It all began at 8am on an extremely drizzly Tuesday morning accompanied by a massive lack of a hood/umbrella/raincoat. Being used to Manchester, I am usually armed and ready with waterproof essentials-but I was obviously just very unlucky. I battle my way through the morning underground commute (for the first time ever- feeling very professional) and brave the rain, resulting in a drowned rat turning up at the door of Taylor James, Shoreditch.

The August Bank Holiday meant I was on the shortest internship known to man: four entire days. My mission was to boost online media presence, and due to the embarrassing amount of time spent on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter I thought it’d be a piece of cake. Turns out, promoting online presence for a real life company is actually very different to my usual life of posting funny cat photos. However, within an hour or two, a tour of the offices and a warm welcome from Laura, I got to grips with the task in hand. As consistently busy as everybody is, they all had time throughout the week to answer my questions and explain the industry to me- something which was much appreciated! After rifling through the online presence of TJ and starting to understand the company as a whole, it was 5 o’clock and the day was over!

The days that followed were far more smooth- the sun was shining and the northern line was running like clockwork! Settled at my desk in no time, I began to re-format the blog for the brand new website (which you are looking at right now-isn’t it pretty!?) and also write this very blogpost. Lunchtime in Shoreditch works very well in my favour, it’s just choosing somewhere which is the hard part. The entire surroundings of TJ, for that matter just oozes a cool, refreshing London vibe; perfect for people-watching!

In general, throughout the week I continued on my quest of creating a more human, friendly, up-to-date and interactive online face of Taylor James. This also included a visit to the new offices in Hoxton, and although still in the building site stages, I took photos of the inside and surrounding areas in order to keep followers and fans of TJ updated on our actions and whereabouts. I’m sure the photos will come in handy when we want to show off the complete transformation! Another part of my role was to create a social media marketing plan of action for the company based on my findings throughout the week, so it’s safe to say it was easy to get stuck into the way of life here even after a couple of days!

The TJ staff have given me a great insight into the industry and what I have learnt in four short days has been invaluable. I’d like to say a massive thank-you to the staff here- and good luck with the move!

All the best for the future,

Aruna x

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Designed by our Creative Director Jerome (equally as mischievous, perhaps not so furry…) over the wet winter we’ve been having, the creature was built in CGI – a little modeling, rendering, rigging and we could make him as gigantic, outlandish and huggable as we very well chose. And thus, Kevin was born.
His next adventure – Kevin and the Mini – shows him chasing the classic British car down a country lane. So where did the idea of Kevin, and this black and white movie in particular come from? We quizzed Jerome for his original vision and how Kevin was developed into the big friendly creature he is now.
“It all stemmed from some test footage we shot with the help of the guys at Iron Box Films. In true British style, when the time came to shoot on location… it rained. So we had no choice but to shoot the material in very wet conditions. Looking back through the footage back at the studio, we pondered whether to fix it in post-production, making it appear dry and bright, or what else we could do with it for the best outcome. Then we decided to play with the bad weather and the ‘gloomy’ undertone. Working with this style, we turned the whole picture into black and white to get something quite moody with strong contrasts.” Jerome Haupert, Creative Director explains.

After the initial set up was decided, the classic Mini Cooper was modeled and rigged so we could integrate with the live action backplate. We also reworked the camera moves quite significantly in post to get something more dynamic. We then had the chance to start playing around with our CGI character animation. It was just a case of coming up with a simple narrative to fit around this – something which would allow us to play with our CGI character integration and animation, VFX particles and matte-painting skills.

Focusing on the quintessential English style of the drizzle and a lane in the country, Jerome came up with the story of an iconic British car carrying a “Just Married” couple winding through the small country lane, with the rain beating down… All quite depressing… Until our wacky hero Kevin bounds cheerily down the road to throw some confetti at the car to cheer them up and send them on their way with his good wishes!

We added the church in matte-painting to fit in with the wedding story, and added additional clouds, rain and puddles in post-production to emphasize the whole mood. The shot was then given a strong B&W grade.

Have a look at our making of to see the before and after and Kevin’s character development… wouldn’t it be great to be able to manipulate the British weather in real life.

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