TENNENT’S LAUNCH ANIMATED COMMERCIAL

TENNENT’S have launched a new animated commercial starring Northern Ireland’s Amanda Burton.
To produce the commercial Tennent’s turned to Bristol based Aardman. Director of Aardman, Darren Walsh, said: “It was one of the most exciting and challenging scripts I had seen in a long time, showing a product in it’s best light is never a simple task.”
Speaking on the difficulties of animating the product, Walsh said: “It’s impossible to animate in close up something that looks and behaves exactly like a fizzing pint of lager with a frothing head on it that thinks it’s a cop. In the end we glued sticks to the bottoms of the glasses and filled them with lager then puppeteered them to a live playback of the dialogue track. It was hilarious; the puppeteers were desperately trying to give convincing performances with these pints balanced on sticks without spilling a drop. This gave the Pintling characters an air of vulnerability – perfect. A team of animators then matched arms, legs and mouths onto the live footage, placing the final touches of character into the Pintlings. The result speaks for itself and shows just how great the fusion was between the spontaneity of the live puppet performance and the humour and skill of our animators.”
Burton’s part echoes one of her best screen successes. Given the range of roles that have made her a household name across the country such as ‘Brookside’, ‘Peak Practice’ and ‘Silent Witness’ that hint would still leave fans guessing.
Joanne Nelson, Brands Manager of Bass Ireland, said: “For us the pint is the star but it’s great to see Tennent’s sharing the limelight not only with Northern Ireland actress Amanda Burton but also with the trio of stars who have become known as the ‘Scotpack’. They certainly bring their own cachet and street cred to the commercial.”
The so-called ‘Scotpack’ is made up of Ken Stott, known for his successful leading roles in ‘The Vice’ and ‘Vicious Circle’, ‘Trainspotting’ actor Ewen Bremner, and Kevin McKidd, another star in the cult movie ‘Trainspotting’. (CD)