Cirkus Lays The Tracks For Airbnb
For the travel brand's latest commercial, New Zealand animation company Cirkus created a tangible, tactile journey through the Airbnb experience.
The concept of Airbnb is a simple one – rent someone's spare room / vacant house in a friendly and cost-effective manner. Despite the technological bells-and-whistles that actually make it possible, the back-to-basics concept of making use of available space is one that appeals to travellers who thrive on authenticity. It's totally fitting, therefore, that for their latest commercial, the brand utilised the talents of New Zealand's terrific animation company Cirkus to create a tangible, tactile journey through the Airbnb experience - 'Full Story'.
Tasked by TBWA and Sixtoes Singapore, directors Christian Greet and Norman Yeend, backed by a talented team, created a epic miniature 60 second train ride showcasing how Airbnb makes the world that little bit smaller.
To tick all of the boxes for Airbnb's target market, Cirkus needed to ensure that the journey would be whimsical, dreamlike, artistic and fantastic, just as travelling can be. With this aesthetic in mind, the team settled on a hand/home-made approach utilizing out-of-the-box mechanical transitions to take the viewer from one environment into the next. Fantastically, this train ride has been filmed as one long take, with everything happening in-camera without the use of any CG imagery.
We fell in love with the spot's style and ambition, so chatted to producer Marko Klijn about the project's crafty origin.
How did you get involved in the Airbnb project?
SixToes @ Singapore approached Cirkus to bid on the project and I guess our treatment to have all in camera without any CGI and use mechanical transitions to create an engaging seamless journey ticked the boxes for TBWA and Airbnb and we got the job.
Was the concept always to have it as a miniature train ride? Was it an idea you'd been looking to realise for a while?
The idea of using miniatures was part of the briefed concept that Airbnb makes the world a smaller place. It is a literal translation of that idea that was set in place right at the start of the project.
Additionally, the Creative team at TBWA came up with the idea of the train ride in a miniature environment showing all sorts of wonderful places one can visit when using Airbnb.
What were the stages in constructing the film's path? Were you given a list of 'locations' from the client / agency or were you free to unleash your imagination?
The visual journey had to reflect the voice over as per Agencies' script throughout the film. There was a lot of room to interpret those words and we were given a lot of room to play.
With the script at hand we worked on storyboarding in close liaison with Agency creative team With our concept art we laid out both fantastical landscapes as well as stand alone landscapes Using the contraptions (as per movie) really brought the x factor to the project.
Once the path was chosen, how did you choose to piece it all together? Was there a lot of R&D? Do you do a digital animatic to plot it out?
We did initially plan the do a 3D animatic – and actually prevised the rolling hills - but soon got all animators to help the team at the warehouse to physically build the set. We laid out the track and used polyboard to flash out all the environments and transition. Once we locked down the ride, we elevated the rails on purposely build tables and started creating the sets.
How long did the construction take? What was the trickiest element to get right?
5 weeks – having the contraptions added a technical challenge to make the rails line up from one environment to the next. As all contraptions were man – operated, the team has to rehearse every week – as contraptions and environments were updated – every week brought new challenges – read – derailments that needed fixing.
How did the actual shoot go? How many takes did it take? Is it all one complete shot, or are there any hidden cuts?
On the day we did 86 takes – shot 43 being the winner.
In an age of so much digital augmentation, was it nice to work on a project with such a tactile, tangible quality to it?
That's exactly why we loved it. No CGI - it's all about detail, colour and craft – and the transitions are awesomely 19th century like.
The making of film is just as interesting as the actual film on projects like this. Do you have to put extra consideration into what goes on this 'added value' content?
The project is like a kid's dream and the making of appeals to that aspect – people just love seeing stuff made the old fashioned way.
When we showed the film around, everyone wanted to know how it was made. Without the making off a lot of the effort gone in to this would be lost on the audience. So the making off was always a crucial part of the project.
Are you pleased with how the film turned out?
We are stoked with the outcome and very grateful to TBWA, Sixtoes and Airbnb they backed us all the way in the process.
On projects like this, who are the unsung heroes?
95% of the project is the actual build of the set and making it work with the transitions and for the train with the mounted camera – therefore the unsung heroes is the team who worked together on the environments 24/7. Everyone brought something unique to the table or has a cunning plan how to make something work – for instance just check out how the rails come together at the turntable or how the water disappears from the beach. This has truly brought out the kid in everyone working @ set.
What's up next for you?
Mate - we're in NZ - Summer holiday!
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