Eric Lerner, animator
Photo: Eric Lerner
Animation of Olympic proportions
Bezalel graduate Eric Lerner chosen to animate, direct Coca-Cola ad premiering during Beijing Olympics opening ceremony
Even if we don't bring home a medal from the Beijing Olympics, one Israeli representative has already won, big time. Eric Lerner, a 25-year old animator from Zikhron Ya'akov, has just finished directing the Coca-Cola Company's Olympics commercial, to be broadcast internationally during the opening ceremony.
online. Lerner graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 2006, and his project won first place in one of the categories of a competition sponsored by aniBoom.
To view the commercial on YouTube, click here.
Coca-Cola contacted Lerner through the internet, after his graduation project in visual media was shown
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"Since then my project, which combines live action with animation, has been broadcast over the internet," he said. "And so it happened that the advertising firm Wieden Kennedy, which holds the Coca-Cola account, contacted me.
"Coca-Cola wanted an ad that combines animation with live action. The handed me the script and asked me to design bird characters that build a nest out of drinking straws they gather from all over the world, because the stadium hosting the Olympics in Beijing is called 'Bird's Nest'."
At first Lerner was only hired as an animator and designer, in order to create the characters. But after learning that he was already a director for the French 'Partisan' agency, they quickly changed their tune.
"It's a freelance directors' agency, and the main line of work there is advertisement," he explained. "They also do music videos, like Michel Gondry's 'White Stripes' video. I work for a sub-department that deals with animation."
The people of 'Partisan' also reached Lerner through his graduation project. "They found it on the internet a few months after I had graduated and offered me a job as director with them. I created an ad for the European cellular company Woodphone through them," he said.
"When Coca-Cola realized I had signed with 'Partisan' they asked me to direct the commercial. I went to London for a few months in order to create the animated characters. For the shoot we went to three different continents. We filmed in Africa, Argentina, and China. It was a long and exciting shooting process that took two years."
Lerner said he hopes to do more large-scale projects in the future. "I hope to make more big commercials so I can do my own thing – an animated series for TV or internet, or a computer game," he said. Barring that, he would really like to meet Michel Gandry.
