Compost Creative – Colin Thornton & Neil Wilson | Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy
For BUY NOW: THE SHOPPING CONSPIRACY (Directed by Nic Stacey), the small and passionate team at London-based studio Compost Creative used a complex mix of VFX, cel animation, and motion graphics to tell a grand story about the global problem of over consumption.
This subversive documentary, which was produced by Grain Media for Netflix, exposes the tricks that the world’s most influential brands use to keep us buying.
To galvanise viewers around the problem of overconsumption, Compost crafted visuals that invite them in rather than pushing them away. They aimed to be beautiful, bold, and funny, turning the tools of advertising back on the advertisers.
Every visual element Compost created was part of a cohesive aesthetic, which began with the film’s Siri-like narrator, SASHA. From datamoshing on cheesy stock videos, to hidden messages composited onto billboards, the aesthetic of the film feels directed by SASHA.
Surreal VFX set pieces conjure masses of trash tumbling through cities. Compost were given data on real waste quantities to aid shot design, and they developed an approach that conveyed that truth while ensuring that the visuals were comprehensible.
Tyflow and Houdini were used to run huge simulations. Vast quantities of 3D assets were sent flowing through city scenes. These simulations were carefully art directed to capture a sinister mood.
Meanwhile, the 2D department at Compost HQ was busy creating dazzling cel animation to tell the contributors’ stories. These whistleblowers were going out on a limb in the film and deserved a sympathetic animation style.
BUY NOW offers an evocative, unique approach to screen-based visuals. Web design is depicted as surgeons operating on pixels; an Amazon climate activist WhatsApp chat morphs into the door to an office full of disapproving higher ups.
The expressive visuals in BUY NOW are emblematic of a film that indulges every creative path the filmmakers could dream up in order to wake the viewer up to an urgent issue.
CREDITS:
VFX & Animation Directors: Colin Thornton & Neil Wilson
Assistant Producer: J.S. Young
Production Coordinators: Genevieve Weatherburn & Orla Smith
VFX Artists: Tomas Koza, Assim Kumaka, Becky Vicars, Katleen Kattnig, Nik Maund, Ryan Wintle
2D Animators: Hannah Privett, Ka Hei Heiley Chiu, Chris MacDonald, Sam Jewitt
Motion Designers: Hokun Tsou, Henry Esterson, Yafang Hsueh, Beth Archibald, Oliver Weinfeld
Finance Manager: Alex Lewis
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For BUY NOW: THE SHOPPING CONSPIRACY (Directed by Nic Stacey), the small and passionate team at London-based studio Compost Creative used a complex mix of VFX, cel animation, and motion graphics to tell a grand story about the global problem of over consumption.
This subversive documentary, which was produced by Grain Media for Netflix, exposes the tricks that the world’s most influential brands use to keep us buying.
To galvanise viewers around the problem of overconsumption, Compost crafted visuals that invite them in rather than pushing them away. They aimed to be beautiful, bold, and funny, turning the tools of advertising back on the advertisers.
Every visual element Compost created was part of a cohesive aesthetic, which began with the film’s Siri-like narrator, SASHA. From datamoshing on cheesy stock videos, to hidden messages composited onto billboards, the aesthetic of the film feels directed by SASHA.
Surreal VFX set pieces conjure masses of trash tumbling through cities. Compost were given data on real waste quantities to aid shot design, and they developed an approach that conveyed that truth while ensuring that the visuals were comprehensible.
Tyflow and Houdini were used to run huge simulations. Vast quantities of 3D assets were sent flowing through city scenes. These simulations were carefully art directed to capture a sinister mood.
Meanwhile, the 2D department at Compost HQ was busy creating dazzling cel animation to tell the contributors’ stories. These whistleblowers were going out on a limb in the film and deserved a sympathetic animation style.
BUY NOW offers an evocative, unique approach to screen-based visuals. Web design is depicted as surgeons operating on pixels; an Amazon climate activist WhatsApp chat morphs into the door to an office full of disapproving higher ups.
The expressive visuals in BUY NOW are emblematic of a film that indulges every creative path the filmmakers could dream up in order to wake the viewer up to an urgent issue.
CREDITS:
VFX & Animation Directors: Colin Thornton & Neil Wilson
Assistant Producer: J.S. Young
Production Coordinators: Genevieve Weatherburn & Orla Smith
VFX Artists: Tomas Koza, Assim Kumaka, Becky Vicars, Katleen Kattnig, Nik Maund, Ryan Wintle
2D Animators: Hannah Privett, Ka Hei Heiley Chiu, Chris MacDonald, Sam Jewitt
Motion Designers: Hokun Tsou, Henry Esterson, Yafang Hsueh, Beth Archibald, Oliver Weinfeld
Finance Manager: Alex Lewis
Social media:
Instagram: @compostcreative