Lilt 'Odyssey'

LILT GETS ENGINEERED BY FRAMESTORE

Odyssey, the Levi's spot where the boy and girl run through walls, up trees and into space, has quickly become one of the most talked about commercials of the year. It was directed by Jonathan Glazer, who once more came to Framestore for the effects that would bring his singular vision to life on the screen. It quickly established itself as a contemporary classic and now, as often happens with the classics, it's the turn of the parodists. Released virally on 19th June and on terrestrial TV on 28th June, Odyssey is Lilt's tongue-in-cheek response to the Levi's spot.

Odyssey was written and art directed by ultra-hip agency Mother, and directed by Daniel Kleinman. It features the long-running Lilt characters, Hazel and Blanche, running through an apartment block that, shall we say, strongly reminds the viewer of the block in the Levi's spot. Cruising at a somewhat more sedate pace than the Levi's couple, Hazel and Blanche smash through a series of walls until they burst out into the sunshine and some palm trees. They pause to refresh themselves with some Lilt, and as they lean against them, one of the trees topples over.

The 40-second spot is laugh-out-loud funny, with a wicked eye for detail. For example, the apartments through which the Lilt ladies jog are not empty, but rather contain a variety of people going about their daily lives - at the kitchen table, in the bath. A single, bemused reaction shot from one man conveys their feelings about this unexpected intrusion.

As well as running the idea past Glazer before they proceeded, Mother came to Framestore for the effects. Whilst Odyssey manages to look an awful lot like the Levi's masterpiece, there was only a fraction of the time and money available to create it. The whole piece was created in two and a half weeks, with just three days of that spent shooting.

Overseeing the shoot for Framestore was Senior Inferno Operator William Bartlett. "Unlike Levi's Odyssey, in which the walls were painstakingly built and smashed by computers, here we took a more practical approach," he says. "The actresses ran through gaps in the walls, and Asylum built panels which were filled with bricks and mortar. Then they ran a person-shaped battering ram at the panel to smash it through, and we matted the two elements together in Inferno." Bartlett is keen to emphasize that Asylum's contribution was crucial to the effectiveness of the visuals. "They managed to get the battering rams running at just the right speed and weight to match that of the actresses - without that the look would not have worked so well." Extra dust and other elements were also shot on blue-screen and also blended in by Bartlett and (Inferno Operator) Murray Butler.

Odyssey is a delightful and affectionate send-up, and it's a tribute to the broad scope of Framestore's work that both the original team and the subsequent spoofers came to the same effects house for their post work.