American Cinematographer - March 2003 - 98

spots was at the opposite end of the
spectrum. "I knew from our initial
conversations that Luis wanted the ad to
feel like it was

glowing from within, as if
pack¬
age," says Jacobs. The two began by
establishing the brightest white in the
scene: the Creators eyes. Because the
Creator is a speaking character, he had
replacement mouths press-molded out
of the whitest plasticine available. But
the plasticine turned out to be more
we were

somehow inside the Polo

cream-colored than white, so the color
balance of the entire world had to be

Jacobs

a Milo and put an
the set, there is often little
left for lighting fixtures." The

room

model sets also have to be very well
made to avoid any accidental movement

during a shot, which could be days long,
or during removal or replacement of
elements such as floors. "Every leaf has
to be wired, and most things are glued or
sticky-waxed for security, with safety
plates shot before and after animation."

ial's hue, and shades that were one-half

the worlds of stop-motion

mixed to match the mater¬

stop darker were created for
vignetting and to accent architec¬

one

The "Tarrah" Polo spot takes
place in a large amphitheater. The set
was designed to come apart to facilitate
camera

and animator access, and so

that elements could be

exchanged to
position.
The filmmakers shot the spot in three
scales on separate sets, feeding live
images from the animation sets into the
scaled sets through vision mixers to
create a rough composite. Gaffer
Richard "Tricky" Hoskins flew fill boards
and Kino Flos from the goalposts holding
simulate

changes in

camera

the half-scale roof; the roof itself had
been set up so Jacobs could adjust the

angle and height very quickly to line up
mid-ground plates, or to
adjust parallax without having to relight
each time. Open areas of the set were
backed with black drapes. Jacobs
painted out their reflections on the
models by firing ellipsoidal reflector
spotlights onto silver boards hidden
behind flags on set that acted as soft
kickers, wrapping around the characters.
To film both campaigns, Jacobs
used Fuji Super F-125 8532 stock and

for different

surroundings are all made of fabric.
Director Cook describes the protagonists
as

being "like Mike Leigh characters, only
made out of cloth." The various fabrics

responded in different ways to light,
requiring cinematographer Jacobs to
tweak his schemes.

94 March 2003

Because he also does a lot of live-

and

were

tural features.

for Comfort fabric

on

action commercials and music videos,
Jacobs can readily compare and contrast

subtle

softener, the characters and their

an

Mitchell attached to
animator

built around it; numerous batches of

paint

In Aardman's spot

that

space is
issue with stop-motion
shoots: "By the time you've poked in a

always

notes

Aardman's Mitchell-Fries BNC
He and Cook like to

move

cameras.

the camera, so

they made heavy use of a Milo motioncontrol rig and Aardman's 21 baby track¬
ers, which Jacobs says are invaluable
for capturing repeatable pushes, pulls
and tracks while still leaving room for
the animators to get in and out of a set.

animation and
filmmaking. "Animation
offers a different set of problems
because you're not working in scale," he
explains. "Focus is always an issue, with
lenses stopped right down to gain depth
of field and light thrown in from farther
away, making it slightly trickier to
control. Every frame is pored over and
must look beautiful, though you do have
conventional

more

time to achieve that." Adds Cook,

"Animation is

completely different
By its nature, it's slow and labo¬
rious, and the people who do it tend to
be quiet and thoughtful. There's less
shouting."
■
culture.

a
American Cinematographer - March 2003

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