Something's Lurking
Product: LG Kompressor Elite
Agency: Young & Rubicam NY
Executive Creative Director: Scott Vitrone
Executive Creative Director: Ian Reichenthal
Global Creative Director: Stuart Harricks
Global Creative Director: Andrew McKechnie
VP, Creative Director / Art Director: Gabriel Hoskins
Creative Director / Writer: Cheryl Chapman
Executive Director of Content Production: Lora Schulson
Executive Director of Content Production: Nathy Aviram
Senior Content Producer: Tennille Teague
Executive Music Producer: Eric David Johnson
Assistant Content Producer: Luiza Naritomi
Production Company: Psyop / Smuggler
Director: Psyop
Psyop Creative Directors: Marie Hyon, Marco Spier
Executive Producers (Psyop): Lucia Grillo, Justin Booth-Clibborn, Lydia Holness
Producers (Psyop): Michael Neithardt, Sean Sullivan
Executive Producer/Partner (Smuggler): Patrick Milling Smith
Executive Producer/Partner (Smuggler): Brian Carmody
Executive Producer/COO (Smuggler): Lisa Rich
Executive Producer (Smuggler): Allison Kunzman
Head of Production (Smuggler): Laura Thoel
Live Action Producer (Smuggler): Erin Wile
Director of Photography: Fred Elmes
Animation: Psyop
Lead 3D Artist: Christian Bach
3D Artists: Todd Akita , Alvin Bae, Jonah Friedman, David Barosin, Miguel Salek, Xuan Siefert, Jimmy Gass, Pat Porter, Kitty Lin, Keith Kim
3D Animator: Jae Ham
Lead 2D Artist: Nick Tanner
2D Artists: Adam Flynn, Dan Short
Flame Artist: Anu Nagaraj
Designers: Anh Vu, Jonathan Saunders
Editor: Cass Vanini
Storyboard Artist: Ben Chan
Tracking: Joerg Liebold
Design Interns: Sam Ballardini, Hung Liao
Music and Sound Design: Q Department
Notes from Psyop on LG “Something's Lurking”
The agency brief was to create a dramatic story of the dangers of dust in a what seems to be a safe environment for your family, and how the LG Kompressor Elite vacuum cleaner can help you. Young & Rubicam had come up with a print campaign with compressed dust shark fins with the tagline, “Cleans and Compresses Things that are Lurking”. This is what drove our story. The agency had also written a great story about toys left out by kids being threatened by imaginary sharks. We took that and had the idea to pay homage to classic cinematic genres and scenes from shark-related horror movies, with similar camera moves and very filmic lighting, milking the drama as much as possible.
We thought about the typical story formulas, stereotypes and clichés from shark movies and other scary thrillers. Of course many scenes come to mind and we whittled them down to the ones that worked best with the toy characters, and to build the tension and story arc - a couple gets separated from the group, they start making out, having fun until…someone gets attacked. Slowly other people become aware of the danger, they come up with a plan and if they're lucky, beat the monster in the end. Shark movies are of course great for this type of drama.
From the start of the project, from the initial briefing call with the Y&R, we set out to create a powerful mood - beautiful, shocking and dramatic. We consciously chose not to animate the toys, instead posing them on set and recreating some of their different facial expressions to enhance the dramatic filmic moments. The "action" is in the camera movement, the shark fins, the wake of the carpet, the flying lint and fibers, and the hair and clothing of dolls. We felt by juxtaposing the stillness of the toys to the movement of sharks and the fibers of the carpet etc., we could create a much more menacing and dramatic contrast in the film.
We designed and built a set on a stage and shot all the plastic toy soldiers, Barbie look-a-likes, designer toys, stuffed animals, etc on that set. Then we created different facial expressions for those toys in CG. enabling us to cut to the same toy with different expressions, creating and enhancing the tension and dramatic moments. This was a great way to inject emotion into those characters, which is essential for the concept of this spot.
We were incredibly excited to put our toy shooting skills to the test. It gave us an opportunity to play, which is what we do best.
Marie Hyon, Psyop Founder and Creative Director:
Ok, I admit, I did play with Barbie, not only once, but for years. I started to tell stories by posing and photographing Barbie and other toys in different scenarios all over the place. It got to a point where my parents got mad, because after returning from a trip to Italy with my grandmother, all I brought back was ten rolls of film, all of Barbie, not one of my grandparents or sights of Italy…Basically what I’m saying is, I know how to shoot Barbie, I know her best angles. So now, thirty something years later, it seems like I finally have the opportunity to do what I’ve been destined for: Telling a story by posing toy characters. So yes, we loved it.
Marco Spier, Psyop Founder and Creative Director:
We of course got personally connected with the toys, their characters and the story. Carefully placing them personally on set to get the best performance out of them, kind of like actors. We also liked the idea of having unusual combinations of different characters because that's how kids play - free form, mixing and matching, and grouping things together based on what they have no hand, or what their siblings or friends have.
To create the spot Psyop used the following tools and software:
Pencil and paper, digital photos, photoshop, XSI, Maya, Nuke and Flame.
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