FED EX Enchanted Forest
Lead Design at PSYOP by Lauren Indovina. Directed by Marie Hyon and Marco Spier.
STYLEFRAMES
WATCH Fed Ex Enchanted Forest
ABOUT
FedEx "Enchanted Forest", created in the Fall of 2011, was Directed by Marie Hyon and Marco Spier of PSYOP NY. The original pitch was led by myself, Lauren Indovina, and Jon Saunders. During our pitch phase, we were drawn to the darker tonality of Grimms Fairy Tales or Pan's Labyrinth, with a forest that was quiet and calm, but beautiful and esoteric. Ultimately, the aesthetic became more merry and whimsical.
A good portion of our time in design is spent working collaboratively, and this process was really key to coming up with the aesthetic of the FedEx characters. One designer would bring an interesting set of aesthetics to the table, and another would riff from that and come up with something new. This led us to a more eclectic set of characters whose clothing design drew from Victorian, to turn of the century, to 1960's jazz. Every character was given its own look and feel. The key to unifying these characters to make them feel a part of the same world was to make the proportions of all animals a little offbeat and unusual, at times making the proportions so traditionally wrong, that they actually felt right for this spot: the bunny's waist is impossibly small, or the mice are so fat, they are basically ball sacks with small hands and feet.
Once awarded, Marie and Marco shot plates of live action forest while Jon and I worked on developing and designing the language and look of the characters and environment. The project has since won the following awards:
AICP 2012 (Won: Animation, Permanent MOMA Collection) AICP Short list 2012: Visual Effects, Agency Art Direction. Clio 2012 (Won: Gold, Animation) ADC 2012 (Won: Silver, Animation)
CREDITS
Client: FedEx
Spot title: Enchanted Forest
Agency: BBDO, New York
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars
Executive Creative Directors: Greg Hahn, Mike Smith
Executive Producers: Amy Wertheimer, Diane Hill
Sr. Creative Director/Art Director: Nick Klinkert
Sr. Creative Director/Copywriter: Tom Kraemer
Creative Director/Copywriter: Chris Beresford-Hill
Executive Music Producer: Rani Vaz
Production Company: Psyop/Smuggler
Director: Psyop
Psyop Creative Directors: Marie Hyon, Marco Spier
Psyop Executive Producer: Lucia Grillo
Psyop Line Producer: Donald Taylor
Psyop Senior Producer: Crystal Campbell
Smuggler Executive Producer/Partner Patrick Milling Smith
Smuggler Executive Producer/Partner Brian Carmody
Smuggler Executive Producer/COO: Lisa Rich
Smuggler Executive Producers: Allison Kunzman, Laura Thoel
Smuggler Live Action Producer: Donald Taylor
Lead Designers: Lauren Indovina, Jon Saunders
Designers: Naomi Chen
Editor: Cass Vanini
Director of Photography: Fredrick Elmes
Storyboard Artist: Ben Chan
Lead Technical Director: Alvin Bae
Lead Compositor: Nick Tanner
Lighting Pipeline Technical Director/Still Photographer: Jonah Friedman
Modeling: Helen Choi, Soo Hee Han, Dave Chen
Rigging: Zed Bennett, Amy Hay
Previz: Pat Porter, Kitty Lin, Chris Meek, Minor Gayton
Animation: Pat Porter, Amy Hay, Roman Kobryn, MinSeok Jeon and Stephanie Russell, Michael Shin
VFX Supervisor: Joerg Liebold
VFX: Dave Barosin, Miguel Salek
Lighting Team: Alvin Bae, Helen Choi, Soo Hee Han, Chris Wilson
Hair: Jonah Friedman, Andy Hara
Lead Tracking: Joerg Liebold
Tracking: Mark Lipsmeyer
Matte Painting: Denis Kozyrev
Lead Compositor: Nick Tanner
Compositors: Jason Conradt, Adam Flynn, Thomas Panayiotou and Jonathan Podwill
Flame: Nick Tanner
Roto: Trace
Footage Transfer: Katabatic
Music House: Human
Audio Mix: Sound Lounge
Mixer Tom Jucarone
c. Lauren Indovina, PSYOP 2011