Rosemarie is a strong woman but with a painful childhood. She is no longer young, yet she is happy, as lots of good people are around her. One of them is Livio, her caretaker, to whom she tells the difficult moments she went through.

The elderly woman and her story are the subjects of ROOF Studio‘s ad, conceived with the help of the CRK agency as part of a Switzerland-based campaign with a mission to strengthen careers in long-term care and support the recruitment of young health professionals. The “Make a Career of Humanity” initiative, which is set to run through 2023, is possible thanks to an alliance of the Swiss government and Swiss healthcare organizations, led by CURAVIVA, Spitex, and OdASanté.

Our weekly #ThrowBrandThursday column takes readers back in time via the touching 3D-animated short film, “Rosemarie’s Life.” It was 1930 when our film hero was born. Her lifetime story is comprised in less than three minutes, letting Livio know how she was separated from her loved ones during WWII and the joy she experienced when she got to reunite with them. The story becomes a source of inspiration for the caretaker, who realizes that a career in long-term health care allows him not only to help others but it is also an opportunity for him to be part of their history.

“It was really important for the audience to emotionally connect with Rosemarie’s journey, so we focused on strong frames, similar to an illustrated book, to convey her story,” says Guto Terni, Partner / Creative Director at ROOF Studio. “With this approach, we could communicate with efficiency, using the animation to amplify the emotions and give proper weight to her experience, while the voiceover brings an important element of realism to the film.”

The New-York-based studio used a more European-style of animation to create the story. Even though they featured fewer frames, they still managed to express the message in beautiful way, charming the audience by underlining each scene’s details.

One of the scenes highlighted by the studio is represented by the moment in which the family is plagued by the secret police: “We needed to convey pressure in this shot, so we animated in such a way that when the camera pans out in opening the shot, the Stasi officers move towards Mr. Adler,” says the team.

The escaping scene is yet another moment from Rosemarie’s life to which the artists paid special attention. To highlight the emotions that the family members experienced then, they created a map, which works similar to a theatre stage. The spotlights guide the viewers into the action, whilst the hard shadows are proof for the drama of the scene.

“It’s a special shot in the film because it breaks reality and visually breathes the narrative. The idea was to communicate that Rosemarie’s family is going from East Germany to West. We found a great way to pack all of these concepts into such a short shot!”, say the creatives.

Packing the lady’s life in just a 2-30-minute-long film was a real challenge but the hard work paid off: The scenes, each with its own particularities, such as the mother-in-law, the BMW used to help Rosemarie return to her family, the officers built on a really unique design, or the shot where she reunites with her son, show the strength of this woman.

“When you’re condensing a life story into two minutes, it’s especially important to have the fluid camera work and composition work in harmony and guide you. So, even as you move from one shot to another — seeing Rosemarie’s life as though you’re turning the pages of her story — you can focus on the subject of the scene and still perceive all of the rich details because of the camera framing,” adds Terni.

The CRK team gave ROOF Studio a free hand in exploring the looks of the characters and environments. The elements built were actually based on real photos of Rosemarie’s family album. “They came to us with a great thoughtful script and always kept our creative vision moving forward. This collaboration was so fulfilling to us as artists and we think the resulting film is a reflection of this mutual passion and trust in creating something beautiful together” concludes Terni. The film was originally produced for the European market in German and was released in November last year.

Credits:

Agency: CRK

Creative Director: Christian Bircher

Executive Director: Stefan Batzli

Account Director: Caroline Hulliger

Assistant Account Director: Farah Choudry

Art Direction: Christian Bircher, Filip Wolfensberger

Head of Digital: Christina Utz

Multimedia Producer: Jessica Gomilsek

Client: CURAVIVA

Marketing Manager CURAVIVA Schweiz: Theres Gotsch-Hinden

Production Company: ROOF Studio

Creative Directors: Guto Terni, Vinicius Costa, Lucas Camargo

Director: Guto Terni

Art Director: Vinicius Costa

Character Lead / Design: Lucas Camargo

Executive Producer: Marcus Lansdell

Head of Production: Vanderlei Santana

3D Lead: Lucas Ribeiro, Heber Conde

Character Explorations: Lucas Camargo, Audrey Benjaminsen, Felicie Haymoz, Bruno Jacob

Storyboard: Estevao Chromiec

3D Layout: Lucas Ribeiro, Heber Conde

Modeling: Steferson Rocha, Mauricio Sampaio, Saulo Bonatto, André Sik, Maicow Silva, Tiago Oliveira, Vinicius Costa, Daniel Dalcomuni, Rafael Figueiredo

Rigging: Danilo Pinheiro, Alanne Andrade, Glauber Belo, Caio Hidaka, Murilo Barbelli, Saul Almeida

Animation Lead: Bruno Celegão

Animation: Mariane Tostes, Gabriel Carmo, Jonathan Edward, Marcio Kakuno, Matheus Caetano, Karina Chung, Bruna Berford, Emerson Manfrin, Rodrigo Dutra, Francisco Catão, Leonardo Felix, Daniel Esteves Oliveira, Anne Pagno, Marcio Nicolosi, Christian Weckl, Diego de Paula

Look Development Lead: Mateus Kurzhals

Look Development: Mateus Kurzhals, Marcelo Vaz, Josemar Queiroz, Gustavo Rangel, Lucas Camargo, Vinicius Paciello

Lightning/Render: Guto terni, Mateus Kurzhals, Marcelo Vaz, Josemar Queiroz, Gustavo Rangel, Lucas Camargo, Vinicius Paciello

Pipeline TD: Rosenio Pinto, Heber Conde

Cloth Simulation: Heber Conde

Compositing: Nash FX, ROOF Studio

Audio: Combustion Studio