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100 years of Hair Gillette –Stop-motion Lesson 1

Gillette is celebrating its 100 years in the industry with their campaign “100 years of Hair” and by introducing their new razor “Gillette Body”. What no better way of celebrating this milestone than by going back in history as Gillette decided to take a stop-motion/stop-frame style of approach.
It is a refreshing way of going back through time while having subtle hint of humor it.
The ad goes through time from the early 1900s to now with the tag line “Man changes with the times. And we, we change with the man”.

Client: Gillette
Product: Gillette BODY
Director: Oh Yeah Wow
Agency: Grey/London

Here is the making of video:

How does Stop-motion work?

Now as much as this looks all fine and dandy…how does it work?
One thing for sure, it takes a lot of patience (and hair) as there is an unimaginable amount of detail that goes into a project like Gillette or any other stop-motion.

Remember that time in the middle of an algebra class when you made those flip stories with a bunch of paper…or was that just me?

Anyway, that is the basic concept behind stop-motion films and classics like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” that was made using stop-motion. It is sometimes decided to use stop motion instead of advanced CGI technology due to the fact that it is not as pricey as CGI and it has the appeal of a distinctive look. Most stop motion films are made with either puppets or Claymation but there is a large number of music videos that have used this approach like with Gotye’s “Somebody I used to know”.

Stop-motion is a type of animation process that physically makes objects look like they are moving on their own. On set nothing can be touched or moved as set pieces are glued to floor or wall as the object/objects are then moved in tiny increments between individually photographed frames. By doing this it creates an illusion of movement. When it is all edited together into a continuous sequence it plays a story. Objects with movable joints or clay figures are the common options because it is easy to reposition the object between frames.

Now I will leave you with this short and sweet stop-motion ad for 382 Moleskine Notebooks. 再見 [再见]; Zàijiàn.

Directed by Rogier Wieland
Animation: Rogier Wieland, Suus Hessling
Editing & Music: Rogier Wieland

Here is the making of video: