Why These Miniature Animals Need Help Saving Their Environments
A recent insight from the IPA shows that humour, while on a continual decline in commercials in the last decade, has remained one of the most effective tools to make advertising stand out.
In line with this, GOOD Agency collaborated with BAFTA and Emmy-winning animation studio Blue Zoo to help the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) campaign for species that simply aren’t able to campaign for themselves.
‘We Campaign Because They Can’t’ is an adorable, but filled with urgency series of spots portraying miniature characters in their endangered or polluted habitats. Bees determined to save their forests, frogs protesting against river pollution and hedgehogs protecting their lands, all ultimately meet their demise in the four films. That’s why they need our help.
Inspired by Wes Anderson’s wider cinematic aesthetic, the animations’ sets are miniature and tactile, but packed with layered messaging and carefully thought out cinematography. For instance, the bees’ helmets are Vietnam helmets referring to the iconic scene from ‘Apocalypse Now - Ride of the Valkyries’.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov speaks to Blue Zoo director Dane Winn and head of short form Damian Hook to find out more about the making and meaning of this poignant project.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign and how did you initially approach it?
Damian> When we first got together with GOOD Agency, they had already come up with a series of great different creative routes. As it was very much a collaborative project, we all felt it was important to discuss the benefits of each idea and how it would work with animation. ‘We Campaign Because They Can’t’ immediately stood off the page as a great idea and was perfect for the medium.
Initially, we really focussed on scripts, trying to find a balance between making something poignant, but also humorous. We tossed dozens of ideas between GOOD and Blue Zoo until we found the four that struck this balance.
LBB> Did you always know that you wanted to film a few shorts or did you dabble with the idea of doing one longer, narrative-led film?
Damian> We were quite open at the start, but as soon as we saw the campaign tagline, ‘We campaign because they can’t’, we knew that a series of short films would be the best approach. RSPB campaigns on behalf of a wide variety of wildlife, and we wanted to showcase both this and also the variety of habitats. Similarly, as a social campaign, we felt that a series of films would provide more reach.
Above: Progress shots of the bees
LBB> What was the process of coming up with the characters like? How did you decide on the group of animals you'd depict and why?
Damian> The RSPB campaigns on a lot more species than people might expect. Their dedication to wildlife and its habitats made this a really appealing project to the studio. It was important to showcase this variety and a range of different locations to demonstrate this, but at the same time, we wanted to work with creatures that would fit into the design language.
It was important that we didn’t try to craft characters and stories that broke this language so that we could achieve a consistent set of films.
Above: Shots of the layering process
LBB> What were the animation techniques you used to achieve this look and why did you make the creative decision to use them?
Dane> We went for a miniature aesthetic because we thought the messaging would resonate with people more if the films felt more tactile. To help create this look, we made use of stepped animation so it felt more like a 12fps frame rate, common in stop-motion. We used quite a shallow depth of field, which also helped with the scope of the project and prioritizing the foreground elements. We tried to limit ourselves to only a few material types to give the films and their characters a consistent look and feel and even the sound design was intended to feel both familiar ambiently, but miniature in the specific actions.
LBB> Tell me about the character building that took place after you decided on your animals? What personalities did you want to give all of them?
Dane> It was really a case of what is the context and how do their actions describe their personalities. For the frog, who is writing a sign to try and make a stand, the personality felt like it should be a bit more quietly annoyed and grumpy. The bees are charging at the crane, so we painted them as these angry little characters who want to make a big statement. A lot was figured out in the animatic and the tone of the comedy, then when we got to the animation part, it was about trying to exaggerate those ideas and add some subtle cues in the performance.
Above: Progress shots for the frog
LBB> Why did you decide that humour was the best way to go with this campaign? Did the RSPB take lots of convincing, or were they already on board?
Dane> When the project came to us, it was clear that humour was the approach they wanted to take. Often I think a good way to engage an audience is with humour because it can then allow the space to say something important, as opposed to taking yourself too seriously and expecting people to listen. It made a lot of sense to go that way for this project because we are targeting a platform that is fast moving, you need to offer something entertaining to grab audiences before you hit them with a call to action.
LBB> How did you manage to balance humour, cuteness and seriousness in the films? Was it a difficult balance to strike?
Dane> It was tricky, but I think the guiding rule was that these characters should feel hopeless at the end. Animals are at the mercy of humans and people understand that concern, so the humour came from playing into that hopelessness. It is done in a funny way, but that failure from the characters is the whole message so as long as all jokes are centered around that, we wouldn’t lose sight of the campaign.
Above: Progress shots for the woodpecker
Above: Progress shots for the woodpecker
LBB> What was the best part of creating the campaign and why?
Damian> We loved working on this campaign for lots of reasons. It was a great collaboration and everyone who has worked in animation will know how important that is to the creative process. So, huge thanks to everyone at Blue Zoo, but also to GOOD Agency for working with us on the project and providing us with the creative freedom to work to the strengths of animation across the films.
Blue Zoo is also very passionate about using the studio’s talents to provide a positive contribution, and this project has provided us the opportunity to work on something we really hope can help raise much needed awareness for RSPB.
