Kocar and Paul Daniels
Tracking Artist: Rich Kim
Tracking Assistant: Rachel Kwak
Agency: Publicis Dublin
Copywriter: Des Creedon
Art Director: John Kilkenny
Managing Director: Padraig Burns
Agency Producer: Rachel Murray
Marketing Manager: Lorna Farrell