Rimowa - Chinese new year

•

An uncut journey flowing through life’s key moments – our latest film for Rimowa follows a year in a character’s life, going from her career to her friends, through everyday scenes, as she returns home for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

The film, part of the Rimowa campaign, sees their iconic crossbody bag at the centre of an everflowing journey: we follow the main character through various situations, moving from one moment to the other, with the bag as a constant element to connect these scenarios.

Style

The narrative style places the protagonist in the spotlight, allowing the audience to follow her on her journey: from her professional life, to her friendships or everyday situations, all the way back to her roots and her family, we covered a variety of situations in one unique flow, with a relatively short time frame.

Furthermore, we interpreted this journey as a trip to return home to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her family – this circular route, along with the variation of the camera shots during the different scenes, helped bring dynamism to the piece, avoiding repetition and keeping the viewer engaged. Plus, we had fun adding the Rabbit symbol as an easter egg throughout the film: from the pin on the character’s coat all the way through to the fireworks at the very end, there’s plenty of references to spot! (let us know how many you caught!)

Process

On a technical level, we mixed traditional animation with 3D spaces and camera, along with simpler 2D compositions: this combination allowed us to create a film that’s rich in detail, but also loyal to the illustration style. Due to the length of the piece, it would’ve been impossible to create a sequence shot, but we didn’t let that stop us: we used match cuts or small time ellipses to maintain continuity, respecting the raccord without losing the fluidity intended for the film.

It was a great opportunity to work on this campaign and see all the elements of the film coming beautifully together in a celebration of life cycles and of everything that’s new. Let the Year of the Rabbit begin!