Volvic 'Volcanicity'

WATER PALAVER

When agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R decided to take Volvic's well established motifs of volcanoes and dinosaurs in a new direction, they leapt squarely into left field with their new series of spots for the mineral water, which feature talking soft puppet versions of said motifs. Fortunately, Framestore was there to leap with them.

Volcanicity is the 40 second spot that kicks off the campaign, with three 30 second follow-ups in the pipeline – Revive, Birds 1 and Birds 2. Volcanicity features a conversation between George (the volcano), and his friend Tyrannosaurus Alan (you guessed it).

Framestore were first approached in late summer 2006. Director Simon Willows had shot some very crude tests himself, and the agency was keen to see if this radical new look was truly workable, so some simplified versions were shot and comped at Framestore. Following highly successful research with these tests in October, the spots were filmed for real in February 2007.

Mike McGee supervised the Black Island shoot for Framestore, working with the same puppetry team with whom he'd collaborated on the acclaimed Persil Fireworks and Ghosts spots. “The editor and an assistant worked to edit and rough composite on set. This meant we could compose the shots as they were recording, meaning we could shoot additional elements as needed to complement the shots further," he says of the process.

Every physical element was hand crafted and shot, ready for assembly in post. The conform involved up to 18 layers," says VFX Supervisor Jonathan Hairman, tasked with painstakingly putting together the material in Inferno. The digital spit and polish for each spot took around two weeks.

Like the Persil spots, the Volvic campaign is an object lesson in how digital post production can serve as a complementary art, discretely enhancing brilliant practical work and letting the ideas shine through.