Elastic Creatives Showcase The Beauty Of Nature For Simply Orange

Sumptuous, beautiful, refreshing — these are all ways that the latest spot for Simply Orange Juice, “Say Yes To Simple,” has been described since its release. Created by Elastic Creative Director Duncan Elms and his team, the spot features a masterful blend of CG effects and live action shots that will leave you craving a glass of juice. We chatted with Duncan about how the Elastic team experimented with these elements and ultimately found the perfect balance between them.

Tell us about your approach to creating this Simply Orange Juice spot.

Duncan: It was a really nice brief that came in from the agency, Cartwright. They wanted to highlight natural elements to show how hard nature works — things like bees gathering pollen and flowers blooming. In addition to that, they wanted to feature stylized minimal shots of the product with an ikebana-style flower arrangement in the background. Lastly, they wanted shots of an orange, and they wanted to push in on those so much that they began to feel almost like abstract art, or like what you would see in a kaleidoscope. So those were the three beats we hit.

The spot opens with those shots of the orange. How did you achieve those?

Duncan: Our challenge with the orange was figuring out how to take a simple fruit and do something creative and unique with it. We knew we had to push it, but still make it look appealing and juicy and like something you want to consume. We found that sometimes when we got super tight on the pulp using CG, it would start to look alien and feel otherworldly in an unappealing way. We spent a considerable amount of time studying the details of the orange, and the way that light shines through the flesh of the fruit. We played around with shining light through it and using gels that light could come through, as well as trying out close crops and different compositions. We explored using pieces of the pulp to form interesting patterns that could animate in a geometric way, and that design exploration and testing helped us and the agency hone in on where we wanted to go. Through experimentation, we found that representing the orange slice in a simple way looked the best. To get those macro shots of the orange, we put a slice of it on a glass turntable and positioned the camera above it, looking down. As the turntable rotated and that beautiful light shone through, we were able to capture all the interesting textures and vibrant details in the inner part of the orange.

Did the product shots pose similar challenges?

Duncan: For those,  it was all about showcasing the product in a minimal way, and balancing the bottle of orange juice against the flowers. We played with different backgrounds, but we ultimately chose to set it all on a black background, which we thought was the most elegant and the choice that let the product and the still life it was a part of shine. We studied various layouts for the ikebana as well, as it was important that we found the right balance of flowers and negative space to complement the contours of the bottle, highlight the product, and add beauty without overwhelming.

How did you work in CG effects throughout?

Duncan: After playing around with directions, we determined that the orange and product shots were going to look better if we did those in-camera, but knew the nature elements were going to have to be CG. The only complicating factor was the ikebana — in the product shots, we wanted to have the flexibility to make the flowers bloom, so we wanted to do those in CG.  In post we worked with a camera track and added in the CG flowers, which allowed us to add that blooming effect. 

We also didn't want to reveal the whole product until the end of the spot, so we worked in various vignettes where we only showed select details of it, like the curve of the neck — we really took our time celebrating the beauty of the bottle. We achieved this through live action shots, doing slow push-ins on various parts of the product. As the spot develops, we reveal more of the product, and as we're doing that, we're also getting that CG action of the flowers blooming. 

We went really macro with the nature aspects, for instance the shots of the bee show a lot of tiny details. Those nature shots are all about movement — like flowers blooming, sapling sprouting, bees and butterflies in flight — and they not only tell the story, but add to the cinematic quality of the spot.

What was the most challenging part of the process?

Duncan: The biggest challenge was getting the balance right. We wanted it to be really synergistic, so we were always making sure that we had an even mix of live action shots and CG. Between product shots, nature shots, and macro shots, we wanted to give them all their equal share and make it so that they seamlessly flowed together. 

What is your favorite part of the spot?

Duncan: I really like the simplicity and the timeless beauty of the product shots. We did a juice pour that we captured in high frame rates to get a slow motion effect, and there's something really beautiful about the way it flows, especially combined with the flowers blooming in the background. The overall impact is very elegant and artistic, and I’m happy with the way we were able to capture that with a mix of techniques. We also did quite a bit of work to lay out the perfect final still-life shot, and I think that hard work paid off. 

Watch “Say Yes To Simple” below.

CREDITS

Client: Simply Beverages

Agency: Cartwright

Design Studio: Elastic
Creative Director: Duncan Elms
Editor: Javier Gonzalez, Rachel Fowler
3D Designers: Tony Zagoraios, Vaso Evangelopoulou, Elena Izanami, Renato Marques, Lee Buckley, David Hyatt, Min Shi
3D Animators: Lee Buckley, Alex Silver, Marios Tsaousis, Pantelis Tsiachri, Argyris Nochos
Character Animation: Bryan Cox
Dynamics: Miguel Salek, Jun Kim, Phi Pinyosophon
Modeling: Joe Panigua, Jose Limon
Color Pipeline TD: Andrew Young
Sr. Producer: Michael Ross
Production Coordinator: Angela Shin
Head of Production: Paul Makowski
Executive Producer: Kate Berry
Managing Director: Eve Kornblum

Live Action Production: Her Studio
Director: Rikky Fernandes

VFX: a52
VFX Supervisor: Andy Wilkoff
CG Supervisor: Lee Buckley
Lead Flame Artist: Stefan Gaillot
Flame Artists: Michael Vaglienty, Rod Basham
Online Artists: Matthew Monteleone, John Valle, Chris Riley
Tracking: Mike Bettinardi, Joe Chiechi
Producer: Michael Ross
Head of Production: Drew Rissman
Executive Producers: Patrick Nugent & Kim Christensen
Managing Director: Eve Kornblum
Color: Primary
Colorist: Ale Amato
Color Assistant: David Oh
Producer: Alex Zhao
Executive Producer: Christina Roldan