Matthias Hoene of Partizan has directed ‘Clocking in,’ the new 40: commercial for Kellogg’s Honey cornflakes. The Agency behind the ad was JWT. MPC created computer generated honey bees and environments.

After the shoot outside Cape Town, South Africa, Bill McNamara and the MPC team brought to life an illustrious team of honey bees who buzz energetically into work and punch their timecards at the local honey factory. The aim was to achieve a happy, comfortable and warm environment and to this end, Mark Horrobin set a homely, sunny, warm and hazy grade.

The challenge for the 3D team lead by Mark Gregory was to create a group of chirpy, friendly honeybees who were realistic and unthreatening. Through careful modelling and rigging the bees were brought to life. They were then lit to sit sympathetically in the backgrounds. Extensive matte paintings were composed to augment the factory sets and enhance the cast iron gate seen in the foreground. The conformed edit was combined with the 3D elements and matte paintings in Flame, where lighting passes added shadows and translucency to the wings of the bees. South African vineyards were replaced with mattes of cornfields to give a distinctly European feel.

The ad airs on Monday 20th November for 7 months.