leaf guard | leaf attack

production

What is it?

This is a TV and digital commercial for Leaf Guard, a gutter company located in North Carolina with locations in different cities of the US.

This one of those projects where we got to work from idea to final delivery, and it was really fun! Our friends at McClatchy contacted us because they were working on a pitch for Leaf Guard. The creative team at McClatchy already had really great ideas, but they told us: “hey, but if you guys come up with something different please send it to us. We would love to see what could you come up”. After they gave us the creative brief, we started to work on ideas and our director David Navarro came up with some really fun concepts, including this one about a leaf army ready to attack a house gutters’. The creative team loved the idea and pitched it to Leaf Guard, who later approved it for its commercial ad.

Then we worked on the director’s proposal, production shoot and the whole post-production, including the 3D character creation and definitely that was the most challenging thing about the spot. How we could create these believable characters without breaking the bank and staying on budget? After looking for a lot of references and doing multiple tests, we decided to create this leaf army using a mix of real footage and 3D graphics. We shoot the real leafs on location using threads and craft elements, to then add them mouths, eyes and eyebrows in 3D. That mix was the perfect to make these characters feel real and with a lot of expressions and movement.

Who else was involved?

We worked really closely with McClatchy’s creative director, Carolina Esbaile, and its producer, Ryan Timms.

Since the shoot had to be in North Carolina, Ryan was in charge of locally support us with the production coordination and logistics. Our director, David Navarro, and our director of photography, Rodrigo Torres, traveled to Charlotte for the shoot.

The post-production of the spot was completely handled in-house by our team, who where in charge of the editing, the creation of the leaf characters, the 2D/3D characters, the color correction, the sound design and audio mix.

What was the result?

The result is a really different and funny commercial, that immediately put a smile on your face. Also the agency, McClatchy, and the client, Leaf Guard, are really happy about the results and so are we!