Old Navy Funnovations Inc!

[singlepic id=594 w=320 h=240 float=]   Well well well, Its been almost a year since I worked on these Old Navy spots and so it’s probably ok to talk about them now.  For those of you who don’t watch TV (the only excuse you might have for not seeing these ubiquitous commercials), these Old Navy commercials were for their early spring sale offerings and they are, as you might expect, kinda kooky!  As all good Old Navy commercials are.  What’s interesting about this project is that, with 5 spots being shot and worked on simultaneously, the line between pre-production (where my storyboards are made) and  production (when they actually shoot the commercial) started to blur.  It happens occasionally, but it’s not ideal, since its kind of like planning the battle while you are fighting it!  More on that later. I started work on these storyboards sometime during Xmas season in 2011.  I remember working (while sick with a cold!) on roughs for these on Xmas day.  I’m sure my dedication was appreciated but in the end almost all of that early work went into the trash can.  While this was the biggest job of my career, it was also the most stressful.  There are always outside factors that necessitate storyboard revisions, but the most damaging factor is the script change, and this job had many script changes, making it very hard to show passion for my work.  I love to make sure my boards are lookin’ good, but if you know the boards are likely going to be changed the next day, what’s the point?  Pride, of course!  But it really only goes so far before you have to start just cranking them out.  Hence, you may notice, that some of these frames don’t have my usual finesse to them.  The other major factor with that was our telescoping production schedule- everything was due yesterday. It got to the point that pre-production for one spot had abutted with the production on another spot. Meaning while we were planning and storyboarding the next spot, the directors were at the studio shooting the spot previous!  So we production artists had to move onto the set itself and make our own little workstations so that we could be near the directors while they were absolutely too busy to give us more that a few minutes each day.  Very stressful, because communication is so important, and there was very little to be had.  But we persevered and relied on our experience and instincts and we did a great job in the end!  Its funny how you can look back fondly on a job that, at the time, drove you bonkers! Here’s a bunch of photos I took from the set: [nggallery id=28]   And here’s the boards for each spot, and to finish off, at the bottom is a link to where you can find all the final videos. Enjoy! Shape Chute[slideshow id=27] New T Machine[slideshow id=26] Jeanvestment[slideshow id=24] Dealert[slideshow id=23] Bee Bots[slideshow id=22] And here’s a link to the final vids: http://www.brandnewschool.com/Projects/LiveAction/FunnovationsInc