To build buzz and excitement ahead of the summer’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics and promote its broadcast coverage of the Games from Japan, French media giant and official broadcaster France.TV linked up with creative agency MullenLowe France to create an animated film to cut into idents called ‘Taiko Tokyo / Sumo’ as a tribute to the Land Of The Rising Sun.
MullenLowe partnered with Mikros MPC and illustrator Stéphane Levallois to create artwork and animation inspired by some of the masters of Japanese art – including Hokusai and his famous ‘Wave’.
The film, which rolled out in mid-April, follows a sumo wrestler roaming the Japanese countryside and uses nature and dreamlike landscapes to reference Olympic disciplines such as athletics, basketball, skateboarding and surfing which the character tries his hand at on his journey to the stadium.
The spearhead film and idents, which carry the tagline ‘Japan is ready for the Olympic Games. France TV is too!’, ran on the broadcasters own channels and were supported by ‘Making Of’ videos hosted across the channel and agencies’ social platforms.
The creative agency worked in close collaboration with artist Stéphane Levallois and the production team at Mikros MPC to form a unified ‘creative house’ to bring to life this 2D animation film.
“As soon as I saw the brief by MullenLowe France, I fell in love. The objective was to honor the Japanese culture, the values of the Olympics and the new disciplines that would debut at the Summer Games, such as skateboarding, mountain climbing, basketball, surf,” commented Mikros MPC Project Lead and Produce Hugues Allart. “But like all love stories, I knew it was going to be a complex production so I brought together a dream team of artists that I had already the experience of working with, so I was certain that as a team, we would pull this ‘miracle’ off.”
Director and Story-Boarder Geoffroy Barbet-Massin explained: “Throughout the project, we tried to respect the traditional codes of 18th-century Japanese prints, both from a narrative and an aesthetic standpoint. The environments and the characters are full of details, drawn with thick and bold lines, strong shapes, audacious concept designs. We have always looked for the right balance between the scenery and the sumotori and adapted the character’s line drawing according to its size in the frame, and in constant relation with the treatment of the backgrounds. That was particularly challenging as we worked in flat perspectives, without any vanishing point, which limited the camera movements to left to right, or up to down but also created constraints to bring a character from background to front. We also inserted some text cartouches that play the role of shot titles and we also applied a specific finishing on the image so that we could render the style of aged paper. All our choices, whether creative or technical, were driven by our care to develop a project that would mix a highly stylised aesthetic and storytelling.”
The ‘Taiko Tokyo’ campaign was created for France.TV by a team at agency MullenLowe France which included Agency Managers Philippe Adenot and Charlie Bouchet, Creative Directors Antoine Colin and Jordan Lemarchand, Copywriters Antoine Colin, Philippe Lopez and Olivier Desmettre, Art Directors Jordan Lemarchand and Philippe Lopez.
Image and production was handled by Mikros MPC with Illustrator Stéphane Levallois and Artistic Advisor Shaun Severi with Producer Hugues Allart and Delphine Rodet, Director/Art Director Geoffrey Barbet-Massin, VFX Producers Stéphanie Mollet, Marie-Cécile Juglair and Benjamin Cathala, VFX Supervisor Vincent Venchiarutti, Designer Alix Penon, Lead Animator Antoine Antin, Animators Mathias Lachal, Lucile Dufau, Sandrine Han Jin Kuang, Motion Designers Caroline Mistral and Yohann Leroy, plus Planner Anabel Akerboom.
Music was handled by Chez Jean with Composers Jean Dindinaud and Olivier Le Solliec.
Comment
At Activative we expect to see a tidal wave of work inspired by traditional Japanese art, manga and anime-led ahead of the Tokyo as the pandemic has restricted a significant number of live action, on-location shoots in the host country.
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games will be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 – Covid permitting.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.