Sabra Hummus "Snacks"

DIRECTOR'S SUPERCUT

A truly exciting and fun opportunity. We were given the task of creating characters that not only looked unique but exhibited distinctive personalities in a luxurious photographic environment. This is a rare mix of style and design, resulting in a fun yet challenging creative process. The element of comedy acting made the project even more engaging — in fact, we had to carefully tone down the comedic aspects to help Sabra communicate their branding message without distraction. A very difficult needle to thread, balancing humor with brand identity.

I was mainly focused on the comedy, characterization, acting, and animation to execute that vision.

FINISHED STILLS

LOCATION SHOOT

We shot the three room settings (kitchen, living room, office) in a soundstage in Montreal, using a translight backdrop of the room, with a table top setup in the camera foreground. Using a tight depth of field helped create a sense of atmosphere and realism that most contemporary food photography thrives on. And there was lots and lots of food styling.

STOP MOTION CHARACTERS

We then shot the bodies of each food character in stop motion at Screen Novelties in LA. Matching the lighting from the live action plates, on a blue screen, allowed us to drop them into the scene with the flexibility to position and scale as needed.

Our result to this point was already promising.

CG FACES AND LIMBS

Adding the faces and limbs was done in CG, which was a challenge in itself to base the animation off what was started in stop motion. How to enhance the intention of what a stop motion artist started, while also bringing new life and ideas to character within that context. I found that mimicking the stop motion movement with my body while acting with my face and limbs was the best way to direct the animators to hit the right tone.

It was a fun and challenging process, resulting in a unique and rewarding final product.