Summary
Fabio Serves Up Fun for Old Spice Tropical Breeze
Looking ever the dreamboat who has been stealing hearts since
the '80s, Italian icon Fabio stars in Wieden + Kennedy's new
campaign for Old Spice Tropical Breeze. Like Isaiah Mustafa, the
model/actor brings a pleasing combination of good looks and humor
as a brand spokesman. But it is undoubtedly Fabio's trademark
golden locks that steal the show in "Hair," directed by W+K
Creative Director Craig Allen and with VFX from The Mill L.A.
"Fabio is an actual real-life famous person that my mom is still
very much in love with," laughs Allen. "Working with him on Old
Spice turned out to be a great opportunity to direct and we had a
blast! Also, Fabio let me go to his house and ride motorcycles. I'm
not sure which is the bigger accomplishment yet. The jury's still
out." Allen adds that it was serendipitous to direct his first TV
commercial for Old Spice, the brand whose popular and award-winning
advertising he's been instrumental in creating.
Andy Bate, our Shoot Supervisor/Lead 2D Artist, relates that
Fabio was a good sport and a lot of fun to work with. "He gave a
great performance with a 2-and-a-half foot puppeteered version of
the hair we had on set, so the hair we created had to measure up
and have personality. We needed to convey the hair was a bit of a
comedian playing the ukulele and serving Fabio a cocktail."
Not surprisingly, The Mill team used Fabio's own famous hair for
reference. "Of course his hair is not as long in reality, but we
set out to keep the natural gradient of color and thickness the
same and extend it to 30-feet long," explains Robert Sethi, Head of
3D, The Mill L.A. "When you look at hair blowing in the wind it
tends to separate out. We tried to have it blowing in heavy wind
with texture and movement, but keeping the strands together
more."
Although initially shooting the hair in camera was discussed,
The Mill team ended up simulating most of it in CG and rendering it
using an inhouse hair shader. "It was a great to be able to match
his hair's shading that close," Sethi says.
Phil Crowe, The Mill's Creative Director on the spot, concludes:
"We've been lucky enough to work with Craig as a creative director
and enjoyed seeing him ensconced comfortably in the director's
chair. As always, collaborating with Wieden on Old Spice was loads
of fun and a great team effort."
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