VFX studio a52 teamed up with longtime partner Wieden+Kennedy and director Andreas Nilsson on three TV spots as part of a Back To School campaign for Target. VFX supervisor Jesse Monsour led the a52 team on the effort, tapping the studio’s extensive brand knowledge from several past Target campaigns to inform the work, which included extensive stop motion animation.
Each spot features a teacher’s amusing performance about Target’s back-to-school offerings as a52’s effects crawl seamlessly over the screen. A music teacher performs a song about backpacks and denim as jeans and bags meld into the classroom’s backdrop. An English teacher rocks out with her students about notebooks and pencils on a glimmering, confetti-laced stage covered with instruments made of school supplies. A science teacher raps about hair gel and binders in a magic lab filled with colorful chemical explosions and pencil trees emerging from pots.
The studio worked closely with the agency throughout the production process, continuously generating ideas and tweaking concepts as the shoot progressed. For example, in “Music Teacher,” what was originally envisioned as jeans erupting in a sort of kaleidoscopic montage became a comped-up version of denim cascading down the wall using stop motion effects.
“We can adapt to the needs of any project,” a52 EP Jennifer Sofio Hall said. “Jesse and the rest of our crew did a great job producing top-quality work that flawlessly complements Furlined‘s live-action production.”
