100 years after the first Olympic Games in Paris, The Mill Paris teams rekindle the flame of memories and offer an enchanting journey to the land of games: those we loved as children as well as those that bring together the greatest athletes. Five rings, five sports, and timeless mechanisms all driven by a shared passion for play and togetherness.
A french music box
Each toy tells a story, each sport becomes an adventure, and each image reflects the Paris team’s passion for detail and excellence. The sports were selected to represent a fraction of the diversity that can be found in Olympic Games disciplines based on their compatibility with the toy mechanics. In each of them, a touch of life and humor was carefully instilled. The 100m athletes’ slightly jammed mechanism forms a contradiction with the speed race they are embarked on. Unbalanced power struggles bring a playful dimension and a light tone to the film: in a Judo ring, we encounter an excitable short man and a massive, impassive fighter who ends up delivering him a knockout blow. Whilst the diver offers a moment of grace as she is suspended in the air, the situation is quickly defused by her entry into the water, and the joyous breakdancers’ joints rapidly break loose and go haywire in the last scene.
The film’s identity naturally guided the musical signature, which at first gives a soft and nostalgic feeling that is reminiscent of childhood memories and fond melodies. This custom piece was created to balance the old and the contemporary while also recalling the French Touch dynamic musical movement. A foley artist also worked on adding realism and intimacy to the toys and mechanisms shown, which helped bring them to life.
An In-House project
The time between concept writing and the start of production was very short. From the outset, the focus of the production was on modeling the toys, the true heroes of the film, closely followed by the establishment of animation and narrative mechanisms. Production started shortly after the concept was written, which allowed the drawings to be directly integrated into 3D modeling, thus facilitating the setup of shot framing and planning. 3D drafts were directly integrated into C4D, allowing the production schedule to stay tight. At the same time, the design of other elements was refined, with particular attention to colorization and texture, enabling the lighting process to begin.