This scene is from the GWK television commercial 'building a rocket' and Frikkie is Frank's son. Frank is a farmer. GWK is a farmer-owned company, offering the modern agribusiness sector a complete range of products and services and their TVC is very different to the general farming TVC. It is not about GWK's products; instead it is about their purpose. The result is a beautiful piece of work that resonates with consumers and one that gives the TVC a broad purpose and a broad communication appeal.
The idea of likening farming to 'building a rocket' is based on the story of a producer Frank, his son Frikkie, and his dog, Flip.
Julian Ribeiro, chief executive officer, Lowe and Partners SA, explains that GWK assist farmers around the country with everything they need to farm. "They are an innovative and visionary organisation providing cutting edge research and solutions in agriculture. GWK endeavours to be on the forefront of technology, to innovate agriculture."
Following a research project with their stakeholders, Lowe and Partners has put together ad for GWK, of which the "building a rocket" television commercial is part of.
To make the TVC, Lowe and Partners collaborated with Am I Collective, a creative agency specialising in illustration, animation and typography.
The advertisement was produced using the world's oldest animation technology, stop animation. Ryan Vermeulen, co-founder, creative director and animation director at Am I Collective, explains that stop animation is done by hand. "Static sets are built and the object is moved by hand in the set. Every time the object is moved an image is shot. Stop animation is very specialised and there are only two people in the country that do it. The reason we chose it was because not many people are doing it and so it is not seen on television very often."
The camera used to shoot the scene is controlled by a rig to ensure it is as smooth as possible. "However because the object being photographed is moved by hand the path is not precise."
A miniature farm set about the size of two large desks, comprising a farm house, a tractor, trees, farm animals and maize was built. Hundreds of stills were captured, as the pieces were moved piece by piece. Each character was also moved into various positions.
The storytelling lends itself to this genre of film production and gives it an authentic and idealistic feel. Animation is also a universal and friendly medium he adds. "It is a very contemporary medium."
Consumers do not buy things, they buy into things. Purpose-driven brands succeed. GWK is passionate about what it does, says Ribeiro. "The TVC locks onto that. It talks about why they do it, as opposed to what they do. Without it food security cannot move forward. The TVC tells the story of the nobility of the farming profession, and that is what GWK promotes."
"We wanted to do something innovative, just like GWK is innovative and not just about farming. I do not think this has been done before, at least not on this scale," adds Vermeulen.
