Carbon’s thrilling adventures with boxes and paper

The stars of “Box Mission” and “Paper Pitch”

Carbon, Whitehouse Post, and Cramer-Krasselt combined spy-thriller cool with cute-mascot warmth in a pair of spots for the Paper and Packaging Board that debuted in February.

Box Mission and Paper Pitch star a corrugated box and a ream of paper that spring to life during a home delivery and a corporate meeting.

 
Animated with smiling perfection, the mascots leap, float, zip-line, swing, hang, and fist-bump to a Mission Impossible-meets-Get Shorty kind of soundtrack.

The two 30-second TV commercials are part of a new national campaign titled, “Paper & Packaging – How Life Unfolds,” that also includes five self-directed, fully CG social media films and several print ads.

 
BOX MISSION

 

Carbon conducted several test-runs of the scenes before fully developing the characters. According to a press release, the process ultimately “helped the client and agency understand everything from range of movement and physicality to the potential for emotional expression.”

According to Jim Root, VP Creative Director at Cramer-Krasselt, it worked.

“Carbon’s characters surprised us round after round with unexpected moments of humanity,” he explains. “Even the subtlest movements communicated so clearly. We are so proud of how these characters turned out and look forward to what we can do with them next.”

 
PAPER PITCH

 

Carbon worked with Whitehouse Post — its sister company and next-door neighbor — from edit through animation, lighting, rendering, composite and color.

With parallel edits, puppeteering footage, and overlapping layers, Editor Matthew Wood “allowed everyone to understand the timing of the spots before the edits were locked and the animation began.”

As the project moved forward, Carbon’s team of animators provided updates of the characters that, according to Carbon Chicago Managing Director Phil Linturn, ultimately looked “as if (they were) captured in-camera.”

“It was immediately clear to everyone involved that these characters were not cartoons,” he says. “We were tasked with creating 100 percent believable characters that genuinely belonged in a variety of scenarios where paper and packaging naturally exist.”

 
CREDITS
Agency: Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee
   CCO: Marshall Ross
   Executive Creative Director: Chris Jacobs
   Executive Creative Director: Todd Stone
   Creative Director/Art Director: Jim Root
   Creative Director/Writer: Nick Marrazza
   Creative Director/Writer: Sandy DerHovsepian
   Design Director: Shawn Holpfer
   Associate Creative Director: Zack Schulze
   Junior Art Director: Rebecca Mader
   Producer: Cary Potterfield
   Group Account Director: Kelly Donaldson
   Account Supervisor: Leah Berg
   Senior Account Executive: Germaine Geuder
   Campaign Management Supervisor: Julia Matthews
   Group Planning Director: Scott Shulick
   Senior Digital Producer: Robin Griffin
   Senior Art Producer: Karen Kirsch
   Director of Print Production: Kelli Buchholz
   Production Artist: Meg Stoddard
   Retoucher/Production Artist: Dennis Flink
   Senior Broadcast Traffic Manager: Alinna Johnson
   Producer/Editor/Videographer: Bryan Pechacek
   Senior Editor: Cole Quamme

Music: Big Foote
   Audio post production facility: Independent Studios
   Sound Engineer: Randy Bobo

 
Contact Reel Chicago editor Dan Patton at dan@reelchicago.com.