El Tabador, the short, dark and handsome savior of cell phone customers, has returned to spread the message of Koodo Mobile to the masses of Canada. Bent Image Lab and TAXI 2 have once again brought the mischievous Mexican wrestler to life with two new adventures that spread the word of Koodo’s superior cell phone services. Both spots came from the creative minds of TAXI 2’s Tal Wagman (Copywriter) and Craig Ferguson (Art Director) and co-directed by Bent Image Lab’s Rob Shaw and Solomon Burbridge.

“We wanted to get Koodo’s message about no calling zones across, but also we wanted to pull ‘El Tab’ in some new, fun directions,” says Shaw.

 
The first spot entitled “Skydive” finds El Tabador ready to parachute out of an airplane while screaming about Koodo’s great cell service. Dressed in a jump suit and parachute, El Tabador stands in the open doorway of a plane as smoke, clouds, and earth pass behind him. Just before launching off the plane, he tells his audience that Koodo’s calling zone is Canada wide. Freefalling through the air, “El Tab” explains that Koodo’s customers won’t be charged extra for roaming or long distance. To emphasize, he opens his parachute, yells, “It doesn’t matter where I land! Oooh, like right here,” and attempts to steer towards a pretty, bikini-clad girl reclining on an inflatable mattress in a pool. Panic strikes, however, when his strap breaks and he is swept uncontrollably toward a hairy, pot-bellied, speedo-wearing man standing by the pool. Desperate to stop the inevitable, El Tabador flies in slow motion into the man’s belly, accompanied by a low, piercing “Noooooo!” from the depths of his soul.

 
“[These spots] always leave room for humor and character,” says Shaw. “Some spots try to pile a billion ideas into thirty seconds, but Koodo gives time to the main joke of the spot which means we get to really set it up.”

 
The spot mixes the live action helicopter with the CG created earth, clouds and smoke (created in After Effects). The first time out of his wrestling garb, El Tabador’s jumpsuit and parachute had to be created and then animated to show the ripples of wind blowing across the fabric. The animators were given extra face shapes of El Tabador to create the movement of wind whipping through his jowls. Cube Environment Mapping was used to create the sky environment complete with sun. The lens flares from the sun were done in Trapcode Shine and Video Co-Pilot Optical Flares. The world he lands in is all live action. Animators used reference footage of sky divers to get “El Tab’s” movements right, while the technical artists used footage of Patrick Swayze jumping off of a plane in the film Point Blank as inspiration for “El Tab’s” jump.

 
“For “Skydive”, we wanted to emphasize the freedom of not having to worry about calling zones,” says TAXI 2 Creative Director Lance Martin. “We thought, what could be more free then having El Tabador hopping out of a plane?”

 
The second spot, entitled “Booby Trap”, sets El Tabador on a map of Canada dotted with pink circles that indicate tiny calling zones. El Tabador explains that Koodo considers Canada to be one big zone, while other cell phone companies have tiny calling zones (hence the pink circles) that can “booby trap” their customers. Distracted by a tasty burrito resting on the map, “El Tab” takes a hasty step towards it and lands right in one of the tiny pink circles that is attached to a rope, disguised as a boundary line. Abruptly, “El Tab” is hoisted into the air upside down and begins swinging to and fro. “They got me!” he screams. Just as El Tabador accepts his fate, the rope snaps landing him in a painfully twisted heap on the map below.

 
“The dramatization of El Tabador getting booby trapped by the competition was a simple, tactical way to communicate there are no hidden zones with Koodo,” says Martin. “But the gang at Bent really brought the spot to life and made it both charming and fun.”

 
The spot is a mix of live action footage of the map and background plates and CG of El Tabador and the burrito he tries to devour. The rope that catches “El Tab’s” foot was created in Spline IK, which gave the animators more points to animate and control the movement of the rope. A graphic pass was rendered of the rope (to give it the appearance of a line on a map) and then a 3D pass was completed to add shadow and make it appear more rope-like. The burrito was created, shot and camera mapped onto a 3D object using 3D Studio Max and then composited into the shot. El Tabador’s skin was treated with 3D Studio Max to create a more sub-surface look to it. All the shots were tracked using SynthEyes.

 
TAXI 2 and Bent have worked together since 2009 and have produced 12 spots for Koodo featuring El Tabador.

 
“We can’t thank TAXI 2 enough for bringing this campaign to Bent,” says Bent Partner Ray Di Carlo. “El Tab’s a great character! Rob Shaw is living his boyhood dream and is doing an amazing job!”

 
“Working with Bent is great,” says Martin. “They take the animation to the next level each time, but beyond that, they are really developing a richness to this little character which gives us more freedom to tell interesting stories for the Koodo brand.”

 
Koodo “Booby Trap” began airing August 8th and “Skydive” began airing August 22nd nationwide throughout Canada.

 
The Credits

 

Client: Koodo Mobile
Title of Spot(s): Sky Dive and Booby Trap
Airdate(s): “Booby Trap” began airing August 8th and “Sky Dive” began airing August 22nd

 

Production Company: Bent Image Lab
Director: Rob Shaw and Solomon Burbridge
Exec Producer: Ray Di Carlo and Tsui Ling Toomer
Senior Producer: Kara Place
Associate Producer: Kirsten Acheson
Production Coordinators: Nate Baston, Keith Rice

 

Advertising Agency: TAXI 2
Creative Director: Lance Martin
Group Account Director: Natalie Calderon
Account Manager: Kirstin Bojanowski
Producer: Sam Benson
Art Director: Craig Ferguson
Copywriter: Tal Wagman

 

Visual Effects Company: Bent Image Lab
Technical Director: Josh Cox
CG Artists: Eric Shouer, Melik Malkasain, Max Perelman, Austin Hillebrecht, Koty Juliano, Joel Brinkerhoff
Compositors: Brian Kinkley, Orland Nutt

 

Post: Bent Image Lab
Editor: JD Dawson
Assistant Editor (if there is one): Shawn Wight

 

Additional Post Production Facilities:
Mission Control – Color Correction
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