Thornberg & Forester Creates a Compact Flourescent Hero for “Tales of Jessie ‘Fewer’ Watts”
New York City – Multi-disciplinary creative studio Thornberg & Forester recently completed a series of animated 30-second spots for Efficiency Vermont, a nonprofit organization providing energy-saving advice to households and businesses across the state. The campaign, created through Kelliher Samets Volk (VT, MA, NY), introduces Jessie “Fewer” Watts, a compact fluorescent light bulb-as-hero character who saves the day (and energy) in a series of humorous vignettes.
T&F creative director Scott Matz used his creative cunning to invoke a visually compelling CGI Wild West environment for each spot while underscoring the green message.
“We imbued each light bulb with a unique personality, and also capitalized on the other bulbs not being as intelligent as Jessie,” says Matz. “Injecting some wry humor was also an important element. For example, in the salon episode, ‘Hector the Reflector’ phones Jessie oblivious to the fact that he is sitting right beside him. Hector is a light bulb who uses a flip phone, although he has no arms.”
Matz helmed a team of five CG specialists who created everything from scratch including the town and saloon, the steam engine train, and props such as a hobby horse and a campfire.
In action-packed Episode 19, “The Round Up,” Jessie “Fewer” Watts gets an SOS from a town bar-hopper imploring him to “come quick… a band of outdated light-sources is terrorizing the town.” The thugs turn out to be a trio of incandescent bad guys threatening the peace of the townsfolk. Jessie shows up and lassos the three thugs around their sockets and justice is served .
“Efficient Home on the Range” opens to find Jessie and his energy efficient compadres sitting around a campfire. He strums his flying-v guitar, crooning “Home on the Range,” substituting the traditional lyrics with new ones that brag about his own compactness and fluorescence. He even gloats about his ability to last for seven years. T&F’s attention to detail includes atmospheric touches such a starry night sky, floating ash from the campfire, and the humanistic expressions the compadres exchange as Jessie brags about his lasting abilities.
In “Fistful of Dollars,” a train barrels down its route heading toward what could be a damsel tied to the tracks. Jessie, his useless hobby horse pal in hand, outruns the train, arriving in the nick of time to rescue what turns out to be a wad of cash strapped to the tracks. He cuts it free and ambles off into the sunset, energy savings in hand, hobby horse loping alongside him.
“Once the scenes were created, the success of the spots relied upon enhancing the comedic timing in the edit process,” according to Matz, who along with his team, completed the project in just three weeks.
The Tales of Jessie “Fewer” Watts were created in Maya with compositing done in After Effects. The characters will be incorporated into the dedicated Efficiency Vermont website (http://www.newbulbintown.com/meetJesseWatts/) and a print campaign.
“Working with the team at Thornberg & Forester on this project was a great collaborative and creative experience,” says KSV producer Tamara Jones. “The skills and talent they brought to the project helped us to realize our creative vision in a way that continues to earn our client accolades.”
ABOUT THORNBERG & FORESTER
Founded in New York City in 2007 by partners Scott Matz, Elizabeth Kiehner and Justin Meredith, Thornberg & Forester is a creative studio, specializing in design and production, with the sole objective of generating success for clients working in the television, film, advertising and multi-media industries.
Thornberg & Forester is located at 147 West 26th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10001. The phone is 212/367-0858 and the website is www.thornbergandforester.com
ABOUT ENERGY VERMONT
VEIC is a non-profit energy services organization that promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy through a dynamic combination of activities, including delivering Vermont’s statewide energy efficiency utility (Efficiency Vermont), efficiency programs, performance contracting, and consulting on utility DSM programs (in more than 20 states since 1988).
