Comfort 'Gap'

Director: Jordi Bares
Agency: Ogilvy
Production: The Mill
Client: Unilever

That said, looking back, I also had a few scars too, of course, as every single thing I get involved in, I put a lot of passion and learn the hard way that this is not only my baby, but others’ baby too, so I should be respectful of what I have in my hands.

This was a truly humbling experience where many things were evolving in parallel, and ultimately, we produced a little piece that just feels right to me and hopefully you, too.

Approach

The concept was based on the idea of a family event where everybody plays a part to surprise dad, and under that premise, the whole job was developed as a theatre-esque performance with a little accident from one of the twins.

First of all, the character design was updated and refreshed, new textures and facial make-up, a major revamp on all facial expressions and setup of the hair as cloth simulation rather than stiff cloth and of course a new phoneme approach that updated what we were doing to make sure we could sustain a close-up shot, so lots of technical decisions at first, but…

After the storyboards and first meeting, it was clear the idea needed tons of work, the edit was also a major challenge and in between we did the audio session that was later redone a few times… I must say it was great and also a very stressful moment, but it was clear then even more that I didn’t want to be operating, but rather fully committed to directing this job.

And my wife was pregnant and expecting a little girl in two months, so add to the mix a bit of family rock and roll, and you can imagine how challenging this was.

But the concept designs we did and the edits that I did and kept updating together with the agency seemed to move forward every time, so I was pleased as a little boy in a candy store.

On the animation front I kept a close eye on the style and went through many iterations to get a feeling of a puppet rather than a cartoony character, their limbs were meant to be full with cotton so you will see a lot of energy spent on the roots of the limbs but not so much overlap, in fact every single decision was taken in account and although you may feel it is a bit stiff the truth is that I really went for that as it felt more real.

Also, having two lighting systems proved challenging, especially in the transition and how this could be choreographed with the action, but it seemed to be something everybody embraced, so I was happy to see it go ahead.

Also, the graphics and titles were upgraded to get closer to a parody of a cosmetic commercial, and hopefully, the audience sees the cheeky twist on all of it. It was hilarious to discuss how far we could push it without being sued.

And once it was delivered, my wife also delivered my daughter Miranda, probably one of the greatest moments in my life, so I guess I had the best Christmas present, a directorial debut and a daughter… brilliant!!!