Vigorsol 'Air Action'

Framestore has helped create a chewing gum ad with a twist for Vigorsol, BBH and Smuggler's Neil Harris. What starts as a schmaltzy story of two lovers torn apart by distance ends with a woman's face freezing and a parrot's feathers being stripped by a burst of bottled-up Vigorsol breath, as captured and couriered by the ad’s love-sick man.

Produced for the Italian market, the spot was actually shot in a humble Kent home. The house served as both the man's hotel room and the lad's living room. Framestore's Avtar Bains supervised the shoot and lead the VFX work back at Noel Street where he created the all-important freezing effect on the woman's mouth. He also composited the CG parrot.

The bottle's hurricane-like effect was achieved using a leaf blower to distort the actress's mouth. She was shot in six different stages of make-up, each one progressively more frozen, so that the overall effect could be seamlessly morphed into one sequence. The end of this sequence – where the actress's face is frozen solid – is actually a composite of six different takes, using various elements from different performances to create the perfect comically frozen face.