Jacob Abernathy
Creative Director / Art Director
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Fuzzy Feelings

 

It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to do a stop-motion film. Not just that, but ever since I saw the work of Anna Mantzaris, I knew I wanted to make one with her. This Apple holiday film was a labor of love from beginning to end. We partnered with both Anna and Emmy-award winning live-action director Lucia Aniello, as well as Oscar-winning cinematographer James Laxton to help bring the film to life.

It tells a story of how a little creativity and kindness have the power to change the way we see the world and the people in it.

 
 
 

The Film

Fuzzy feelings — an apple holiday film

 
 

Fuzzy Feelings is a holiday tale about creativity and kindness told through two worlds that parallel one another. While processing her daily struggles with her stop-motion film, a young animator is able to see her misanthropic boss through a new lens. In the end realizing…

"we are all the same."

 
 

Behind the Scenes

Fuzzy feelings — behind the scenes

We shot the whole stop-motion portion of the film with an iPhone 15 Pro. Never before has a production at this scale been attempted with something other than a professional grade camera. In traditional stop-motion fashion, each model, prop and set was built by hand. We crafted 12 handmade puppets, 7 sets, more than 50 tiny props and over 100 miniature lights. We put the iPhone to the test by filming for over a month, 250+ hours spent animating, capturing over 20,000 frames to create the final stop motion portion of the film. Finally, we adjusted color, exposure, VFX for thousands of frames, manually.

 

A Bespoke Handmade font

 
 

awards

The Emmys - Award winning - outstanding commercial

Cannes Lions - 1 film Gold, 3x Bronze, 2x Shortlists

D&AD - 1 Yellow, 2x Graphite, 2x wood

AICP - 3x - Direction, animation, & Storytelling

the One Show - 7x Gold, 2x Silver

Art Directors Club - Member’s Choice Award, 5x Gold, 1 Silver

the Andys - Craft, Idea

Shots awards - 2x Gold, AD of the year - Directing, Animation

The One Club - Type directors club - tDC Lettering Winner, Judge’s Choice - World’s Best Typography

British Arrows - 1x Gold, 3x Bronze (The frank budgen award)

Shortverse - November Short of the month

vimeo - staff pick

Credits

Nathaniel Lawlor

Nick CIffone

colin snow

rhodney Viray

Press

Ad Age - ad of the day

adweek - top 40 ads of 2023

the drum - ad of the day

it’s nice that

the shoot

creative boom

colossal

300+ headlines globally