Swift stars in ‘quirky’ film
Suzuki New Zealand has teamed up with an Auckland animator and film-maker to produce a special stop-motion movie starring one of its cars.
Adam Rowland, pictured, and his team spent hours inside a studio handcrafting each frame for the film starring a Suzuki Swift using practical effects and no computer-generated imagery.
The result is a short film where the Swift goes on an adventure through a variety of hand-built sets. It involves more than 4,000 carefully curated photographs that have been layered together into the final stop-motion animation.
Fiona Bridgford, Suzuki NZ marketing manager, says: “We’re always looking for unexpected ways to show off the personality and performance of the Swift.
“When Adam came to us with this wild idea of animating a real car using stop-motion, we were immediately intrigued. It felt playful, unique – and very Suzuki.”
The Swift was jacked up and down more than 700 times to simulate jumps, leans, and weight shifts, all while travelling nearly 1km through a studio no wider than 12 metres.
A crew of eight racked up a combined 500km on foot inside the Photogear studio in Mt Wellington, Auckland, as they repositioned props, moved the car and created every detail of the shoot.
The project was developed by Rowland’s stop-motion studio Awkward Animations and involved Pete Whittaker, director of photography from Howler, providing lighting.
Suzuki NZ says the “quirky” film isn’t your typical car advertising and has the charm of animation with the thrill of live action.
“It reflects the kind of fun energy we associate with the Swift. It invites you into a world where the car isn’t just a product – it’s a character. And we love that it’s been hand-crafted right here in New Zealand by local creatives.”
You can watch the film below and for a behind-the-scenes peek at how it was made, click here.
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