Loose Moose Cut To The Chase For Kelloggs

A London-based production company, Loose Moose has recently worked on The Chase, the latest commercial for Kelloggs' Apple Jacks, through Leo Burnett, in Chicago.
The company's established director Ange Palethorpe collaborated with their latest signing - Peter Truckel, for the :30 spot that mixes CG animation with live action - actually shot on location in Cape Town.
The work is said to be a further illustration that Loose Moose - best known for stop frame animation - can also produce high value live action, along with CG character animation that equals their award winning stop frame productions.
Apple & Cinna-mon - the brand's iconic characters were originated at Loose Moose back in 2004 in collaboration with Craig Barnard and Chris Julcher of Leo Burnett, Chicago and it's their success and appeal that has established the campaign's longevity with Chase being the 16th spot in total and the 14th Loose Moose have produced.
Producer Glenn Holberton said: "It was great to have the old team back together again.
"With local casting and location support from Cape Town's Gatehouse production company, the shoot went swimmingly - despite the unexpected wet weather and usual production hiccups."
Loose Moose originally produced the Apple Jacks commercials using stop frame puppets with stylized sets creating the fantasy world of Cinna Island.
When production moved back to the USA, the campaign's technique switched from stop frame to CG animation and the environment Apple & Cinna-mon occupied changed from Cinna Island to them being in the real world with humans.
Chase continues in this vein with the hero characters being pursued by a gang of hungry, Apple Jacks loving children.
Animation Director Ange Palethorpe, said: "It was really interesting to convert the stop frame characters to CG characters, and get to grips with the differences in techniques. We were pretty faithful to the original commercials. In fact we were very disciplined about not putting too much squash and stretch in the animation."
Part of the brief was having a continuity of performance with the earlier spots and she said it involved "fighting the software's inclination to smooth everything out".
"Going back over shots and putting the 'sharpness' back into the action is very necessary," she continued.
"Animating in CG is more like drawn animation in many ways. The key poses are imperative and the computer joins these poses together, and then the animator goes in and alters what the computer has done.
"The linear production process of stop frame is much more immediate. The action is complete, up to the frame one is working on.
"The possibilities that CG throws up make it really exciting for a character animator though," she said, noting that: "I'd love to push the performances further next time - keeping their personalities the same, just using CG to squeeze that bit extra out of them."
(BMcC/GK)