SA animation studio produces CGI ad for Skoda

Commissioned by ad agency, Leagas Delaney, the three live action and computer-generated videos and six print adverts call on local and international graduates and job seekers to apply for jobs in various Skoda divisions and at the same time give applicants a reason to believe that there's scope for recognition and growth in the company.

Video plot

Each video begins with a job seeker sitting down and dreaming about their perfect role before sending off their CV, which transforms into an animated paper world and sees the applicant becoming a paper character who goes about working in different settings at Skoda.

"Our experience of having worked with South African creatives has been nothing short of excellent," says Tereza Sveráková, creative director at Leagas Delaney Praha. "Luma was recommended to us by a South African working in our team and, after seeing its portfolio, which demonstrated a variety of styles, we realised that it would be a good fit for Skoda."

With basic preplanning done in Joburg, Luma flew over to Prague to undertake preproduction with the ad agency before overseeing a two-day shoot, which saw them shoot in novel locations such as the Skoda factory and design centre. The crew shot the production line in tea breaks when the line has come to a standstill, before moving on to shoot other novelties such as a clay prototype of a car, rigged on a large oversized turntable.

Thinking conceptually

"The novelty of location, being exposed to working with top class creatives, including a fantastic local stills photographer, as well as some of the commonalities we shared as creatives, both in South Africa and Czech Republic, really made this project exciting for us and fun to work on," says Paul Meyer, executive officer for Luma.

Luma was measured on a number of different levels, aside from working within a tight budget and timeframe. Sveráková comments, "We valued the ability to think conceptually, to work easily as an integrated team with us and to absorb the significance of what we were saying and requesting - things were openly discussed and followed through upon - which, in the end, saw us being happy with the final product."

Luma is continually working at growing its international client base, with work delivered in US (Kemps), Ghana (Cowbell), Kenya (Dasani), Nigeria (Glo Speed), China (Minute Maid), and Australia (Tabcorp).

To view the campaign, go to http://vimeo.com/lumastudios/videos.