Stuffed up

We found the above teddy bear while sourcing stuffed animals for the campaign below. We ended up commissioning all of the animals we photographed for the ads, but I thought this one was worthy of a photo op. It just looks so sad and the fur is so authentically aged, would have worked for our concept but would have been very difficult to modify for the necessary bloating. 

Actually one of the interesting things I learned when speaking to the artists who make real teddy bears is; the proportions we wanted, big body little head for our bear is counter to what is typically made for a kid's stuffed animal. They usually make them in the proportions of babies, whose heads are in larger proportions to their bodies than the rest of us. 

Which points at a challenge with these kinds of projects, when we commission artists or artisans for props for photography, they usually make what they make. What we need is a prop for photography, and there can be a difference. In the case of the bear in the ad below, the teddy bear artist provided us with mostly what we asked for, but we ended up removing his arms and head so they could be positioned separately on set, took some of the fur from his back side and added it in front so we was even more bloated. There was an apparatus behind him holding him together and pushing him out in places. Those kinds of things are difficult to get from someone who isn't used to taking direction on their creations, we don't need a stuffed animal in this case per say, we need a fat bear prop. I've worked with the same model maker now for probably close to 20 years, and whenever we have custom props like this, even if he doesn't make them, I still try to get him included as he understands we need a prop for photography.

Another challenge on this one, we produced the bear ad on the week between Christmas and New Years...