Salon Alpin & Mother on Animating Apes for Greenpeace

If you didn't wipe away a tear after watching Greenpeace's incredible animated film, There's a Rang-tan in My Bedroom, you might want to check your pulse.

With Emma Thompson lending her dulcet tones as narrator, the story of a young orangutan who seeks refuge in a little girl's bedroom after being driven from her rainforest home poignantly illustrates the devastating consequences of deforestation for palm oil production - and serves as a reminder that  big brands like Nestlé, Unilever and Mondelez are still a long way off fulfilling their signed global pledges to drop dirty palm oil from their products by 2020.

While the film's emotional appeal is obvious, we wanted to find out more about the creative and craft behind the beautiful hand-drawn animations, so we caught up with Passion directors Salon Alpin and Mother's Hermeti Balarin.  

Watch the making-of film below, and read on for our exclusive Q&A.

Hermeti Balarin, partner, Mother 

Tell us a bit about the brief from the client. As Greenpeace's first ATL campaign for the mainstream market, how much pressure was there to deliver a piece of work that really cut through? 

Greenpeace came to us with an incredible brief: change how people see destructive palm oil in the UK, and galvanise them to join the cause. The client set tough targets for petition sign ups from new audiences, so we knew we had to deliver something brave enough to cut through, but with enough mass appeal to deliver the impact they wanted.

Long-term Greenpeace supporter, Emma Thompson, voices the animation - had the client already lined her up or did the decision to approach her come later on?  

Greenpeace have an enviable list of supporters, and for the film to work as hard as possible we knew we needed someone with outstanding performing talent, and the ability to draw-in and really move a broad audience. Dame Emma Thompson, one of the nation’s most beloved performers and an ardent supporter of Greenpeace, was the perfect fit. After we shared the script, she came on board as we were beginning to shape the animation with Passion and Salon Alpin.

"Animation enabled us to depict the horror of rainforest destruction, but in a way that keeps audiences engaged rather than wanting to turn away." 

Why did you decide to go down the animation route? And to tell the story from a child's perspective? 

When Rang-tan as a character was first conceived, we knew that her story would make a powerful animated narrative and led to the initial story book. Animation in film quickly emerged as the right solution to this brief, as it allowed us to paint a powerful pictureof the destruction of Rang-tan’s home. Animation enabled us to depict the horror of rainforest destruction, but in a way that keeps audiences engaged rather than wanting to turn away.

It’s also a medium which we knew could help deliver the mass engagement the brief demanded. Rang-tan being a young orangutan also invited us to tell her story from a child’s perspective, giving Greenpeace a softer and more emotive voice than many have come to expect from them, but with our animated style we were still able to deliver the bite required to make an unengaged audience sit up and take notice.

Salon Alpin, directors, Passion Animation Studios

You describe yourselves as a 'sustainable storytelling studio' - what does that mean in practice and is this what attracted you to the project? 

While it's obviously a bit of a tongue-in-cheek description, we do believe that to tell a good story it should be aligned with our basic values. This project is special to us, since it is a true story and without doubt a terrifying one. Orangutans are on the edge of existence and the battle to protect their living space will take longer than this ad campaign's lifespan.

Sustainable for us means therefore that our projects age well. The spots we produce have value long after the core campaign ends. Story, style and technique give a certain timeless essence to our work, which creates a stronger impact for Greenpeace, the orangutans and, eventually, us all.

What were your initial reactions on receiving the script? 

The script was very well written, balanced and the repeating lines of the narrator worked very well with the general idea of the film, giving it a nice structure. We loved the idea of presenting a complex problem in the style of a children's book and playing with the subtext.

"We wanted the hand-animated (cel-animated) characters to stand out to highlight the craftsmanship, [so we] didn't blend them in as much."

It was shocking to learn the truth behind palm oil production and the insane pace of deforestation. We were educated as we dug deeper into the material provided by Greenpeace. We knew that is needed a strong style that hit the fine line between reality and style abstraction. We wanted the audience to see something different from the rest but not be distracted from the message at its core.

The story was brought to life through 2D design rendered onto 3D animation. What were the main challenges of using this technique and what sort of effect were you hoping to achieve?

The scenes are carefully hand-crafted and animated using various techniques including cel, 3D, 2D and VR to bring to life the hand-drawn animation in a flow of action through immersive camera moves. The challenges were to find the right technique for each element in the film. If one technique didn't produce the desired result, we moved on to the next.

If we wanted to achieve a hand-crafted look, we set up a pipeline that reproduces the original artwork. We used all means and blend them so the audience can't notice a difference. We wanted the hand-animated (cel-animated) characters to stand out to highlight the craftsmanship, [so we] didn't blend them in as much. One of the main challenges was to use the charm of traditional 2D animation within such a narrow time frame. A fantastic team made it happen.