Sainsbury’s Christmas Avert: Mackinnon and Saunders
Mackinnon and Saunders’ latest work The Greatest Gift for Sainsbury’s is arguably the best Christmas advert around this year. It has an upbeat jingle performed by James Corden to accompany the amazing story that takes a modern twist on events surrounding Christmas with the ideology of family at its core. The story follows Dave, a busy worker in a toy factory who wants to spend time with his family at the festive season but keeps getting caught up at work, stuck at office parties or delayed buying presents. Eventually he decides to build toy versions of himself to complete these tasks for him while he spends time with the people who matter most to him, giving the greatest gift he can give this Christmas, himself.
The advert, directed by Sam Fell (ParaNorman, Flushed Away) was produced using stop frame animation and rapid prototyping, which was pioneered by studios such as Laika in recent years. This technique means that over 800 different faces were sculpted on a computer for the main character alone and then printed in colour so that the face could be replaced on the model for each shot, creating the illusion of movement. This allows the animators to get an even greater range of facial expressions which were used to their full potential in the advert to really convey the emotions of the main character Dave on his busy lead up to Christmas.
The quirky character designs and little details such as rolled uneven socks and wispy hair make the advert more appealing conveying the sense of dishevelment that Dave is experiencing in his life. Hours of time and effort have gone into making this stop frame piece and the medium only adds to the authenticity of the advert. It’s a real heart warming, relatable story many people experience elements of on the lead up to Christmas. If you want to find out more about how the advert was made you can watch the making-of video below:
On top of all this any money raised through the campaign will go towards building new accommodation at Great Ormond Street Hospital so that families can be close by while their children are unwell in case of an emergency. A fantastic advert for an even better cause!