Emoji Magic with Motorola, VML and Passion Pictures

Every once in a while, the perfect work day comes along. A day that just feels like the culmination of decades of graft, practise and experience. A day when you get to use every item in your bag of tricks and even invent new ones on the fly. Where it feels like you’re meeting up with old friends and you discover that you know the same people and have been to the same places. Each has an important role to play to create something magical and no one complains that they’ve had to wait around or that we aren’t finishing on time. A day that wraps with the satisfying thought that you get to come back tomorrow for more creating, more challenges and more laughter. I’m extremely grateful to have enjoyed such days.

In early June, I had the pleasure of working on an incredible project. Motorola had developed a shatterproof screen and, together with VML New York and Passion Pictures London, devised a clever and creative way to get the word out. They put out a call to Motorola customers to tweet their experiences of damaged phones and shattered screens. That’s when VML, Passion Pictures, a team of former Jim Henson puppeteers, 2 voice artists, sound engineers and production staff got to work. Over two ‘live’ days, customer tweets were received with all kinds of phone trauma stories. Copy was then written for a reply as one of 3 different emoji characters (Smiley, Sunglasses and Angel). The scripts were voiced, produced and handed over to the puppeteers who then brought the emoji characters to life. The short finished films would then be approved by Motorola in Chicago and tweeted back to the customer – all within ONE HOUR! It was absolutely amazing to watch and be a part of. Here are a few of my favorites, with a ‘blooper’ at the end!