Interview: Daphne Samaras || Nivea

Here is a short Interview with Daphen Samaras the creator:

KSB // Tell us a bit about your self and how you got into stop motion?

DS // i live in hungary, budapest,and i went to MOME /moholy-nagy university of art and design, studying photography.
there i had a course, the subject was eat-art, which brought about my first stop motion ‘chickenlove’ (below)

chickenlove from daphne samaras on Vimeo.

This was seen by many people . From which I was discovered by hungarian singer ‘Marge’. Her first album had just released, and she wanted to have a music video, she asked me to do one for her which led to “My Way (wasn’t you)” (below)

MARGE – MY WAY (wasn’t you) from daphne samaras on Vimeo.

I really like the technique of stop motion, it gives such a wide variety of opportunities, and looks from the outside to be all magic. Since i graduated moving pictures/ stop motion films are just more exciting, more motivating for me.
So then i did a few other animations:

From there the word spread, and Carnation Group a hungarian agency asked me if i was interested in nivea‘s christmas spot, they came up with the storyline, then I had to figure out all the details. How to make it special, What to make it from, and How to execute.
I was extremely excited for various reasons;

KSB // Can you explain the process behind creating this great commerical?

DS // i found the tender really fitting for me,and i had a lot of freedom in figuring out the details,and finding out how i could make this possible in such a short period of time.
There was less than 2 weeks for the whole production, from the time they said, ok lets do it, and me handing in the final piece.
So we had to act super quickly and find the right people to help with everything.

KSB // Who was involved with the work and what did they do?

DS // Anna mozes, who is responsible for the puppet, and the animation. Anna also was also at MOME as well, so i have known her for quiet some time.
Sosa juristovszky helped me with the mockup, and had already worked with her on marge’s video. Tamas ‘monkeyneck’ rochlitz was responsible for the sound design, which really made the whole thing come to life, and gave a true deepness to the moves, by giving them sound.
Pipacsfilm is the incredible production company who organized it all, and helped me to work it all out.

KSB // How long did you spend creating the Nivea Christmas experience?

DS // We filmed everything in 3days, which was a crazy rush. Then immediately started all the post, editing, the sound design, and coloring.
We shot the entire project in our living room, which was also crazy, all the lamps made moving around totally impossible, but that was also part of the challenge.

KSB // What equipment did you use, and how many stills were used to make this?

DS // i used my canon 5d mark II. For lighting i used some dedo lights, kino flo, and some regular lights.
The video is comprised of 614 frames, and we usually used a frame for about 2secs.

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A christmas commercial i made promoting NIVEA’s christmas goodwill campaign, an interactive gingerbread designer app on facebook wherein anyone can bake a virtual gingerbread figure. The most popular designs will be chosen every day based on their popularity, they will actually bake them and send them to the SOS children’s village. a little attention to those in need of a nicer, warmer christmas.

nivea.hu/karacsony

director, DOP: daphne samaras
animation, puppet: anna mozes
mock-up : sosa juristovszky
producer: marton vecsei
executive producer: gabor szanto
music: tamas ‘monkeyneck’ rochlitz
lights starlight: attila nagy, dani
girl: kitti
agency: carnation
creative director: gergo csikos
idea & concept: carnationgroup
copywriter: babett vasvari
account team: laura szabo, magdi rajkai

special thanks: andras nagy, edina galgocz, mrs kiss & mr samaras, marko laszlo, torpe street