TREE

TitleTREE
BrandCHALLENGER
Product / ServiceANNUITIES
CategoryA10. Animation
EntrantFIN DESIGN + EFFECTS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company FIN DESIGN + EFFECTS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency 303LOWE Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production Company FIN DESIGN + EFFECTS Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Stuart Barton Challenger Limited General Manager Corporate Marketing And Communications
Amanda Irving Challenger Limited General Manager Marketing Strategy And Services
Lisa Tran Challenger Limited Brand Campaign Manager
Richard Morgan 303 Lowe Executive Creative Director
Chris Mcmullen/Veronica Copestake 303 Lowe Art Direction
Veronica Copestake/Sean Larkin 303 Lowe Copywriters
Sean Ascroft 303 Lowe Agency Producer
Jon Mckie 303 Lowe Strategic Planning
Karen Russell 303 Lowe Business Management
Inger Christensen/Steph O'donnell/Sophie Hohnen/Rocky Vu 303 Lowe Media
Adrian Lawrence/Stuart White 303 Lowe Directors
Stuart White Fin Design And Effects Cinematographer/3d Supervisor
Adrian Lawrence Fin Design And Effects Art Director
Adrian Lawrence/Tim Streets Fin Design And Effects Concept Art
Tim Streets/Colin Ware Fin Design And Effects 3d Modelling And Texturing
Shane Brouwer/Gerard Van Omen Kloeke Fin Design And Effects 3d Rigging
Bastian Konradt Fin Design And Effects 3d Lighting
Maurice Giacomini Fin Design And Effects 3d Animation
Richard Betts Fin Design And Effects Flame Artist
Billy Becket Fin Design And Effects Executive Producer

Brief Explanation

The Tree TV commercial is a short financial fable about the risk of outliving your retirement savings and how Challenger annuities can provide a guaranteed income for life. As portrayed by our origami couple, the apple orchard represents their retirement savings. Time passes, the trees tire and the apples wither; and they fear that their savings will not be enough to sustain them. As they leave their barren orchard behind, they stumble across a flourishing apple tree which replenishes after each pluck, epitomising the guaranteed lifetime income offered by annuities.

Creative Execution

The Challenger spots were executed in the style of stop motion animated origami. Due to the need to constantly revise the visuals and storytelling during the schedule, a 100% CGI approach was decided upon early in production. To ensure that the visuals remained authentic, much of the design process was carried out with pencil sketches and real origami props. Great care was taken to duplicate the minute tears and creases that appeared on the real paper props when they were recreated in the computer and all character animation was done on doubles (12fps) to mimic stop motion technique. This approach also held true with the lighting and cinematography. The lens properties were crafted to emulate a 1970s anamorphic lens while the lighting fixtures duplicated real world equivalents such as Redheads and Kinos. The lighting style was stripped down and contrasty to add drama and help guide the viewer’s eye to the action. Great care was taken to try and make one single spotlight do as much of the work as possible in each shot, with supporting lights added strictly as necessary.