Monsters overshadow touching family moments in this unsettling charity ad

Family life is overshadowed by creepy, dark manifestations of "monsters," representing issues such as alcoholism, depression and poverty, in a new film for U.K. charity Family Action. The spot, created by London agency And Rising, shows the "monsters" looming as they struggle with these problems, always threatening in the background even in a seemingly positive situation. For example, we see a mother smiling as a visitor holds her newborn baby--but the beast is there, and later we see her overcome by her post-natal depression. Another scenario shows a mother dancing and laughing in front of her teenage son with the ghoul lurking--later we see him tipping her bottle of drink away. A monster also appears as a boy tries to do his homework in tense household, and behind a father who's struggling to buy his daughter football boots. “We worked really closely with the charity to make the film true to real life," says Great Guns' Duncan Christie, director of the ad. "Their insights were invaluable, as they helped make the script as tight as possible without making the scenarios feel forced or overdramatized." Christie and cinematographer, Nanu Segal ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), worked in close collaboration with BlindPig, the animation arm of Absolute Post, to combine live-action and animation elements. According to the team, they avoided horror film territory when conceptualizing the monsters–opting for neither a threatening nor cute characterization, but rather an unwanted presence that weighs the families down. The monsters were imbued with different personalities, with BlindPig designing their anatomy and movements to loosely represent the problem in each scene. The ad is running online and in cinemas, aiming to create awareness of the breadth of family problems that the charity helps people to deal with.

Monsters overshadow touching family moments in this unsettling charity ad

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