Cartoon Network - Boomerang

Nice Biscuits were recently asked to provide a full service production for 46 new idents for Turner’s children's channel Boomerang. With a quick turn around we set about finding the perfect location to match the brief provided; an American locker room. When the team were given the brief they were drawn into the idea of filming the children in a real setting and comping in the infamous Cartoon Network characters. Our director and editor, Phil Hawkins, wanted to bring more depth and scale to the commercials and felt that a school gymnasium seemed appropriate for the ages of the target viewers saying “I know I would have been excited as a kid to imagine these famous cartoon characters sitting in a gym that looked like it could be in my own school.” With the old adage “never work with animals or children” we were all prepared for a potentially exhausting shoot. However, we were quickly proven wrong by the children who were professional, enthusiastic and were all great at learning their lines. Hawkins says “I love working with kids and directing a comedic performance with them. The idea of turning two kids into coaches of an animated sports team was a great idea so I jumped at the chance”. It was apparent from quite early on in the process that time would be a challenge on the shoot as we had, technically, half a day to shoot 46 idents for each set of children. Our DoP, Ed Moore, shot using Master Primes which give the commercials a lovely cinematic look. The bespoke character animation team at Cartoon Network set to work and with a tight deadline Hawkins set about cutting the many different edits. Nice Biscuits colourist Oliver Gill gave it a beautifully filmic look whilst considering the challenge of ensuring the 2D character’s sat nicely on the background plates. The job was then finished up by our VFX department who looked after the final compositing of the Cartoon Network characters.