Swazzle Creates Puppets for Japanese Subaru Commercial

Swazzle had teamed up with the Chiodo Brothers to make puppets for two Japanese Subaru commercials. Working from designs by Charlie Chiodo, Swazzle's team of talented builders created five full body puppets for the spots.

The two 15 second commercials were shot in Japan, and Swazzle sent eight highly skilled puppeteers overseas to work on the spots.

The puppets including two otters, a jellyfish, a camel, and a whale were mostly shot against green screen and the puppeteers were removed in post. In some shots, the puppets were shot in the car and on a live set, and the rods and puppeteers were painted out.

The finished commercials were just posted online and you can view them here.

The site is in Japanese, so to find the videos click on the third pink button. You'll find links to the videos in the bottom left corner. The top left image links to the two commercials, the image next to it links to an extended web only version. Below those are links to behind the scenes videos.

We've also posted behind the scenes photos on the Swazzle Facebook page.

Friday Fun, Fantastic Burgers

This is a rock puppet that I made for a Burger King "Fantastic Four" commercial. The puppet was sculpted out of a block of foam and painted with layers of latex paint. Because the mouth was practically invisible when it was closed, it could easily be sealed shut or cut open depending on the needs of the director. In the final cut of the commercial the non puppet version was featured.