Juju recently delivered two commercials for Hyundai’s year-end petrol promotion, directed by Jeremy Collins and shot by Eran Tahor of Format.

The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town wanted to make the Hyundai promotion stand out from the crowd of price-and-product competitors. Creative Group Head Andrew Lang and copywriter James Armstrong came up with a board which would test the limitations of a retail budget. Featuring a Hyundai vehicle seducing a petrol pump, both commercials required a seamless blend of live action and CG elements.

James Armstrong elaborates. “In vehicle marketing at the moment, cash back, free accessories and free petrol promotions are a dime a dozen. We wanted to get our petrol promotion to stand out in a charming and memorable way that wasn’t all hard-sell voices and price flashes, yet was still do-able within the tight constraints of a retail promotion budget. Juju was first on the list as they provided just the right balance of small hot-shop creativity and on-set professionalism and attention to detail that we needed to make this project happen.”

The boards presented juju with significant challenges, the biggest of which was the shoot itself. “On paper it looked impossible. It was a car shoot, a location shoot, a night shoot. Without even touching on the animation and postproduction, we were already way over budget” says Jeremy Collins. “We had to come up with an affordable solution that wouldn’t compromise either image quality or the narrative.”

It was decided that the best option was to shoot the vehicles in a controlled environment and composite them onto background plates. DP Eran Tahor chose to use the Canon EOS 5D Mk II. “This is the most affordable full HD camera on the market,” says Tahor. “It looks like a normal SLR camera but it can shoot full HD video and RAW files. It definitely maximizes production value and allows a far greater degree of mobility in restrictive environments.”

The background plates were shot at two separate locations over three nights and the vehicles were shot in one day at the Media Hive sound studio, using the backgrounds as reference.

The post-production and animation on both commercials took Juju’s animators just over three weeks to complete. Although both commercials are essentially identical, the differences between the Tucson and the Getz created challenges. “There were no short-cuts, “says Jeremy Collins. “We had a dark blue compact and silver SUV, shot in a studio and they had to look as if they were parked in a petrol station forecourt. We used hi-res stills of the vehicles, which looked great but we also needed some movement in the shots. In the end we went with a blend of 3D and hi-res textures.”

Headed up by Charl Collocott, the animation team made the heavy workload look easy. “It was a really enjoyable project. The biggest challenge was getting the reflections right.  And maybe the early mornings,” laughs Collocott.

James Armstrong and Andrew Lang of The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town summed up their experience.
” Working with Juju was a pleasure. They bend over backwards to get things done, and give insightful input whenever it’s needed. You’re not likely to come across a more upbeat, down-to-earth and motivated team.”