A colourful and characterful campaign showing the families of Greater Manchester all the summer fun the Bee Network can bring
Challenge
With the school summer holidays approaching TfGM wanted to run a summer campaign that showed families of Greater Manchester how they can have a great day out with the kids, and leave the car behind. The film will run across TV, cinema and a paid social campaign over the summer period. There were a few important elements to include in the film - a real family having a summer day out, real destinations reachable by the Bee Network, a sense of summer magic. We organised a complex shoot, and created a mixed media style combining film and animation that ticked all of these boxes.
The destination, and the journey
We needed to feature some specific destinations that the tram and bus routes take you to, but also wanted to show the enjoyment and excitement of the journey too. And of course, we had to include the iconic yellow trams and buses of the Bee Network.
The challenge was to plan the story so that it included the activities in a route that a family might take around Greater Manchester, but also integrated the travelling between destinations.
The joy of summer
We wanted to create a magical world of summer fun, that opens up to the family as mum taps the Bee Network app. To bring the summer vibes to life we created a cast of weird and whacky characters that interweave with the filmed footage in a playful and colourful vision of Greater Manchester in the summer.
A host of anthropomorphised animals, food and summer related items all come together to form a fantastical and colourful world of fun. Some initial sketches and early colour treatment tests here.
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_Sheet_-_abcdef_-_7c2642dfad99ad43f673e5463b32f9c954e88a5b.webp)
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_Illo1_-_abcdef_-_b13e43ac1d5a72b309712d00c55f8517b5c479e4.webp)
Brining the world to life
The team had a lot of fun bringing the little guys to life with animation. The character designs were deliberately weird and wonderful to bring that feeling of magic that exits in the summertime, where anything seems possible.
All of the Flow team were represented in the film in illustrated form too, as protein shakers, orange juice cartons, flamingos and more.
Full production
With a full production crew we facilitated a two day shoot across multiple locations to capture our cast using the Bee Network to get around, and enjoying a range of summer activities together.
It was a big logistical challenge to fit everything into a tight schedule, but it was managed with military precision and went smoothly. The unpredictable Manchester weather even played along as we got two days of glorious sunshine, exactly what we needed for a summer campaign film.
Bringing it all together
To integrate the characters and illustrated elements into the live action footage we used a variety of compositing techniques, including motion tracking the footage, stabilising the shots, creating reflections and shadows, applying track mattes and overlays, colour correcting and colour grading.
Campaign art direction
The vibrant and colourful world we created for the film provided the art direction for the wider campaign, with characters popping up in communications on a paid social campaign, billboards, bus stops and print advertising.
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_Social_1-1_-_abcdef_-_90eb78f9f68573270cfc5ffe510fa88ba83f544d.webp)
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_bus_station_poster_mockup-1-1_-_abcdef_-_1aaa81b9e17224dbdac850a43f02e7606bd71ab1.webp)
Campaign photography
Our brief also included the creation of a set of campaign stills to be used in a range of communication assets for the summer campaign. These were shot on location as part of the film shoot.
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_IMG_2_-_abcdef_-_afbe74dd028de6d1305959940b33615c51723b11.webp)
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_IMG_3_-_abcdef_-_81e7ec50b193c792287ddb7bcb2ee9d9b3c7536a.webp)
![Summer in the City](/uploads/optimised/cache/TFGM_IMG_1_-_abcdef_-_a1e12a9c5d0a6a0e5132516b39b86776d2afe182.webp)
A new direction
An exciting new direction for the TfGM brand, the mixed media style is flexible allowing you to show real people, but also have the humour and joy that animation brings. For a family-focussed summer campaign it felt like a perfect fit.
"We’re very excited to see the campaign launch, it’s a fun and vibrant film we’re all really proud of it. The Flow team were a joy to work with, they took the time to really understand what we wanted to achieve, were very collaborative, and have created something pretty special. It’s a new creative approach for us, but one we really love and hope will really resonate with our diverse audience.”
Contributors & Credits
- Flow Creative:
- Director / Creative Director: Karl Doran
- Art Director: Winston Tsang
- Storyboarding: Winston Tsang, James Lawson
- Illustrators: Winston Tsang, James Lawson
- Animators: Winston Tsang, James Lawson, James Horton, Guilherme Gomes, Rosa Kennedy, Jim Kuwamurua
- Compositor: Guilherme Gomes
- Designer: Josh Taylor
- Production Manager: Clare O'Mahoney
- Producer: Brett Speers
- Script Writer: Julian Gratton
- The Good Guys:
- Director: Ben Sutherland
- Producer: Phil Kerr, Ed Davis
- Production Manager: Tim Ellis
- Director of Photography: Shaun Atherton
- Location Manager: Darren Greene
- Focus Puller: Glenn Coulman
- Camera Assistant: Adam Sheldon
- Gaffer: Russell Greenhalgh
- Spark: Jack Wakefield
- Hair and Make-up: Katy Giles
- Still Photographer: Jon Shard
- Stills Assistant: Igor Hill
- 2nd Assistant Director: Chelsea Cowper
- Runner: Marcia Collins
- Runner: Dom Brophy
- Medic: Ibrahim Akram
- Splitter Driver: Andy Labrow
- Honeywagon Driver: Nathan Ferguson
- Chaperone: Emma Mansell
- Cast: Nimisha Barai, Pretesh Barai, Janvi Barai, Shailen Barai
- Kord Media:
- Sound Designer and Audio Mixer: Daniel Piggott
- Timeline North:
- Colourist: Neil Jones