Zooppa Highlights: Something’s Awry ‘Dear Travelers…’ Creative Process

Over the last few months, the travel industry has been particularly impacted by Covid-19. Airlines are taking the necessary precautions and are making improvements to ensure the safety of all travelers and workers. An additional complicated obstacle however, is restoring the confidence of travelers and workers alike.

After we launched the UN Covid-19 Creative Brief earlier this year, Star Alliance, the world’s largest global airline alliance, approached the TLNT team to execute a new project with them. Star Alliance, OneWorld Alliance, and SkyTeam needed to create an informational video that communicated the changes and protective measures that were being implemented to protect both travelers and airline workers. 

Five creative teams were selected from our global community and were asked to create pitches for ideas on how to best communicate these new protective measures while also renewing confidence in passengers. At the end of the day, we selected the creative team at Something’s Awry Productions to execute the brief. 

The end result? A moving minute-long animated video that has been shared by airlines and people all across the globe!

Now, we get to take a deeper dive into the creative process behind the creation of “Dear Travelers…” which has already reached all corners of the world. Learn more about the video, the creative process, and the inspiration behind in our interview with Something’s Awry below!

Where did you draw inspiration for your pitch?

The aesthetic of old postcards was our main source of inspiration.  Once we hit on the idea of using postcards and “Your Journey Is Still Out There” everything came together really quickly. 

The postcards were a really powerful symbol of the joys of travelling and connecting with other people, two things we all are really looking forward to in lockdown. Plus it allowed us to make things visually exciting by showing off places around the world.

Describe your experience creating and developing your pitch?

We were contacted by Zooppa because they liked our work and suggested we should try pitching for this project. What followed was a panicked weekend of getting the pitch deck together while fending off quarantine malaise. It was all worth it in the end as everyone both inside and outside of our company loved the pitch!

Can you describe the creative process for the video?

Our Creative Director comes up with potential ideas and runs them past our Producer and Director/Lead Animator to see how feasible they are. Once they find something that they like and iron out any problems he writes the script and creates the pitch. 

This project was particularly challenging because the client wanted the spot to be emotional and uplifting but also give out a lot of technical information about safety measures. It was a fine line to walk! 

We spent a lot of time refining the paper aesthetic, building sets and props. Once the idea and designs were approved we brought in our collaborators 2Tall to create the postcard designs and BFX-CGI to help with some of the animation. 

Kris, our Director and Lead Animator then did some motion capture and finished the animation, VFX, editing, sound design and music and we were ready to go!

Some takeaways or lessons learned from this project?

We learned once again how much symbols can affect people. Making the pitch we didn’t realize just how much a simple thing like postcards can resonate as much as it did, but it’s what got us the job and made the spot work in the end.

Your favorite vs least favorite part of this project?

Our favorite part was working with the people at the airlines and Zooppa. This was our first time working with them and they were all very encouraging and collaborative throughout the whole process. 

Least favorite part was the back and forth to make sure all the details of the ad were accurate. There were a lot of discussions on specific phrasing and should this safety measure be portrayed like this etc. It’s necessary to do but it can be hard when you are constantly tweaking minutia. 

“It was great working with the Zooppa team and the Star Alliance, One World and Skyteam folks! We are looking forward to working together again soon!”

Something’s Awry

See more incredible work by Something’s Awry on their website!

Check out more awesome artwork and content created by our community in response to Covid-19 on the United Nations Covid-19 Creative Hub.

Interested in being a part of the Animation, 3D, and AR community? Let us know below!

Until Next Time,
Zooppa Community Team