STOP MOTION FILM

Past projects with Laika Studios and The Jim Henson Company prepared me to launch two of the greatest stop motion films ever made: Guillermo Del Toro’s & Marc Gustafson’s Pinocchio and Jordan Peele’s & Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’s PINOCCHIO - “Handmade With Love”

Roles: Client (Campaign Strategy & Creative), Writer Title Teaser Script, Conceptor: Growing Nose Billboard

Results: #1 Animated Musical, First Animated Oscar Win for Netflix

There were two competing Pinocchios, both releasing before us: Zemeckis’ live action version for Disney and Lionsgate’s viral monstrosity voiced by Pauly Shore, which impacted our SEO for months. We wanted to ensure everyone knew our debut was special and worth the wait. The problem: the film wouldn’t finish until literally the month before launch in December.

Title Announce Teaser

We had very finished footage to work with, so I concepted this title teaser and wrote custom VO for Ewan McGregor, polished by filmmakers, using a scene still in production.

The entire logo was handmade and I got special permission from the brand team to create a wooden Netflix N (the very first bespoke ident, now common practice). Elements of the custom piece were used in the final film and across all AV assets.

Teaser Trailer

The teaser trailer expands on all the ways this version of the story is more authentic to Carlo Collodi’s original story and more original than any version that year.

Main Trailer

We introduced the full story and went full Guillermo with visuals of death, fascism and fantasty. The tagline “Love Will Give You Life” speaks to the emotion, the literal story of Pinocchio’s creation, and (spoiler) his cycles of death and rebirth to save his father.

Stop Motion OOH

We created the first stop motion film on a billboard with a growing nose that changed day by day. This idea was adapted across regions especially in Europe where there were growing pinecones, handmade with love. The video of the process was one of the most popular posts on social of the campaign.

Key Art, Awards, & Making Of Campaign

Our key our suite rolled out similar to AV, expanding on the Guillermo elements as we got closer to launch.

We decided early on to position it not only as a best animation contender, but to consider it for best picture, which garnered much more attention. Also included a collectible poster by Guillermo’s favorite illustrator James Jean.

Everything I had worked to capture on set was incorporated into making of videos and a full Vanity Fair documentary. Originally, we had wanted to tour a giant Pinocchio puppet through the streets of Italy, but the team went with a smaller approach with influencer boxes inspired by the real puppet sent to cinephiles around the world and tiny appearances on the red carpet.

“Animation Is a Medium Not A Genre” Origins

A year earlier, working on the Mitchells vs The Machines campaign, we tweeted this response to the dismissive way ABC presented the animation category after our film was snubbed. It went viral and captured how the industry was feeling.

Guillermo, who had been a champion for The Mitchell’s vs The Machines, made the phrase his rallying cry for the Pinocchio awards campaign and ultimately secured Netflix’s first Oscar win in the category for a real full circle moment.

Netflix Partners: Joa Tous & Caroline Goode (pre-reorg) , Tara McLaughlin & Bruno Sanchez (post-reorg), Chris Gonzalez (Awards)

Agency Partners: Rebel AV (trailers), AV Print (art)

WENDELL & WILD - “We all have demons. Hers Have Names.”

The same year, Netflix released a PG-13 stop motion film from Jordan Peele and Henry Selick (my personal hero). We knew it’d resonate with Peele’s fandom and fans of darker stop motion like Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Combined with a female punk score and Halloween release time, we had a real conversation starter for spooky season. All of our assets leaned heavily into pedigree and attempted to differentiate the two films by highlighting the more mature demonic themes.

Roles: Client Lead (Campaign Strategy & Creative), Conceptor (Kat’s Boombox)

Results: NAACP Image Award Winner, Annie Award Nominee, Longest Livestream Ever

Kat’s Boombox 24/7 Teaser

Instead of a traditional teaser, we created a 24/7 YouTube livestream of our main character’s boombox blasting Afropunk tunes for 4 months leading up to the first trailer. Every few songs, a sneak peek clip played. Every month, the boombox appeared in a new setting. The songs and clips changed, so fans never knew when the next one might appear. The custom animation looped at different rhythms matching different tracks.

The sneak peek clips launched independently on other channels with links back to the boombox. We partnered with bands on the film score to promote the boombox. At it’s peak, there were 150K simultaneous listeners and collectively over 10MM unique views across the channel and clips.

Cast Reveal

To continue the hype, we revealed the full VO cast and characters March 14th, 2022 along with our unit photography.

Teaser Trailer

The full teaser trailer introduced Kat and her demons to the world without revealing too much of the plot.

Trailer

To main trailer expanded on the story of Kat as a hell maiden, her struggle with her demons, and the army of undead souls she’d have to face.

Art Suite & Fan Punk Posters

We partnered with influential afropunk artists and fan artists to create additional art.

Netflix Partner: Norell Giancana (post re-org)

Agency Partners: Rogue Planet (trailers), Statement Advertising (art)