Taking flight over the u.s. airwaves in early June, Spin Productions’ spot for Midwest Express Airlines features hand-drawn doodles coming to life.

The 30-second spot was shot on a budget of under $100,000 and was the first collaboration between Toronto’s Spin and Chicago agency Bender Browning Dolby & Sanderson.

According to Spin producer Lisa Batke, the shop is working with more and more American clients and 30% of their business now comes out of the u.s.

While in general American clients mean more money and bigger budgets, Batke says this project was not about money but about the opportunity to build a relationship with a new agency.

The commercial itself is a combination of a live-action man and his animated, magical drawings of ‘the perfect airline.’

In a whimsical and stylized manner the man draws a plate of airline food, big comfortable seats and a flight attendant.

‘As the pictures were animated a color wash would come on and then the transition to the live action gave it the appearance of coming to life,’ says Batke.

In the last scene, the camera pulls away to reveal that the man doing the doodling is no longer at his desk but has drawn himself into the airplane.

To create the illusion of an actual Midwest aircraft, creative director Joseph Sherman imported a section of the interior of one of the airline’s planes.

‘We set him [the doodling talent] up and took a Mitsubishi printout,’ says Sherman. ‘I then did the drawing based on that so that where he was placed was accurate.’

Once the drawing was complete, Sherman removed some of the lines and had the actor draw them back in on camera for Avion director George Morita to capture on film.

This was the first project of its kind for Sherman, who says the animation itself was simple but the design and style presented him with more of a challenge.

‘The agency was sensitive about not having it look too cartoony, they wanted there to be a sophisticated style to serve the adult market,’ says Sherman.

‘It was a bit of a process going back and forth with the creative team in Chicago, getting the style down and getting just enough movement so that it was alive.’

Henry artist Marjorie Knight composited the hand and created the effects, finishing off the six-week project, while Chameleon’s Ross Briggs handled post. Avion producer was Jennifer Base.