SONY | PLAY-DOH | 2008
2.5 Tons of Clay Took Over New York / SONY "PLAY-DOH"
Rabbits filling up an entire city. And here's the thing: this isn't CGI. It's all stop-motion. It's completely insane.
The problem
This is the third installment in Fallon London's "Colour Like No Other" series for Sony's BRAVIA. The first rolled rubber balls down a hillside; the second drenched an apartment block in paint. Both were shot live, with no CGI. The challenge was how to top them with the third film.
The insight
The answer was adding "the warmth of handmade work" to "surprise without relying on CGI." 200 rabbits eventually become one giant 9-meter rabbit. In a digital age, they chose to do it all by hand. The track is The Rolling Stones' "She's a Rainbow."
The idea
On a New York street corner, rabbits spring up from drains and from under trash cans, turning into a purple wave, then an iceberg, then a red whale, whose tail transforms into the giant rabbit. It took three weeks, 40 animators, and 2.5 tons of clay. They remade the clay rabbits frame by frame. The directors were Darren Walsh and Frank Budgen, produced by Passion Pictures.
What happened
It won Best Commercial Director at the British Animation Awards and a Bronze Pencil at The One Show. This marked the end of the series. A Fallon representative said, "Balls was all about colour. Colour like no other is finished. Now it's about motion."
Afterthought
It could have been done in an instant with CGI, yet they deliberately spent three weeks with 40 people molding clay by hand. There's a kind of madness and love in that deliberate choice. It makes me want to keep working with my own hands.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2008
