Sprout it from the rooftops, Christmas is here with Sky Movies
Sky Movies premieres its 2015 Christmas campaign on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube today. The adventure will take audiences through some of the famous movie worlds that will be on Sky Movies this Christmas: Cinderella, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Big Hero 6 and Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. After its online debut, the advert will air during The X Factor on Saturday 7 November.
Featuring the strapline ‘Step into the adventure this Christmas’, the intricate and energetic scenes featured in the advert have been specially created using both hand drawn and CGI animations, as well as combining new and existing footage from filmmakers across the globe.
The action-packed advert follows a charismatic and mischievous eight year old girl, Rosie, played by Clydee Scrimshaw and her Christmas Day lunch dilemma.
The advert opens with Rosie’s family gathered around the dinner table. Rosie is looking at her plate in disgust as a pile of sprouts sit there untouched. It becomes clear that she must clear her plate before she can watch Sky Movies with her family. Rosie jumps from her chair and escapes under the table where she discovers a whole other world. Viewers then accompany Rosie on a magical quest as she realises she can get rid of her leftover sprouts, from dashing through Cinderella’s lavish ball, teasing a triceratops in a museum and popping-up centre-stage in the middle of an Ultron battle. Rosie is transported into the heart of captivating and enchanting movie worlds meeting much-loved movie characters, including Cinderella, Baymax (Big Hero 6) and The Hulk (Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron) along the way.
Recreating scenes with precision and detail to ensure they remained true to the original films meant the set design and production was both labour and time intensive. It took a team of 532 artists, animators, crew, editors and extras, plus over 550 sprouts to bring the advert to life.
A time consuming 1,000 man hours were spent finessing the Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb set. A moving elevator was created, a rotating wall manufactured and six light fixtures had to be handmade to replicate the iconic museum corridor scene.
For Cinderella, 120 of the original ball gowns from Cinderella and tail coats were sourced from Disney’s costume department to dress the scene’s extras that includes trained dancers.
Ian Lewis, Director, Sky Movies commented: "This year’s advert builds on our popular Christmas campaign and celebrates the relationship we as families have with movies at Christmas. We wanted to catapult families, with the help of sprouts, into some of the nation’s favourite movie worlds including Big Hero 6 and Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. We hope the advert reminds viewers of the magic of movies and the family adventures available to watch on Sky Movies this Christmas.”
Clydee Scrimshaw, actress who plays ‘Rosie’, commented: “I’m so excited to be starring in the Christmas advert for Sky Movies. During filming I got to fly in a Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron scene, run through the Cinderella ballroom and see myself in animation in the style of Big Hero 6. I think Rosie is just like me, she hates sprouts and so do I. I’m really excited for the advert to be shown for the first time during The X Factor; I can’t wait to see my friend’s faces when they see me on screen as I’ve kept this a secret for months.”
Michael Spiccia, Director commented: “Having the creative freedom to work within some of the most popular movie worlds was incredibly exciting. It was a lot of fun creating this modern day fairytale.”
Simon Robinson, Agency Creative Director at WCRS commented: “Every year we work with Sky to create and storyboard an ad that’s bigger and better than the previous. Why sprouts? Well this controversial veg is always a hot topic of conversation around the dinner table at Christmas; you either love them or hate them. This insight fueled the storyboarding process as we felt it was a strong theme that many families, kids especially, could relate to.”
The four films featured in the advert will premiere on Sky Movies throughout the Christmas period on the following dates and will be available on Sky Movies on demand and via Sky Go:
- Cinderella - Fri 18th December
- Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Christmas Eve
- Big Hero 6 - Christmas Day
- Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron - Boxing Day
Sky Movies’ Christmas campaign begins with a 90 second TV advert on the November 7th and is supported by a 60 second and 40 second edit, throughout the Christmas period. The advert is part of Sky Movies’ multi-million pound Christmas campaign which encompasses TV, outdoor, print, cinema, online, promotions and mobile activity.
Sky’s Step into the Adventure Christmas campaign, created by WCRS, makes its debut here: YouTube.com/SkyMoviesOfficial. You can also check out the behind the scenes video.
Sky Movies is available to purchase for Sky TV and NOW TV customers with an on demand library of over 1,000 movies. There are also 11 dedicated movie channels. Each week up to five new movie premieres are added to the service and movie collections, including Harry Potter, are available for customers to watch whenever and wherever in the UK/Ireland via Sky Go. Sky Movies’ exclusive deals with the six biggest Hollywood studios means customers can watch the latest movies over 12 months before other online subscription services. Sky Movies continues to add new features to the TV Guide at no extra cost to the customer, making it even easier to watch the latest blockbusters and favourite movies.
Full credits:
Client: Sky Movies
Agency: WCRS
ECD: Leon Jaume
Creative Director: Simon Robinson
Creatives: Tom Madden, Morgan Hinds-Shorland
Account Handling: Torie Wilkinson, Gareth Hughes, Kath Morris
Planning: James Stevens, Angharad Thomas
Agency Producer: Sally Lipsius
Production Co: Blink
Director: Michael Spiccia
Producer: Ben Scandrett-Smith
Editor: Sam Sneade
Editing House: Speade
Post Production: Framestore
VFX supervisor: Pedro Sabrosa
Post producer: Laura Penta
Music (composer): Elliot Wheeler
Sound: Ben Leeves at Grand Central Studios
Media Agency: Mediacom
Created by WCRS and directed by established commercials and short-film director, Michael Spiccia, who has also created over TV adverts for brands including Expedia, Crown Lager, Vegemite and Cadbury Dairy Milk.
For further information, please contact:
Sky
Amy Holland
Product & Brand PR
020 7032 1498
Fever PR
Shannon Bailey
Senior Account Manager
020 7792 4486
WCRS
Emma Marsland
Managing Partner – New Business and Marketing
020 3128 6058
About Sky
Sky is Europe's leading entertainment company, serving 21 million customers across five countries: UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy. We offer the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and use innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.
Sky has annual revenues of over £11 billion and is Europe's leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of £4.9 billion. The group employs 30,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).
For more information visit Sky.com/corporate
About WCRS
WCRS is a creative agency combining over 35 years of brand building expertise with the ability to execute ideas in any channel. We are an eclectic mix of brand building specialists working seamlessly together to create ideas everywhere from TV to Twitter, online to mobile and games to name a few.
We are more than an above the line agency, a digital agency or a social media agency. We are a modern integrated creative agency, and we’re currently working hand in hand with some amazing brands including Sky, Churchill, Warbutons and B&Q – please see our website for more information and samples of the work we have produced: www.wcrs.com
WCRS is part of Engine, the UK's largest and fastest growing independent communications company, with office locations including London, New York, San Francisco and Shanghai www.theenginegroup.com.
Legal information
On Demand requires Sky TV, a compatible box and a minimum of 2Mbps broadband. A Sky TV subscription costs from £20 Per month, and a Sky Movies subscription costs £16.
Movies must be streamed via broadband, 3G and 4G and charges may apply. For more information on compatible device and software requirements please visit sky.com/skygodevices. Please note, Sky Go is not currently supported on PCs with Windows 8 or Macs with OS X Mountain Lion.
This comparison is made against online subscription services without Sky Movies, using top 100 from UK box office over 12 months. For more information, see Sky.com/blockbusters
