Production: Passion Pictures N.Y.C
Director: Pete Candleland and Sam Mason
Postproduction: MPC
Art Director: Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn
Concept Artist: Rafael Martin
In 2013, Painting Practice worked closely with Pete Candleland, Sam Mason of Passion Pictures NY and MPC to create environmental concepts for Coca Cola’s Christmas commercial ‘Santa’s Letter. The story was split into two areas of design - Santa’s detailed and busy workshop, and the stylised vignette world of Santa’s morale tales. The inspiration for Santa’s spaces was one of clutter and chaos. We wanted to give the feeling that Santa, like everyone else, could be a little overwhelmed at Christmas. Yet the space is still warm and welcoming. All the environments were sketched out first before committing to simple 3D layouts. After the layouts were approved, previs started. For the vignette sequences the final concepts became the matte paintings, and we worked with Passion and MPC projecting the backdrop paintings and texture maps for the character work.