Responses by Craig McIntosh, chief creative officer, Broken Heart Love Affair; Camilla Nillson, executive producer, Chemistry Films; and Jaimes Zentil, chief creative officers, Broken Heart Love Affair.
Background: “Toronto-based Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is home to a world-class collection of 18 million artworks, cultural objects and natural history specimens,” says Craig McIntosh. “ROM plays a vital role in deepening our understanding of nature and the world around us. In 2022, we launched the ‘Immortal’ brand platform for ROM, which explored civilization and culture through a human-focused lens. At the heart of this new campaign, ‘Immortal: Nature’s Symphony,’ the three-minute film ‘Opera’ aims to rekindle interest in the museum’s natural history collection by creating an emotional connection with the audience. The campaign invites audiences of all ages to reconnect with ROM’s collections through a fresh, engaging perspective.”
Design thinking: “‘Opera’ showcases Earth’s history through the perspective of a unique central character—an opera-singing chimpanzee,” says Jaimes Zentil. “This symbolic portrayal highlights humanity’s connection to nature and Earth’s vast, interconnected ecosystems. From the very beginning, the aria was integral to the concept—it was embedded in the script as a core element of the narrative. ‘Opera,’ with its timeless themes of life, death, sadness, love and joy mirrors the complexities of nature itself. By weaving these emotions into the storytelling, the campaign creates a powerful emotional connection that invites patrons to see natural history not just as scientific, but as deeply human and alive. By using opera to stir the soul and inspire curiosity, the campaign invites audiences of all ages to rediscover ROM’s collections through a fresh, engaging lens.”
Challenges: “The biggest challenge with any campaign is creating a simple yet impactful idea,” says Zentil. “We wanted this follow up to the 2022 campaign to be more hopeful and optimistic, contrasting with the darker tone of the previous film. The most challenging part was creating the chimpanzee entirely out of CG while making him relatable and emotional so that the character also serves as a proxy for humans, marveling at the natural world and drawing viewers into the story. We solved this issue with our incredible partners, Chemistry Films and director Rune Milton at Revolver Films, who created the CG chimpanzee and did the visual effects for the spot.”
“The challenge with ROM was to get a sense of wisdom and timelessness into the character,” says Camilla Nilsson. “We decided early on that it shouldn’t be humanized too much as you would see in most VFX primates. We wanted to keep it primal and then adding the emotions in animation instead of overdoing it in the lookdev process. Creativity wasn’t a straight line. Including imperfections, added depth and hours of research into chimp behavior made every movement authentic.”
Favorite details: “We’re most proud of the CG opera-singing chimpanzee created by the team at Chemistry Films,” says McIntosh. “The production team worked carefully to infuse the chimpanzee with a sense of humanity, using actor and dancer Jennifer Rose to bring the character to life. Shot in Utah’s breathtaking landscapes, Jennifer meticulously mimicked the chimpanzee’s movements while mouthing the lyrics of the operatic aria. Every take was a full performance, with her embodying the emotion and physicality of the role, adding depth and authenticity.
“Although her performance was later replaced with CGI, the humanity she conveyed remained intact,” he continues. “Her expressive portrayal enabled audiences to emotionally connect with the chimpanzee, representing humanity’s shared experiences with nature. By having the chimp sing, the production team deepened this connection, enabling viewers to project their own empathy onto the character in a way that felt both poignant and personal.”
Visual influences: “The entire post-production team dedicated countless hours to studying chimpanzees—watching every Netflix series featuring them, analyzing audio recordings of their vocalizations and watching countless YouTube videos of chimpanzees’ movements in order to create the most realistic chimp we could,” says Nilsson. “This extensive research was crucial in achieving the most realistic and lifelike representation of a chimpanzee possible.
“From the get go, we named our character Luna and knew it would be a female primate,” she explains. “This was our asset name throughout the whole post pipeline and gave it character. Luna is made from scratch; every muscle movement, nostril hair and eye twitch was carefully designed and added. She stole our hearts, and we have worked so closely with her for so long that we know every wrinkle and imperfection.
“Blending live-action and CGI, Luna the chimpanzee was a challenge in photorealism and storytelling,” she continues. “How do you make a singing chimp feel real and emotional without it looking weird or unnatural? Sculpted in ZBrush, textured in Mari using skin details from TexturingXYZ and rigged by Snappertech, Luna was created to look both primal and emotive.
“Grooming was executed in XGen with Houdini for skin and fur simulations, ensuring the fur always interacted believably,” Nilsson adds. “We challenged ourselves by introducing Luna into every environment possible, having to integrate her in snowstorms, thunderstorms and sand. Rendered on Chaos Cloud, the project showcased how a small studio like ours can get multiple shots rendered in no time.”
New lessons: “When we showed up in Utah for the first day of the shoot, Jaimes and I were fully expecting Jennifer to be wearing a suit with all those bright-colored ping pong balls for tracking marks,” says McIntosh. “Instead, it was just plain gray and skintight. The CG team at Chemistry laughed at us when we asked where the tracking marks were. Apparently, that’s so five years ago.”
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