The first ever John Lewis Insurance ad uses stop motion animation to bring to life the possessions of a family home gathering on the lawn for a family photo, ending with the line “If it matters to you, it matters to us”.

The animation is shot with real objects in camera using stop motion with a budget of approximately £1.1 Million. We shot using two houses in Surrey. We tented them off using scaffolding and drapes. They then became a studio environment so we had control of lighting and weather. The logistics of shooting in four simultaneous areas soon became apparent.

The main challenge was that every item had its own 'personality'. Two weeks was spent - working out how a toy robot walks, how books fly off of shelves, how beanbags bounce or a bath walks down stairs. We then worked with ‘riggers’, wiring, supporting and gluing so these objects could move in the most characterful way. A crew of 60 people including 15 animators then spent three weeks painstakingly moving every item.

The animators work on large features and said that they had never moved so many items at once. Many shots had hundreds of moveable items, but the garden shot had over 2000 items.

Just to add more complexity, some of the shots also had to contain people who had to interact with the animation. Live action from the cast was shot on film and was used as plates.

This choreography had to work with multiple cameras in most scenes. These passes were placed together in post to create the sequences. Finally wires, shadows and reflections were painted out. Sound was also specifically created for each item. This sits below the soundtrack and which gives a beautiful reality.