From Boutique to Big Work: nineteentwenty Turns Three

The last three years has seen post house, nineteentwenty, grow from a humble boutique into a formidable force. The founders, Ludo Fealy and Scott Griffin accredit the growth to their unique office set up. The pair have twinned their London HQ with a sizeable working base in Bristol. Connected seamlessly, Bristol is affectionately known by the team in London as their ‘second floor’. With many post houses battling with the rising overheads in Soho and East London, Bristol has allowed the nineteentwenty team to deliver high quality, large scale creative projects that don’t have the budget for large scale London facilities. 

“Since we opened Bristol in 2014, it’s gone from strength to strength. We’ve been able to upscale our agile team with six new permanent staff members, working on really heavy-weight CG jobs.” Comments Scott. “Bristol is a wonderful creative hub in its own right and it’s great to have both the security and accessibility in London, twinned with a creative vibrant hub in the West.”

Since they turned two in 2015 the London-Bristol post house have continued to work with some of the industry’s directing heavyweights including, Nicolai Fuglsig, Guy Manwaring, Ben McGregor, Noah Harris, John Glazer, Pleix, Benito Montorio and Michael Gracey to name a few. As they ponder their growth over the past year and celebrate their third birthday, Scott and Ludo take us through their highlights.

Chemicool – Creating Neon Wonder for BP’s Orby 

Orby saw the nineteentwenty team construct the helpful ‘Orby’, a full environment, signage, and moving neon elements for the petroleum company’s Ultimate brand. 

VFX Supervisor Ludo Fealy comments, “This project called for a significant VFX element so there was plenty for us to sink our teeth into. Noah [Harris – Director] was very keen to emulate the visual sensation of light-writing – akin to that of when you wave a sparkler at night-time. We wanted to replace the harsh light that we usually associate with neon signs with the welcoming softness of long exposure, which we thought would work better for this environment. The tone and mood of the ad was a central creative component so we were mindful of this when creating a composite for the sky.”

Having experienced nineteentwenty’s unique workflow system, Director Noah Harris says: “Working with the nineteentwenty gang is always a pleasure. It’s great to work with both London and Bristol offices. The seamless workflow between the two and their innate creativity meant a very complicated job was produced to a seriously high standard!”

The Dr Doolittle of Post – Getting the Flash ‘A-Ha Dog’ Singing

The team at nineteentwenty applied a full 3D muzzle replacement to get the furry Freddie Mercury singing. Additional 2D warping and blending ensured a convincing performance by the dog. 

 “This is a great spot and we loved bringing such a great character to life for the campaign,” Comments Scott. “With a split workflow between our London and Bristol offices, and a small agile team, we were able to turn this project around very swiftly, and we have the benefit of using Nuke Studio between the sites, which allowed us to stay on top of edits in real time. The final result is testament to the fact that even when presented with the most challenging of briefs or budgets, we can deliver photo-real solutions that hit the mark.”

Festive Effects - Opening Doors for Sky Cinema

In Sky Cinema’s first Christmas ad, following their re-brand from Sky Movies, nineteentwenty worked closely with director Noah Harris and WCRS to create a CG winter wonderland that would host an enchanted advent calendar. The intricate scenes featured in the advert were specially created using both hand-drawn and CGI animations, as well as combining new and existing footage from filmmakers across the globe.

Ludo Fealy, Co-founder and VFX supervisor at nineteentwenty, explains: “This was a great project to be a part of, but like all good briefs – this one presented some unique challenges! One long camera move is tricky in any form, but one that must seamlessly link between cameras and lenses from different movies bought a much bigger challenge. The fact that it all takes place in a fully CG environment is great, as it provides much more freedom.”

Producer Joshua Smith at BlinkInk comments: “We had two amazing teams working all hours in London and Bristol to create this magical world from scratch, and seeing it all come together over the last month has been incredible. We are blown away by the finished result and we could not have achieved this without nineteentwenty’s dedication to the project.”

Star Characters – Dreaming Up Pan Pan for Pan di Stelle

This charming Italian biscuit brand were looking for a new character to lead their Biscotto campaigns. Bristol took the helm to construct a whole new mascot for the children’s confectioner. 

Head of 3D, Chris King explains: “Our challenge was to bring the sketch to life in a way that maintained a partially 2D look but allowed the character to exist in a real world. Pan Pan isn't a 2D drawn animation like Roger Rabbit but neither is he a fully 3D character like the recent Paddington for example.