Fú 福

Directed by Taiko | Fú 福 from Final Frontier on Vimeo.
Final Frontier and Taiko Studios produced Airbnb China’s Chinese New Year film, a touching animation demonstrating how the brand’s properties can become homes away from home at a time of year where young Chinese are finding it increasingly difficult to return to their family hometowns.

Spring Festival is the most important date on the calendar in China, when families separated by work and life necessities reunite, traditionally in the town where the children grew up. 

Titled “Fu”, the three-and-a-half minute 3D animation tells the story of Jia Jia, a young nurse whose pursuit of her career dreams in the big city prevent her from returning to her hometown for Chinese New year, much to the disappointment of herself and her parents.  Fortunately, Airbnb’s platform is on-hand to enable a unique solution.

At the core of the film is the age old Chinese New year tradition of hanging a ‘Fú’ (meaning ‘blessing’)  banner upside down, symbolizing "good luck comes", tying in to the overall campaign idea of turning traditional concepts on their head; in this case, 'home' coming to Jia Jia rather than the other way around.

To direct and execute the film and supporting visuals, Final Frontier drafted Taiko Studios, led by founder and director Shaofu Zhang.  With teams in Los Angeles and Wuhan, China, the studio creates commercial work and original content, earning an Oscar nomination for 2017 short, One Small Step. 

Zhang co-directed the film with fellow former Disney animator and director, Andrew Chesworth.  The whole production took place over an intense four months, with preproduction mostly handled in Los Angeles, and modelling, animation and post executed in Wuhan.  Final Frontier supported the production of various campaign assets with resources in Madrid and Buenos Aires.

Credits

Production Company - Final Frontier
Executive Producer - Chris Colman, Julieta Zajaczkowski, Gustavo Karam
Lead Producer  - Yanyie Tran
Animation - Matias Sesti, Nicolas Agarzua, Patricio Passaralli
Illustrator - Isaac Hugo Barbosa

Client: Airbnb China
Creative Director: Justin Leung
Designer: Vicki Sun
Copywriter: Iris Weng
Creative Producer: Ray Fu
Senior Marketing Manager: Elaine Hui                 
Marketing Manager: Zhida Xu
Social Specialist: Summer Zhang                       
Marketing Manager: Pamela Li

Animation Studio: Taiko Studios
Director - Shaofu Zhang
Co-Director - Andrew Chesworth
Producer - Hande Zhang
Production Supervisor - Erik Lee
Production Manager - Brandie Braxton
Production Coordinator - Hou Puyu, Xu Siyuan
Storyboard Artist - Connie He
Visual Development Artists - Andrew Chesworth, Connie He, Noor Sofi
Additional Visual Development Artists - Chelsea Blecha, Felicia Chen, Susan Huang, Dia Jamandron
Assets Lead - Cimouns Xin
Assets - Lu Yi, Wang Shuo, Yang Tong
Additional Assets - Guo Jun
Rigging - Lin Lingwei
Rigger - Zebra, Junyu Peng, Ruixi Wang
Animation Lead - Yukang Liu
Animators - Andrew Chesworth, Erik Lee, Li Jianxun, Liu Jianxiong, Lyu Qinghui, Tao Mingming, Shaofu Zhang
Additional Animation- TungChing "Neil" Chia, Zebra,
Animation Supervisor - Leonard Han
Animators - Jason Liu, Yudong Zhang, Torry Wang, Lingchao Tao, Yihai Xie, Zhihe Ren, Xiaoyan Pan
Producer - Rainie Xue
Effects & Simulation - Wang Songtao
Lighting & Compositing - Chang Xin, Guo Jun, He Shuyi
Additional Lighting & Compositing - Kane Chang, Ron Shaw, Wu Wenting, Cimouns Xin, Chen Ying, Tang Yuling
Accounting & Finance - Brandie Braxton, Zhou Daiyi
Additonal Partners - Artineering, Santiago Montesdeoca, Alexandre Bléro

Animation Support: Blossom Pictures (Beijing)
CG Supervisor CG - Brad Falk
Business Manager - Pablo Meng
Animation Supervisor - Brian Dowrick
Production Manager - Jingyang Zhao
Animator - Gaofeng Ren, Zhenxu Zhang, Shaohui Xue
Lighting & Comp Supervisor - Ning Lv
Lighting Artist - Haifeng Gao, Xiaoyu Bai, Nan Wang, Tianling Wang, Zexin Xu

Music Production Company: Ant food
Creative Director: Lou Schmidt
Music Producers: Lou Schmidt, Fernando Rojo, Luis Bergmann, Pedro Curvello, Vini Nunes
Sound Designers: Fernando Ianni, Tiago Mago, Fabian Jorje, Pablo Mello, Emilio Daccorone, Bruno Broaska
Executive Producers: Christiane Rachel, Renato Castro, Monique Munhoz