Your Shot: Flutter Animation Director Dom Bartolo Takes Us On A Fearless Journey

Everyone has things they have to work through and overcome. To help young women face their fears, both the agency and client were looking for a unique way to bring this intimate concept to life. In steps The Jacky Winter Group animation arm Flutter and animation director Domenico Bartolo who have helped to create a seamless and timeless film to help audiences get inside the heads of the campaign heroes to learn how they overcome fear.

Here we catch up with Domenico Bartolo to discuss his ideas and motivations behind directing the campaign.

LBB> What was your main creative inspiration behind this campaign?

Domenico Bartolo> It was clear from the moment we began discussing this project with the creative team at Clemenger that this campaign was going to be inspiring. For me, the concept of focusing on stories about real individuals overcoming their deepest fears immediately elevated the project. I knew it could be emotional, heartfelt and poetic - and in turn allow us to visually push the narrative.

We took great inspiration from Megan Washington. How could you not? To think that someone who is so profoundly gifted as a singer could be so challenged vocally; to consider an artist who's nature it is to express herself could live with such a debilitating speech impediment. It was incredibly inspiring. It's amazing - truly. Her story drove us, it pushed us and we all sincerely aspired to create something that could underscore her experience.

As with any Flutter project, our team is made up of an incredible group of artists in their own right, from illustrators to animators, designers and producers. All of whom were responsible for continually pushing this project and raising the bar - it would be remiss of me not to credit them. From the impeccable sensibilities of our artist and illustrator Andrew Archer to the wonderful talents of our animators. When you're working with such talented, hard working dedicated people your inspired daily.

LBB> What was it like working with lead talent Megan Washington?

DB> Unfortunately I wasn't involved in the interviewing or filming of Megan Washington! That was handled by Exit Films director Amy Gebhardt. However I would have loved to have met Megan if the chance had presented itself! Hi Megan if you’re reading.

My creative role as director truly began once Megan's voice over was established. Taking an early rough cut of Megan's voice over, I began developing and writing visual scripts to accompany her words. Whilst I didn't get to share a room with Megan, it was however an intimate experience. Listening and studying her words, her intonation and her tone. As you would expect, this was quite inspiring in itself.

We held sessions with our entire Flutter team together (illustrators, artists, designers, animators, directors and producers) and listened to Megan's voice over recording together - openly sharing and expressing amongst ourselves the meaning and sentiment of each of her phrases.

The thing that we all became instantly conscious of was that this was an open hearted expression by a real individual about something incredibly sensitive and personal. In acknowledging that early on, I think our team at Flutter all felt a profound sense of duty to respect Megan's emotions and convey them with as much intensity as we possibly could.

LBB> How many days did the campaign take from start to finish? Any notable challenges?

DB> The entire project was in production for approximately six weeks. There were three weeks of solid conceptual development, including writing, sketching and storyboard visualisation. Followed by another three weeks of solid animation.

In a project like this, one of the challenges we face revolves around the very notion of the subject matter. That is, fear. You can't make something about overcoming fear without in fact visiting the depths of that emotion and going to a darker place. And this of course is something which traditionally isn't well trodden territory for a brand like Libra. So in many ways, one of the greatest challenges was to remain true to the core of our story whilst carefully developing our visuals and negotiating how dark things could get.

We took considerable time writing and re-writing our creative treatment for the film. Exploring how far we could take this story and in the course of the project we developed multiple directions that exercised vastly different ranges of both visual abstraction and narrative.

We were incredibly ambitious. Aesthetically speaking, we have never embarked on creating something like this before and I must admit it was both a terrifying and exhilarating experience to make as we're forced to develop new techniques throughout the production. The project combined traditional hand drawn cell animation, 2d motion graphics, live action and 3d animation.

LBB> How closely did you work together with artist Andrew Archer? What's this collaboration process like?

DB> We worked very closely with Andrew, from the very first brainstorming sessions, through concept visualisations and into production. It was wonderfully collaborative - and everything Andrew touched consistently took my breath away.

At its heart, Flutter is all about collaboration. Our philosophy and our process is driven by a deep desire to combine the artistic flare and vision of our artists with the intelligence and technical wizardry of our directors and animators. Each time we assemble a team, it's with the explicit intent of making something that none of us could have created on our own.

LBB> Why do you think this kind of campaign has resonated so well with the target audience?

DB> I think Clemenger's idea for the campaign had great integrity. It was an exercise in empowerment not a hard sell. There was no product to push. Rather, a story to tell - a story to share. I think we're all open to stories - especially human ones about vulnerability. After all, we're all afraid from time to time - it's relatable and ultimately inspiring.

LBB> The animated TVC works with several digital videos and an online platform housing exclusive content. What has been your involvement across this?

DB> As explained above, our key role was to direct and produce the lead animated TVC for the campaign featuring Megan Washington.

LBB> What was it like working with the Clemenger BBDO Melbourne creative team?

DB> Honestly brilliant. There was so much passion from their team. I think everyone involved could tell that this was one of those special projects, one that you really relish working on. There was always an upbeat atmosphere, you just knew that it warranted excitement. And so that energy infused everything we undertook.

No one was ever afraid to voice an idea, let alone be shy about pointing out a bad one. And I think that truth and honestly in both directions made a huge difference to the dialogue we shared. There was a real concerted effort to explore and discover. I don't think we could have achieved so much without their support and faith in us.

LBB> When holding sessions with the entire Flutter team and listening to Megan's voice over recording together - what were some of the initial ideas that surfaced when it came to analysing the sentiment in her phrases?

DB> One of the initial ideas we had early on included personifying Megan's fear as her own inner child. There was a sequence we envisaged involving a young girl in a tiny row boat in the middle of a vast ocean - adrift and isolated. It was quite a vivid brooding image. We also tossed around the idea of the young girl trying to speak underwater - as she stuttered - with only bubbles of air coming from her mouth as she sank into darkness. It was quite dark.

Conversely we had a really playful surreal idea regarding Megan's sentiment about flying. We talked about the idea of storm clouds that thundered with lightening - the kind of lightening that lights up the interior of clouds. We had this visual of a human figure flying in the air - dwarfed by these giant cumulus clouds but instead of white light - each cloud was illuminated by colour.

LBB> What's the experience like of writing visual scripts to accompany someone's (rather personal) verbal words?

DB> With Megan's words it felt effortless. She's a natural poet that inspires imagery so it really made my job simple let alone enjoyable.

Find your fearless at www.iamfearless.com.au #iamfearless