Bird

The Brief

Bird approached Not To Scale direct to develop and produce their first brand film. With

the enviable moniker of the world’s fastest growing company this year, launching in September 2017, the Santa Monica based tech start-up famous for their app enabled electric scooters are already in a staggering 100 cities worldwide and have taken on funding valuing them at $2BN and all in time for their first birthday.

A company with a foot and wheel planted firmly in the future, BIRD eschewed working with a traditional Agency and turned to Not To Scale to deliver their strategy, creative and production for their first creative work. The reason? Electric speed and efficiency.

Working directly with the production partner was a really rewarding and fast process that suited us perfectly.

Pelun Chen - BIRD’S Head of Design

Initial Storyboard

The Solution

Not To Scale used their own in house creative facility MultiStory for concepting as they are well versed to working directly and quickly with brands. It is a bespoke unit able to call on seasoned strategists, Hollywood pedigree Writers, Directors and Award-winning copywriters, to come up with engaging and captivating ideas that would be able to offer the world an insight into what really motivates BIRD.

Talented directing duo BAT are masters of character driven narrative; perfect to direct the project and this film quickly engages us on an emotional level. They strove to create a film that was both modern and illustrative by blending 2D & 3D animation techniques with a skilful use of film grain to help lend that cinematic quality.

With only six weeks in the schedule for the entire animation production it was imperative there was a shared vision for the script and a goal of keeping emotion and narrative at the forefront.

The paradigm has shifted. It might have become normal for Brands to work directly with Production Companies for fast social and tactical content but they are now happy coming to us looking for ‘the big idea’ too.

Daniel O’Rourke - Not To Scale founder and Executive Producer

Character Exploration

The Result

The results of the collective endeavours is the story of Roy, a hard-working line painter. The story unfolds to show our protagonist’s journey from painter to hero, helping to free the Bird riders from the pollution and stress of their commute and show frazzled drivers that there is another way to travel to work. BAT’s (Bali and Mat) stunning character design, suffused lighting and powerful narrative elevate a recognisable every day scene of commuting to work into an engaging and emotionally led story.

We were impressed with the speed and efficiency of the production and Not To Scale’s Director’s willingness to collaborate and absorb our feedback at each stage of the process and we are even more happy with the creative output.

Pelun Chen - BIRD'S Head of Design