Creative Brief

Uncommon and Curious Productions brought Little Shadow in to deliver a suite of surreal, visually arresting VFX shots for a Tullamore D.E.W. whiskey campaign running across TV and social formats. The creative leaned into bold, imaginative storytelling: a jockey riding a bee, an oversized man harvesting honey from a castle, and a honey dipper descending into the sea. Our task was to create seamless composites from multiple plates and sources, delivering clean, stylised visuals that maintained the campaign’s distinctive tone.

Our Approach

Each shot required bespoke compositing techniques and creative problem-solving:

• Jockey-on-bee sequence: We composited live-action jockey footage onto macro-scale bee flight plates, adjusting scale, motion blur, and lighting to sell the illusion of the tiny rider. Wings, shadows, and dust trails were added to integrate both subjects into a single motion arc.

• Oversized man and castle honey harvest: Footage of a real castle and an actor were combined with CG honey and scale-corrected shadows. Atmospheric haze and tracked camera motion helped anchor the surreal scale.

• Honey dipper at sea: We stitched together live ocean footage and digitally enhanced a giant-scale dipper prop, adding water interaction layers and reflection passes to make the object feel truly present.

All VFX were completed in After Effects and Nuke, with colour pass alignment handled to match the brand’s warm, cinematic grade. Formats were delivered across broadcast and social specs, with multiple aspect ratios optimised for campaign rollout.

The Results

The campaign’s whimsical and unexpected visuals stood out in a crowded spirits market, anchored by technically precise compositing and confident visual storytelling. Our work helped translate big, surreal ideas into polished final shots with coherence and charm.