New Shell Campaign from JWT London and Stardust studios

Over the past eight weeks, a multifaceted integrated campaign for Shell from JWT London named "Get the most out of every drop," has launched within many countries in Europe and Asia, aimed at demonstrating the benefits of Shell's new Fuel Save products. Key to campaign efforts within each country are a set of artistic, regionally customized broadcast spots created by the New York office of U.S. creative production company Stardust Studios (www.stardust.tv) in concert with JWT London's creative team, which consists of global creative director Jaspar Shelbourne, art directors Andy Huntindon and Martin Smith, head of broadcast Dean Baker and assistant producer Jack Bayley.

"With the benefit of hindsight I don't believe we could have selected a better production company with which to realise our vision of Shells 'make the most of every drop' campaign," Shelbourne said. "Stardust are a hugely professional outfit who can draw on an amazing breadth of in house talent. I enjoyed every minute of collaborating with them and look forward to working with them again."

Following the agency's vision, each campaign spot begins by showing a drop of fuel falling onto a piece of paper to colorfully reveal live-action vignettes conveying consumers' everyday journeys. Each spot also drives viewers to the campaign's microsite, online at www.shell.com/everydrop. The first broadcast ads, entitled "Fuel Economy," debuted in high-profile broadcast and cable outlets within targeted countries in April, and the latest ones, entitled "Performance," began airing this week.

To date, Stardust has delivered five "Fuel Economy" and six "Performance" versions of each commercial, all of which were directed by Stardust's New York-based creative director Alan Bibby, who provided details on his colleagues' craftsmanship in bringing the campaign's broadcast elements to life.

"From the very beginning, the client and agency wanted the vignettes to look as though they were created by fluid, while also wanting viewers to see and feel the real emotions of our talent in their situations," said Bibby. "To give us everything we needed to fulfill those objectives, while we were shooting the live-action vignettes on numerous locations in and around LA, we did an elements shoot in NYC to create the flowing ink that we used to create and color the footage, and seamlessly transition from one scene to the next. Although we experimented with 2D and 3D CG solutions, particles, CGI cloth, the goal of keeping the feeling real and organic led us to shoot real footage on location and combine it with footage of ink spreading across paper."

Bibby and his crew, including live-action producer Richard Kaylor and directors of photography Bryan Newman ("Fuel Economy") and Neil Shapiro ("Performance"), shot their location footage using Sony F35 and RED One digital camera packages. "Even though we knew we were going to treat the footage heavily, the client really wanted the reality of the real world to come through," said Bibby. "As a result, we needed a wide variety of shots to tell the story, all related to the driving experience and the different situations drivers find themselves in. To capture that footage, we used a process trailer to get interiors of our talent driving through the city, cranes to get overhead shots, and helicopters to get sweeping vistas. Also, a Pursuit Systems rig using a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, which had a 15-foot techno on its roof, was very helpful in capturing our car-to-car footage."

Artists in Stardust's NYC studio then tracked the selected live-action footage in 3D software, and rotoscoped out each element. "From there, a master camera was created for blocking in After Effects, and each shot was composited with the ink elements acting both as texture and as mattes to reveal the footage," Bibby added.

"This campaign has been a massive undertaking, both artistically and logistically, and collaborating with JWT London has been a great experience," Bibby concluded. "They're talented and driven people who were really committed to pushing the creative."

All spots feature music from Goldfrapp, and were mixed by Owen Griffiths of London's Jungle Studios. Stardust's credits also include executive producer Mike Eastwood, senior producer Greg Heffron, and scores of artists