Crafting a Cute, Unsettling World with DROOL’s Freddie Powell and NOT TO SCALE’s Luca&Sinem for OLIPOP

Recently, creative agency Callen recruited the likes of DROOL director Freddie Powell and NOT TO SCALE animating duo Luca&Sinem to capture a lively, thoroughly choreographed and perhaps slightly uncomfortable world of prebiotic creatures for OLIPOP’s “A Good Start” campaign.

The spot asks a bold question: “Could a single can of OLIPOP solve all the world’s problems?,” before promptly and honestly answering its own query: “No, of course not.” Nonetheless, The Howler was still quite taken by the little (and sometimes dangerously large) animated weirdos who populate this wacky commercial, and they filled us with enough joy that we had to pick the brains of the creative minds behind not only the shoot, but the animation, too.

So without further ado, here’s our chat with Freddie and Luca&Sinem:

What was the brief from the agency on this? What were they hoping to achieve in the live action footage, and in the animation? What references, if any, did they provide during the bidding process? 

Freddie: Callen are a seriously talented bunch. They cast the net wide at the treatment stage, choosing directors for their distinct styles. I think they chose my approach because I trod the line between optimism and discomfort. There needed to be comedy in humans reacting to this madness unfolding around them.

Figuratively and literally, this spot has a ton of moving parts in it - from the dancers and extras to the camerawork and animated characters. How long did it take to put together from start to wrap?

Freddie: A week to treat, then another week to re-treat and get the budget down. Three weeks prep, then the shoot. Four to five weeks to animate, and one final week for Untold to composite. It sounds long written out like that, but honestly it's miracles all round from every production house involved.

Was this the first time you all worked together? If not, what had you collectively worked on together previously? And if it was, how would you describe the experience of working together?

Freddie: I'd worked with Dan O'Rourke (founder of NOT TO SCALE) way back in the day and brought the project to him. I fully trust his taste, and he brought Luca&Sinem to the table. We got on great. I absolutely LOVED working with those two nutters. Every animation review was like Christmas. They surpassed my expectations at every stage. I love them.

Luca&Sinem: We had a great experience working with Freddie. His briefs were clear and imaginative, but he gave us plenty of room for interpretation and creative input. When collaborating with another director, we always do our best to support their original vision while bringing our own ideas to the process. The whole process was a flow.

How closely did DROOL and NOT TO SCALE work together on this project? Were the animators, VFX supervisors or editors on set together? What kind of synergy did you all have?

Freddie: We felt from the off that it was important to all be in one space, so decisions were cooked up with all parties involved. We had about two weeks in South Africa with Luca, me and Untold Studios all in one place. That really laid the groundwork and meant communication flowed.

How did the music play into the overall timing and pacing of this film? How did the song influence the spot's production or choreography, or the design and interplay of the animated characters?

Freddie: It was pretty much key. We locked the interpretation of the track early on and choreographed everyone to it. But the track builds in tempo, so it wasn't a simple click track. That's what makes it feel like everything is getting out of control.

What was the process of designing the colorful cast of prebiotic weirdos? Did OLIPOP provide guidelines to develop their style, color palettes, etc. or was it purely decided by the whimsy of the animators and designers? 

Freddie: I laid out a few principles I wanted to hit, the producers laid out the limitations around variety and quantity, and from there we just started hunting for illustrators and character designers who felt right and sketching out ideas. We brought in the awesome Joe Taylor to design them, specifically so they didn't land too cute. We wanted something a little uncomfortable about 'em.

What made this project stand out? When you look at the finished piece, what impresses you the most about how it all came together?

Luca&Sinem: We think we had struck a good balance between the animated and live-action worlds on this one. From the very beginning, we were conscious about creating a visual continuity between these two.
We began developing the 2D animated world before the shoot, but once filming was completed, we revisited several elements to fine-tune things from the colors to the level of details on both backgrounds and the characters.
The animation style itself was also chosen to give a cohesive visual experience.

Freddie: These projects often end up feeling like one or the other: film with a bit of animation bolted on, or animation with a bit of live action. This one really feels like two production houses working in tandem to get the best possible result. Full disclosure, the worlds and characters Luca&Sinem painted inside the stomach weren't what I was most excited about going in. I was all about seeing them out in the real world. But once I saw how rich and textured the inside of the body was, those quickly became my favorite scenes.