When we sat down with the team at the hospice and they told us they wanted to use real-life robins in some videos, our minds started working overtime and our Google history proves that there is no such thing as a ‘Robin Tamer’.

After a successful video campaign called ‘Forget Me Not’ last year for Loros Hospice, we were thrilled to be asked back to produce a video campaign for ‘#ProjectRobin’. Project Robin revolves around the idea that robins appear when lost loved ones are near. The hospice were extremely keen to produce a number of vignettes showing people of all ages remembering their loved ones after seeing a robin.

After quickly coming to our senses and realising that using real robins on set was a silly idea, we began working on a concept where we could shoot background slates and then add existing stock footage of robins on an isolated background in in post production. We licensed a number of robins on different types of foliage so that we could match the shots with the foliage we had on location. After keying the background of the robins out, we tracked any movement in our background slates to ensure that the robin would move with it’s surroundings. We also added little details in front of the robins to really make it feel as if they were there.

Shooting took place over two days, with the full production being shot in 4K to give us as much data as possible to work with in post production.

We’re really pleased with the final film and hope that it helps to make a lot of money for a very worthwhile cause! See the full video below: