To draw visitors to the African Savanna Exhibit at the Metro Toronto Zoo, TBWA Chiat/Day creatives were charged with conveying an immersing experience, a concept taken quite literally in the production of ‘Hippos,’ which captured a Silver award in the entertainment promotion category at the New York Festivals.

The ad ran as part of a campaign to support an exhibit which promised to capture the essence of a visit to the wilds of Africa. The spot was created by TBWA Chiat/Day writer Paul Evans and art director Daniel Vendramin and directed by Howard Alstad out of Avion Films.

The creative mandate for the spots was to go beyond persuading people to simply come and visit an evolutionary peculiarity like a pigment-challenged lion or a naked mole.

‘The exhibit made it look like you were in the African savanna; the idea was it was the next best thing to being there,’ says Vendramin. ‘This was more of an experience, and therefore it was harder to communicate.’

The creative team therefore established ‘It will affect you’ as the tag line and the central idea to convey the all-encompassing nature of the exhibit. Illustrating that point were three spots, each demonstrating vivid examples of how visitors got into the African savanna experience.

In ‘Hippos,’ the simple visuals have one hippo head materializing, Martin Sheen-like from under a pool of water in what looks to be a natural habitat, and then another emerges close by. When a third head appears it is discovered to be not another hippo but a somewhat hippo-like human, obviously someone deeply affected by the savanna experience.

Since no amount of hippo wrangling would likely make it possible to safely choreograph the close-quarters synchro routine between an actor and the notoriously ill-tempered beasts, a more appropriate production path was taken, which began with finding the perfect stock footage of the pair of bobbing hippos.

Alstad located the footage that had the exact timing and spacing of the hippos to allow the actor to be convincingly composited in later. With dop Simon Mestel, Alstad shot the actor in a tank, carefully matching the lensing and positioning to the stock shot. The human hippo had to convey the appropriate reaction and timing for his interaction with the hippos, which, together with the translucence of the water provided a challenge for matching the live-action and stock footage.

Another challenge was keeping the waterlogged actor from drowning, apparently.

Chameleon’s Andy Attalai edited the spot, which was taken to toybox for compositing and color correction. Colorist Gary Chuntz put the spot through the shop’s Spirit so that the illumination and color of both components of the spot matched. The spot was then composited by Jeff Campbell on Inferno, marrying the two elements so that the actor emerged at the right time and place, with added effects like rippling water where he appears.

Creative director on ‘Hippos’ was Duncan Bruce and agency producer was Carmelle Prud’Homme. The Einstein Bros. created the music and sound was recorded at D.A.V.E. Audio.