The enchantment of the holidays comes alive in Bent Image Lab’s mixed media spot for Raley’s. From creative agency Ivie & Associates and production companies Saxon Productions and Bent Image Lab “Tis the Season” is about the spirit of the holidays, the excitement of a good idea and the people who brought it all together.

Conceived by Ivie Creative Director Anthony Woolridge and directed by Robert Saxon of Saxon Productions and David Daniels of Bent Image Lab the spot is a labor of love for all those involved. “It is a very collaborative process,” says Debi Amon, Senior Director of Client Services at Ivie. “A lot of people have put a lot of time and effort behind it.”

“Tis the Season” features a shooting star transforming the soul of a Raley’s store for the holidays. Accompanied by the rhythmic beat of “Sugar Plum Fairy”, the light zips from one place to the next illuminating everything it touches. The magical beam brings the store to life multiplying hams, filling the market with decorations, holiday meal accoutrements, desserts, and boxing up a turkey with all the fixings.  A watermelon bowl fills with beautiful fruits such as grapes, oranges, strawberries, blueberries and kiwi then multiplies and turns into ornaments that are hung on a Christmas tree.  A red ribbon curls around the Christmas tree as various ornaments appear and a shining star topper adorns its top. The star radiates an intense warm glow, filling the whole store with light as Raley’s message plays “While you’re getting ready for the holidays, we’re getting ready for you. Tis the season, for food, for family for you.” Outside the glimmering store the light zooms past the Raley’s sign, dissolving it in its glow and shooting off into the star filled sky.

The spot debuted in Raley’s regional markets (California and Nevada) on Nov. 7^th and overnight Raley’s 135 stores transformed into “holiday” markets.

“We wanted the spot to be warm and genuine but different from every other grocery,” says Mike Allison, Creative Manager Merchandising for Raley’s.

“Tis the Season” began as one of 8 to 10 different concepts that Ivie created for Raley’s.  “It felt like ‘Tis the Season’ was the one that hit it right,” says Woolridge. “We felt it. We all believed it.” David Palmer VP of Marketing and Consumer Relationships at Raley’s agrees, “When I listened to this and saw the initial storyboard I had a tingly feeling. It was the magic.”

With the concept approved the team launched into production mode. Ivie & Associates hired Robert Saxon of Saxon Productions to produce the spot. Saxon bid the animation elements out and Bent won the job. “This was a very short schedule; literally 8 days after we were awarded we were shooting it,” says Daniels. A store in Petaluma, CA was set up for the live action plates which took an entire night to shoot. The Raley’s team pulled together the needed elements for the spot in a matter of days, preparing hams and turkeys for the food shoot and shipping poinsettias to the store when they were out of season. “People were up all night baking all the treats,” says Alyssa Lulie Advertising Manager at Raley’s. “Everyone believed in the spot and thought that it was going to be awesome, but we had to turn it around fast!”

Bent Animation Director David Daniels participated in the live action shoot, working closely with Director Robert Saxon. “We shot a plate and spent 10 minutes panning 5k’s and 10k’s around the store in order to get realistic lighting effects,” says Daniels. “So when the light spirit is moving around the store it is actually casting real light and shadow effects on every item in the store in a realistic way.”

The next step involved shooting the food and animating the stop motion components back at Bent Image Lab in Portland. Animator Javan Ivey animated the stop motion side dishes around the turkey, decorations on the Christmas tree, the tower of cans on the aisle end cap and the rotating stop motion watermelon/fruit basket.

The rest of the spot is a combination of live action and CG elements. The turkey and its box are live action but are surrounded by boxes created in CG. The CG hams sit cozily in a live action freezer case. The CG cupcakes rest upon a live action table and are surrounded by practical desserts.  The stop motion fruit morphs into a CG ornament on the tree. The light sprite was created in After Effects using the plug-in Trapcode Particular. Using Trapcode Shine and Trapcode Starglow to create the rays of light and shimmering effects on the glowing objects, compositors Evan Thomas Phillips, John Foreman and a compositing team assembled all the elements together.

“The CG, motion graphics, stop motion, live action, mixed media combination is always seamlessly moving from one to the next, to the next,” says Daniels. “It brings all the strengths of Bent together in the best ways.”

With four companies involved in such a passion project the most unique part were the relationships that formed along the way. “It has been a phenomenal experience,” says Saxon. “Bent’s responsiveness and understanding of what was required creatively was perfectly matched to mine. We are both obsessed with the details.”

“This was unlike any TV production Ivie has done,” says Ivie Director Sandra Ogden. “Live action, stop motion, CG. We could not have done that without David there.”

Overall Saxon Productions, Ivie and Assoicates and especially Raley’s were very pleased with the end result. Once the spot was finished the team of Raley’s and Ivie sat at a conference room table at Bent Image Lab in Portland, Oregon, discussing their happiness and excitement over a spot they hope will be around for years to come.

“When you talk to David he says probably one of the things he is most known for is the animation of the M&M characters,” says Allison. “Next year he can say he is best known for the Raley’s TV spots.  He doesn’t have to bring up M&M’s anymore.”