Directed by Craig Gillespie of MJZ, BBDO’s Snickers Halloween 2012 campaign plays off the brand’s iconic tagline “You’re not you when you are hungry.” The comedy ensues with a bizarre take on the Horseless Headsman.
The head character was comped in Flame by David Forcada, with Legacy FX creating a giant head suit, which was then lined up with the face talent and lots of prosthetic make-up shot on green screen. Framestore built on the spooky mood by adding fog, including that which swallows up the horseman at the end, and photo-real CG limbs, which are there to add a bit of visual comedy as the massive head wobbles away.
“We had initially suggested using an actor inside a big head on location and the director pushed it a stage further by adding much smaller puppeteered arms and legs.” Says Murray Butler, who was Creative Director on the spot. “This pushed the character into a surreal realm as clearly his little legs would never support his giant head. We were worried about this looking unreal in the comp but in the end it was much funnier. Using a real shot face on top of this meant the director could get the performance he wanted.”
Framestore also created the revitalised Headless Horseman, masking out the horse’s head and cutting down on the gore by smoothing out the neck, as well as the spot's final twist - the Headless-Horse Man. It was a pleasure working with BBDO and Mars again. A great follow up to the success of Snickers Focus Group.
