Directors Lucia Aniello and Anna Mantzaris blended live-action and stop-motion seamlessly. Award-winning DP James Laxton captured live-action scenes, while UK DP Donna Wade handled stop-motion. A first for a production of this scale, we shot stop-motion entirely on iPhone, and adapted DragonFrame software UI. Despite this, we manually adjusted color, exposure, and VFX for thousands of frames.

The world is going through a severe empathy crisis. Decreased social interaction, obsessing over our own struggles, doomsday scrolling, it all breeds hopelessness and apathy - why bother trying to understand what others are going through when everyone is hurting in some way?

Creativity has long been the bridge to understanding and empathizing with others. As a brand that believes creativity has the ability to improve our lives, Apple aimed to give the world a nudge in the right direction.

What better time than the holiday for a reminder to draw that bridge to understanding the people in our lives? With just an iPhone in our pocket, can we see the world through a new lens and invite others in?

In this film, told in both live-action and stop-motion, we follow the daily struggles of a scrappy young animator as she processes her world through her craft of animation. In several tit-for-tat moments, we watch as her disgruntled boss makes her life miserable, and she in turn, makes her puppet’s life miserable. It’s not until her boss gives her a holiday gift and she sees him out in the world alone and sad that her image of him begins to crack and she begins to see him as just another person dealing with his own issues. After this pivotal moment, she decides to change her story and make things right, both in her animation and in the real world.

The brief was to create a heartfelt holiday campaign that moved the world, and gave expression to Apple’s long-held core company value of “the power of creativity to improve our lives.” In an increasingly fragmented world, where individuals lack empathy, how can creativity allow us to to see others for who they truly are? Our goal was to show how seeing others through a new lens can change how we see the world and others.

Just before Thanksgiving, the brand released our emotional film showcasing how iPhone, Mac, and ingenuity foster unexpected connections. The campaign was built to scale in a new way for Apple by leveraging owned and talent channels, adding an additional 4M+ organic views for the campaign.

In our first act, we open inside a fully realized stop-

motion animated world. George, an older man, is walking

down the street, storefronts are dressed for the holidays.

Snowflakes cling to the corner of windows. To illustrate

his Scrooge-ness, he passes by a Santa ringing a bell.

George doesn’t see Santa’s charity pot that stands on

the ground, and kicks it so it rolls away and the money

falls out. He bends down, picks up some coins -- is he

helping? -- and instead puts them in his pocket, and

continues to walk.

This ignites a series of bad holiday luck for dear George.

Almost as a response from the universe, a gust of wind

blows his glasses & hat off. Then, a bigger gust blows

his jacket and pants off! As this happens next to a bus

stop, a woman who is waiting for the bus enters the

frame while George is laying on the ground. The woman

doesn’t notice him at first, but then looks over at him.

George stands up again, a little bit dazed. Behind him a

snow plow enters, overfilled with snow that is tipping

over, ready to fall. The woman looks at the snow plow

and takes a step away. The snow falls over and cover

George in a big pile of snow, once again he is laying on

the street, now unable to get up. The woman looks at

George but doesn’t help. A giant hand comes in and

adjust the pants flying in the wind.

And, suddenly, we see a human hand reach into frame,

adjusting the pants flying by ever-so-slightly.

-

We cut wide to reveal an iPhone screen framing up the

shot of tiny miserable George on the street. Adjustments

completed, we see the phone’s owner tap the screen to

pull George into focus and then capture a still.

Cutting to a reverse shot, we meet our 20-something

protagonist, Casey, deep in concentration in her

apartment studio. Art supplies surround her. The place is

cute and sweet but not very big. Early morning light

streams through the windows.

-

She taps her phone again, taking a still, when a

notification pops up over her camera. If she doesn’t hop

to it, she’ll miss her bus!

-

We follow Casey as he speed walks to her bus stop,

giving us glimpses of holiday decorations in shop

windows, of ribbon tied to streetlights, all the charm of

the holidays in London.

-

As we cut into Casey’s office, we meet her boss, George.

As he stands in the doorway, we see his entire body and

outfit and instantly make the connection to his puppet.

As he approaches, Casey realizes she still has her hat on

and quickly takes it off. He clocks this, as it gives away

her lateness, and lets out an irritated ‘humph.’ He gives

an overt glance at the clock on the wall before

wandering off. Casey answers back with an eyeroll – and

we realize why she’s been dealing his puppet a bout of

bad luck.

-

It’s now night, as we return to Casey in her home studio

busily editing her animated film with her MacBook Air.

We watch as miniature George trips and falls face-first

into a big slushy puddle. Casey uses her finger on the

MacBook trackpad to scrub back and forth, forcing

George to relive his embarrassment. We spy a tiny smile

on Casey’s face.

-

In several quick tit for tat moments, we cut between the

real world, where Casey’s boss makes her life miserable,

and the animated world, where she makes felt George’s

world miserable in return.

-

In the real world, we cut to Casey standing in her boss’

doorway, waiting to ask a question. He holds up a

dismissive finger, phone to his ear on a call – which she

takes to mean she should wait just a minute — until he

also rises from his desk and shuts the door in her face.

-

Felt George gets hit by a snowball in his face.

-

In the real world, George doesn’t hold the elevator door

for her.

-

George is decorating his flat with Christmas lights. He

stands on a chair and puts in the electricity socket. A

strong sparkle and George’s shirt catches fire, he falls

down and lays there, looking at the ceiling and doesn’t

bother to get up. His hair also starts to burn.

-

In the real world, George drops a massive stack of

papers on Casey’s desk. Everyone else has gone home

for the day. Maybe we even see him grab his own coat –

he’s heading home too.

-

A car with a Christmas Tree on top, drives into George

who rolls over the car, he rolls a few laps over the car, a

small pause and then he rolls, almost as if he pushes

himself on purpose, another roll over the rails and into

the Thames.

_

We cut to Casey working at her desk in the real world,

when her boss George stops by, handing her a small

gift-wrapped package. He hovers awkwardly for a

moment, a proud look on his face as if he’s suddenly Mr.

Generous, and then saunters off.

-

Inside, Casey finds a pair of hand-knitted reindeer socks

with a note. It’s evident he’s made these himself – which

softens her feeling toward him in that moment. This is

our second act turn.

-

Walking to the bus stop from work that evening, Casey

notices George eating alone inside a restaurant, his

table-for-one framed by twinkling Christmas lights lining

the windowpane. He’s the only one at the restaurant

eating alone.

-

We cut back to Casey in her studio. Through the gaze of

her iPhone screen, she looks with a confused expression

at her George puppet sitting alone by a bench in the

park, walking past him is a couple walking happily hand

in hand with a wrapped gift under their arm (all live

action.)

She’s stuck... and thinking, thinking... staring, staring.

Then ‘huh,’ something comes to her. A little smile creeps

onto her face. She’s got it.

She jumps up, excited to finish her film, and grabs her

reindeer socks, beginning to unwind them. This is where

we slip into the third act of our story as she determines

to change their relationship.

-

Back in stop-motion, we see George come home into his

living room. He is tired and sad. In his living room there is

now a christmas tree. He looks over and under the tree is

a box, he walks up to it. The box opens by a dog popping

out from it. Out jumps the dog that Casey has created

from the gift of socks she got from him. George is

surprised, the dog tries to lick his face, he pets it and

giggles.

-

We see George walking his new dog in the park. He

comes with a big handful of coins to Santa, as Sants

sees him he takes a step back, a bit defensive as he

remembers George from the last time. George throws all

the coins into the pot and then he takes Santa's bell and

starts ringing it frenetically and happy.

Further in the park Georges dog is playing with two other

dogs, the owners stands around them, and George says

hi to one of the owners.

It’s snowing. He then looks up, over his shoulder, and

looks straight into the camera, and for the first time, he

smiles.

-

Back in the real world. Casey looks down at puppet

George’s smile, frozen on her iPhone screen.

-

We then see George eating lunch in the cafeteria alone

before Casey sits down across from him. She pulls out

some tea biscuits to share. He takes one. They share a

look of camaraderie and maybe even... friendship?!

We cut wide to see the two of them begin chatting, and

perhaps some light snow begins to fall in the window

behind them.

You Make the Holidays