Olbas Oil - Inflatable House
Not To Scale have just finished a project for Olbas Oil’s latest campaign. Working with Anthony Farquhar-Smith and advertising agency Bray Leino, Not To Scale have brought to life a simple but wonderfully visual script starring Olbas Oil hero, Lauren.
All bunged up on the sofa, Lauren is having one of those ‘duvet days’, when, suddenly, she is plagued by giant, mysterious balloons which swell around her, hemming her in. That is until Lauren reaches for a bottle of Olbas Oil, takes a sniff, and the balloons disappear. At last, Lauren can breathe again.
To create the perfect aesthetic, Anthony worked with illustrator, Izzy Burton. She designed two distinctive Laurens: the first one under the weather and bleary-eyed, and the second, refreshed, healthy and smiling. When we first see Lauren, we want to empathise with her and wish her better.
Anthony and the model makers, Yamination, endeavoured to keep the spirit of her drawings down to the smallest detail when creating the puppets and environment. As you can see, Izzy's initial style frame is very similar to the finished product.
Lauren's environment is distorted yet familiar. The proportions are slightly skewed and the feel of things are a little looser, as though they have been sketched.
"I like that we are never quite sure if it is actually happening or if her imagination is just running wild because of her bunged up, cloudy and cold-ridden head.”
Anthony Farquhar-Smith
The originality of the spot rests on the surreal relationship between Lauren and these giant, swelling inflatables. They serve to reflect that dreadful claustrophobic feeling and congestion that comes with a cold. Anthony decided to film the balloons in live action, and then combine them with the animation of Lauren in post-production. Although getting multiple balloons to inflate on cue and ensure they interacted with the animation was challenging at times, this had the effect of really embedding them in the scene and echoing Lauren's sense of claustrophobia.
Not To Scale is a full-service, next-generation global film and animation production company based in London, New York, Los Angeles and Amsterdam.
Next-generation because we can scale up or down to work remotely with our directors and our preferred crew wherever that is in the world, taking advantage of time zones to effectively deliver high quality work to global clients.
Next-generation, also because we have always been an equal opportunities employer that supports diversity and inclusion for all minorities and an ethically minded studio, that, where able to, uses renewable energy sources.