One of the cleverest ad campaigns I've been involved with was for Black Star Beer in 1992. A "Make-Believe History" was created for the newly launched brewery by the Wieden & Kennedy agency, directed by Alex Proyas. The ad featured a montage of faux commercials from the past, narrated by announcer John Corbett (of Northern Exposure fame). My contribution was to animate Zippy the Cap, an iconic talking bottle cap character supposedly from 1950.

There were four shots in the Zippy sequence: a bottle opener popped Zippy off the bottle, he flew spinning through the air growing arms and legs, then landed in a city street, and finally spoke to the audience in a close-up about Black Star Beer. My primary focus was creating the character's performance, as the props, set, and Zippy puppet were already prepared for me when I arrived on set. Alex Proyas gave me some initial direction on his expectations, then left me alone to perform my stop-motion wizardry. Three shots required a flying rig, but I didn't have to worry about making the wires completely invisible. Because we were aiming for a vintage look, it was acceptable if the wires showed or the animation appeared "funky." Zippy's cap body was about 10 inches across, meaning the beer bottle and opener were huge! To animate the bottle opener, I attached it to a C-stand and manhandled it into its poses. Surface gauges were used to ensure the incremental movements were smooth enough. A series of replacement parts created the illusion of growing arms and legs as Zippy hurled through the air. For facial expressions, I used clay for movable eyebrows and eyes. The mouth was easy; I didn't have to do anything since it was handled in post-production. Alex wanted "Clutch Cargo" style lips, meaning a real human mouth was superimposed onto Zippy. Overall, it was a great opportunity to help create a fake fifties icon!

For some reason, I didn't take any behind-the-scenes photos of the Zippy setup. However, on a nearby stage, Alex and the crew were shooting "The 1960s' Waterskiing Babe," which intrigued me enough to document the process with a few photographs. The actress performed in front of a rear projection screen that created the illusion of waterskiing on a lake. Real water was sprayed to enhance the effect. These efforts weren't intended to be perfectly convincing; part of the charm was that it looked like what it was: a staged fake. Just another make-believe Black Star Beer advertisement from the past!