BETC's 'The Bear' Picks Up The Biggest Gunn To Date

BETC's 'The Bear' Picks Up The Biggest Gunn To Date

This year's Gunn Report - the annual publication ranking the world's most creative ad agencies and their work - has proclaimed French agency BETC's 'The Bear' the most awarded TV ad EVER! The spot, directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen through Soixan7e Quin5e, follows a temperamental bear-skin rug as he shoots an epic movie and features remarkable SFX from Mikros Image, bringing the hairy protagonist to life.

Following its Cannes win last year, we caught a few moments with BETC's President and Executive Creative Director Stéphane Xiberras and discussed the concept of the project, the difficulty in realising a creative vision and who the growling protagonist of the spot was based on.

Congratulations on the multiple wins for 'The Bear'. How does it feel to have a pride of Lions?

Thank you, I am very proud of my creatives, the production team, the director, the client and of course the agency.

'The Bear' is the latest in a series of award-winning work for Canal+. What is it that makes working on the brand so creatively rewarding? Do you feel the pressure in each subsequent follow-up?

The creative system for Canal+ is based on the fact that each time we communicate it's like a showcase for the channel. It's like a sample of what you may find on the channel, so we are therefore very vigilant, Canal+ and ourselves, to find the best concept for them. Because of that, we do have a lot of pressure every time to deliver high quality on the scripts and their realisation.

How did you come up with the concept of the charmingly cantankerous star of the spot? Are there any real-life inspirations that should be named (and shamed)?

The spot is just simply the making of a feature film, with the only difference that the director is a bearskin that spent a lot of time in front of Canal+.

We thought of Tarantino, who used to run a video club, and then for the character we took inspiration from all the directors we've met during our careers and in particular the ones so completely overwhelmed by their profession to the point they become, well, let's say, brutal like bears themselves ;)

The concept is a cracker in its own right, but it wouldn't work unless the visuals were up to the job. How did you ensure that the vision hit the screen?

That was the biggest challenge : to bring the character alive in an engaging and subtle way. I'm always scared of CGI and other animatronics that can look really fake. Here, the idea was to use a real actor (who in fact was truly extraordinary), in order to do a very precise motion capture. When we saw the first rough cut with the actor, we knew that the biggest part of the job was done, and after that Mikros has done an amazing job.

You guys seem to be king of the sharable spot, with the Evian and Canal+ films always making a huge splash online. What do you think it is that makes the work you produce inspire people to show others?

I think that when you see a good film, you want to: 1. Watch it again, and 2. Share it. People love great stories, that's been clear since we were kids!

Posted on 1st February 2013