Facts Laid Bear At Media Production Show

The making of Bears.

Andy Fowler on The Idea

What was the brief with which the client approached you?

AF: The brief was to change the mindset of busy families who thought Center Parcs wasn’t for them. We knew that the most valuable thing to these families was time.

Modern life pulls them in every direction and electronic devices mean that even when families are together, they’re not really together.

If we could persuade them that time is Center Parcs is the purest family time, then we’d be onto something.

Tell us about the concept of the bears; how quickly did that idea come to the fore and why did it feel like the right approach?

AF: The bears script was one of two that came out of the writing process that I felt had the potential to be special.

It’s a very simple story but replacing people with bears intensifies the emotion in both halves. At the start it accentuates the ridiculousness of the lives we lead. At the end, when the bears go back to nature together, it magnifies the idea of us being one with our kids.

When you’re working on a campaign with a lot of VFX, is it harder to earn the trust of the client as you proceed because the idea, and what you shoot, needs a significant leap of imagination?

AF: The clients were totally sold on the emotional potential of the idea and believed in the skills of the team we assembled.

Katie, our business director, Jen our producer and Indy our creative, all did a top job walking the client through the process stage by stage so they always understood what was going on. And Ben [Liam Jones] the director, and the ETC guys were very good at sharing.

Why did you approach Ben Liam Jones to helm this project?

AF: By the time we started looking for a director, I’d already chatted to Lee [Pavey] from Electric Theatre Collective about the job because I really wanted those guys on board.

Lee recommended Ben and as soon as we checked out his work he felt like a good fit. Ben’s Childline film is as real as it gets. His treatment for this script showed empathy with each of the bears and a strong vision of the character arcs each needed to follow.

From your point of view, what was the most difficult aspect of putting this project together?

AF: Time. A few months ago I did the final judging for the British Lions Craft awards and had to watch Monty's Christmas 17 times and the SSE orangutan 14 times. Each of those ads took about three-times as long to make as we had to make this. No-one who watches the bears will ever know this. It either works or it doesn’t.

The pressure of making this work in only three months was intense. Massive credit to the guys at Electric Theatre Collective for pulling it off. I can’t praise them enough.

Ben Liam Jones on The Direction

What was it that appealed to you about this script?

BLJ: The fact they were bears was always secondary to the storytelling. They wanted to tell a story that was full of heart and universal in its appeal, it didn’t feel gimmicky. It reminded me of a little Pixar story with it’s subtle, yet complex brand of storytelling. 

This is your first time working on such a VFX-led project; was that part of the allure and how did you find the process?

BLJ: I loved the idea of challenging myself and proving that I could work within those parameters. Going back to live-action I have no doubt I’m now a better director from the experience. 

As for the process, ETC were unbelievable. They have a way of working that sets them apart from all the other post companies I’ve ever worked with. We were like a tight knit family through the whole process and I’ve never met people who genuinely care as much about a project as I do.

They just told me to worry about the story and not to get too concerned with the technical aspects. They made it so easy and I can’t thank them enough for that. 

How did you decide the best way to approach the filming/creation of the family of bears?

BLJ: As a performance-based director I need to see things play out in front of me. I also have a visual style I wanted to create, so having people to light for reference was always going to be very important to me.

Considering these factors we aimed for the best physical performers we could find and almost treated things as if they were real. This was helpful for establishing the timings for the edit and giving the client something to see and sign off. Shooting lots of plates without actors is so cold and lacks any emotion. We knew our story worked before any VFX happened.

How important was the casting process of the actors playing the bears during the shoot?

BLJ: We had actors who have worked on Guardians Of The Galaxy, with Andy Serkis, people who are at the very top of this type of physical performance. They provided great performance references for the VFX.

I didn’t have to explain much to ETC as they could see what I wanted from the live-action. There was little room for confusion as the performances were so good. 

What was the most challenging part of the process for you?

BLJ: Waiting. Everything comes together in those last two weeks and it takes lots of faith to sit back and let people do their jobs. Every time you panic (which happened), you slow the process. You need to trust that you’re working with talented people, which I clearly was. 

Dean Robinson on The VFX

When were you first approached about this campaign and what were your initial reactions?

DR: We were super excited! As an artist these are the jobs that you want to do most as they're a real challenge. Of course you then realise how much work is actually involved in making four bears and the time involved so you then get scared! 

You created the VFX for the spot within three months, a very tight turnaround; what was it that enabled you to do it so quickly but to such a high standard?

DR: The fact that we use Houdini, along with the pipeline we have developed for these type of jobs is probably the biggest factor. We have been working on our fur tools in the run up to this job so we knew we had a good basis to start with.

Then its really down to the great team that worked on it. They're the real stars who put in a lot of hard work and late nights to get it done.

Can you explain a bit about the processes you used to create the bears and how important the actors’ performances were?

DR: We start out by doing as much research on bears as we can, scouring the internet for great reference pictures and videos. This is the base that you have to keep referring back to throughout the process to make sure you're being as true to bears as possible.

We then get onto the computer and model the bears, paint them up, add a skeleton so it can be animated and moved, then, lastly, add millions of hairs to the models and groom those hairs into shape - just like a professional bear barber!

We can then start the animation process and start to put them in the shots where the actors were. It’s really important for everyone in the process to have the actors there otherwise we wouldn't know how to edit the film without animating it first.

It then gives the animators a great guide for the action the director wants. We just need to add a touch of real bear movement in as well to make it feel real.

The bar for VFX, and photo-realistic animals, has been set pretty high in the last year or so; was there ever a concern that the time limitation would count against you?

DR: It always is. We only had three months for four individual bears, so it’s about as short as a timescale can be. We knew we could get it done but the time factor limits how much refining time you have and therefore how realistic the bears will look in the end.

There’s a crazy amount of detail that you need to match so you can just keep going forever trying make it as good as you can. Most jobs like this need at least six months with time up front. We just worked really hard in those three months!

What was the most difficult part of the process from your perspective?

DR: Making the bears look real in their environment. It's always hard when you make animals do things that aren’t natural to them. So it’s a real balancing act of trying to tell the story which is full of human behaviour and to keep them feeling as bear like as possible in those situations by dialing back the bear posing or movement.