The message in Dairy Queen's new 'Flip a Blizzard' campaign is very straightforward: blizzards are now served upside down. 'Clap Your Feet America', is a fully animated spot launching the new campaign, and also boasts an original sing-along song scripted by Barkley US - to call on the world to get topsy-turvy with them.
Director:
Matthew Darnall
Production:
Mill+
Agency:
Barkley US
Directed by Mill+ designer Matthew Darnall, the team in Chicago designed a whole chorus of wierd and wonderful animated characters. Matt explains the great time he and the team had creating an upside down world, "A whole minute of fun character animation was really exciting brief for us. From the beginning of the spot, we wanted to jump into this world and establish the upside down rules where each character had some harebrained way of fitting into this Oreo studded land.
"The main rule was very simple: every character is upside down and every character finds a way to make it work for them! After that, the inspiration was a creative, fun, simplistic and organic process. A character had to make us laugh, whether it be in design, absurdity or animation. As long as it was charming, we would make it work.
"We were always reaching for new and unexpected ways to animate the characters. One of my favourites is the sun, he has no arms and I love how he desperately tries to get a taste of an oreo blizzard just out of reach. It presented so many animation possibilities that we just couldn't resist. There's also the bunny bouncing around on his ears. He's so cute! We kept making cycles for him that amused us, so we kept finding more places to put him. Also, the concept of a gang of four mini construction workers coordinating to flip a massive blizzard made us laugh immediately, so we knew it was worth pursuing. We had a blast animating these little guys' actions. If you look closely, you can see the grouchy truck driver slam the car as he barks at his brothers and the tall one on the scaffolding celebrates the big flip with a single snap of his suspenders!
"Towards the end of the film, the song's tempo cuts in half and almost enters ballad territory. We wanted to illustrate something that would match this synth-like moment, and when we landed on a space scene we knew it was perfect. What better way to emphasize this far out transition than by ripping open a black hole and going into another universe? Everything and everything can be topsy-turvy in space! No rules of gravity apply, so we could play around with the movement. We gave the hero a psychedelic outfit change, some sweet shades and upgraded him to a bad ass axe guitar."
This upside down philosophy makes a lot of sense. #GetUpsideDown
Agency: Barkley US
Producer: Susan Neuman
Creative Directors: Berk Wasserman, Brad Jungles
Account Director: Kylie Legree
Art Director: Graham Greene
Writer: Joe DeSalvo
Production: Mill+
Director: Matthew Darnall
Producer: Tracey Khan
Record Company: Primary Color Music - Sam Billen, Composer
VFX & Design: The Mill
VFX Producer: Tracey Khan
Design & Illustration: Brian Gossett, Matt Darnall, Adrian Navarro
3D Design: Josh Van Praag
Storyboard Artist: Adrian Navarro
Technical Lead: Josh Van Praag
Animation: Adrian Navarro, Josh Van Praag, Peter Kallstrom, Marco Giampolo, Steve Beck, Ambrose McDuffy, Anzie Yoon ji Lee