Grey South Africa & Tennant McKay break the TVC mould

Grey South Africa & Tennant McKay break the TVC mould

Hyperlink to add: http://vimeo.com/23791890

After you’ve seen the highly detailed TVC for Anton Apps, (a leading private recruitment firm) which has been flighted on DSTV and eTV, you will never think of the company you work for in the same way. Created by full-service agency Grey South Africa and multi-disciplinary production house Tennant McKay, the ad is also Anton Apps’ first foray into the medium.

It opens with a conventional example of a company organogram, which provides, as always, a clear if mundane visual representation of the company and its resources. But, of course, not all companies are created equal. Some are real dogs. Some you wouldn’t mind getting into bed with, some will do anything to smash the competition. Then there are the Chinese dragons and other giants. The internationally awarded Hilton Tennant of Tennant McKay and his team brings these to life to show how a company will change as it faces the challenges of the business world. As the ad unfolds, it becomes clear that having the right staff is key to growth and that staffing needs change constantly. And that’s where Anton Apps come in.

“To date, the spot has garnered a flurry of interest and praise from the creative community, and our client, an international recruitment agency, is delighted with the execution and results,” said Grey Executive Creative Director, Cathy Ireland.

“The appeal of the 120-seconder is that it doesn’t feel like an ad at all, but an animated short. This demands your attention and makes it difficult for you to switch off, or tear away. Critical to its success is Hilton’s animation direction and story-telling expertise, and we’re thrilled to have collaborated with Tennant McKay on this one.”

According to Tennant, perfecting the spot threw up several challenges – creatively and technically. “Our characters not only had to look and feel like typical organograms, they had to be immediately identifiable as specific creatures, with certain personality traits. It was a bit like playing with Lego – all the characters needed to be built out of as few blocks as possible, and all the blocks needed to be proportional for each character. Sometimes designing with very strict rules & restrictions can yield the most surprisingly creative results.

“And technically, while we wanted that 2D look and feel, in order to achieve the kind of fluid, organic motion we required, we needed to animate the characters in 3D, which was technically very challenging. We needed to tell a linear story, in pretty much one long shot, with characters that move from left to right, but are constantly facing camera head-on. We achieved this by animating the characters, specifically the main character, at a ¾ angle so that it feels like he is constantly moving across frame, but is always facing us, so that his iconic organogram shape is maintained throughout the story.”

Tennant McKay Executive Producer, Robyn Jephson added: “At the end of the day, this was an exceptionally inspiring script and we felt honoured that Grey selected us to bring it to life. The entire team is extremely happy with the way the spot turned out.”

“We pride ourselves in trying not to imitate what’s been done before, and in continuously trying to find new ways of doing things. This job was no exception, and we feel especially proud that we’ve not only created something visually unique, but that we’ve also learned a few more tricks along the way,” she said.