Lotería Nacional, with its first draw held on 4 March 1812, is the second-longest continuously running lottery in the world.
The campaign
Once in a while, you get this script that you sense can be a masterpiece if you treat it right. Looking at the story ingredients for the tv commercial Loteria “Nightshift” we instantly knew that this was a very inspiring job for our team at Milford.
The client wanted to create a Christmas campaign centred around the message “The greatest prize is to share it” with a visual ambition on par with the blockbuster animated films of hollywood. Aiming for such high visual fidelity and animation was both challenging and exciting, but we were convinced that we could pull it off.
The Story
With this in mind, we dug ourselves into one month of visual exploration trying to find the right tonality in the story about Justino who works at a mannequin factory as night-shift security guard.
There is a sad realism in the story with the alarm that beeps at 22.00 every night, the commuting strangers sleeping on his shoulder, the boredom of working alone and having mannequins as only friends. There is a thin line between portraying Justino as a sad loner instead of a caring person. Without highlighting those subtle moments of magic when Justino interacts with human figures of the mannequins during his solitary shifts, to send comical and emotional messages to his daytime colleagues, the narrative could have turned into an episode of The Twilight Zone.
To push the visuals and to ensure we kept the story personal, warm and friendly explored cameras, compositions, colours and light that balanced the arc of the story in a tonality more in line with a true Christmas spirit. That gave a sweeter but yet unexpected touch to the story.
When a Christmas lottery syndicate is set up at the factory, Justino is left out because of his working hours, apparently missing out when the company wins big. However, in the spirit of Christmas, his colleagues have secretly added him to the lottery syndicate which is revealed at the emotive end of the film.
Three months of hard work to portray the life of a kind-hearted night security guard resulted in a highly acclaimed campaign. Justino was No.1 trending topic on Twitter in Spain, No. 5 in the world, and the tv-commercial got more than 1 million video views in its first 24 hours. In 2016 the story about Justino became the most awarded tv-commercial in the world. A recognition to our team that they had put together all the story ingredients for this fantastic story in the very best way.
It’s always nice to win prizes but the biggest reward are those comments from the audience that say it all:
“Just watched this in school and half the class, my Spanish teacher (and me) we cried”
Justino
The campaign
Once in a while, you get this script that you sense can be a masterpiece if you treat it right. Looking at the story ingredients for the tv commercial Loteria “Nightshift” we instantly knew that this was a very inspiring job for our team at Milford.
The client wanted to create a Christmas campaign centred around the message “The greatest prize is to share it” through a narrative similar to a Pixar-style short film. Aiming for Pixar style is always a very inspiring challenge for an animation studio like us, but at the same time, it's a difficult commitment trying to emulate a style similar to Pixar. You will inevitably be compared to their narrative quality and it is no exaggeration to say that such a comparison is a very big challenge for any animation studio regardless of size.
The campaign
Once in a while, you get a script that you sense can be a masterpiece if you treat it right. Looking at the story ingredients for the tv commercial Loteria “Nightshift” we instantly knew that this was one of those scripts and would be a fantastic job for our team at Milford.
The client wanted to create a Christmas campaign centred around the message “The greatest prize is to share it” through a narrative similar to a Pixar-style short film. Aiming for Pixar style is always a very inspiring challenge for an animation studio like us, but at the same time, it's a difficult commitment trying to emulate a style similar to Pixar. You will inevitably be compared to their narrative quality and it is no exaggeration to say that such a comparison is a very big challenge for any animation studio regardless of size.
The Story
With this in mind, we dug ourselves into one month of visual exploration trying to find the right tonality in the story about Justino who works at a mannequin factory as night-shift security guard.
There is a sad realism in the story with the alarm that beeps at 22.00 every night, the commuting strangers sleeping on his shoulder and the boredom of working alone with only mannequins as friends. There is a thin line between portraying Justino as a sad loner instead of a caring person. Without highlighting those subtle moments of magic when Justino interacts with human figures of the mannequins during his solitary shifts, to send comical and emotional messages to his daytime colleagues, the narrative could have easily become depressing instead of charming and funny.
To push the visuals and to ensure we kept the story personal, warm and friendly explored cameras, compositions, colours and light that balanced the arc of the story in a tonality more in line with a true Christmas spirit. That gave a sweeter but yet unexpected touch to the story.
When a Christmas lottery syndicate is set up at the factory, Justino is left out because of his working hours, apparently missing out when the company wins big. However, his colleagues, being true friends, have secretly added him to the lottery which is revealed in the emotional crescendo at the end of the film.
The Story
With this in mind, we dug ourselves into one month of visual exploration trying to find the right tonality in the story about Justino who works at a mannequin factory as night-shift security guard.
There is a sad realism in the story with the alarm that beeps at 22.00 every night, the commuting strangers sleeping on his shoulder and the boredom of working alone with only mannequins as friends. There is a thin line between portraying Justino as a sad loner instead of a caring person. Without highlighting those subtle moments of magic when Justino interacts with human figures of the mannequins during his solitary shifts, to send comical and emotional messages to his daytime colleagues, the narrative could have easily become depressing instead of charming and funny.
To push the visuals and to ensure we kept the story personal, warm and friendly explored cameras, compositions, colours and light that balanced the arc of the story in a tonality more in line with a true Christmas spirit. That gave a sweeter but yet unexpected touch to the story.
When a Christmas lottery syndicate is set up at the factory, Justino is left out because of his working hours, apparently missing out when the company wins big. However, his colleagues, being true friends, have secretly added him to the lottery which is revealed in the emotional crescendo at the end of the film.
Three months of hard work paid off and resulted in a highly acclaimed campaign. Justino was No.1 trending topic on Twitter in Spain, No. 5 in the world, and the tv-commercial got more than 1 million video views in its first 24 hours. In 2016 the story about Justino became the most awarded tv-commercial in the world. A recognition to our team that they had put together all the story ingredients for this fantastic story in the very best way.
It’s always nice to win prizes but the biggest reward are those comments from the audience that say it all.
“Just watched this in school and half the class, my Spanish teacher (and me) we cried”
Three months of hard work paid off and resulted in a highly acclaimed campaign. Justino was No.1 trending topic on Twitter in Spain, No. 5 in the world, and the tv-commercial got more than 1 million video views in its first 24 hours. In 2016 the story about Justino became the most awarded tv-commercial in the world. A recognition to our team that they had put together all the story ingredients for this fantastic story in the very best way.
It’s always nice to win prizes but the biggest reward are those comments from the audience that say it all.
“Just watched this in school and half the class, my Spanish teacher (and me) we cried”
