Creating a Miniature Holiday Village to Emphasise the Importance of Empathy
Did you know that empathy declined 48% over the last 30 years, and continues to fall? It’s a depressing statistic, even if not totally surprising. The world is growing harsher and harsher. People are spending more time online, and less in person. For many, it seems like they’re either not equipped with the skills necessary to be empathetic, or they simply don’t want to be… and that’s tragic.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a fight to be had, however. Organisations like Roots of Empathy (ROE) are attempting to do their part to draw awareness and push back against the storm – something that has great potential when paired with the creative thinking of a strong agency. This is exactly what happened this year, as Public Inc., opted to partner with ROE for its annual pro-bono holiday campaign. However, with a limited budget, it would take great allies and a sharp creative insight to bring something memorable to life.
So, in a move which, fittingly, proves the power of empathy is still alive and kicking, the team partnered up with Objex Unlimited and Little Canada, using donated time and 3D scanning to make miniatures of people being unempathetic. Once done, director Drew Lightfoot created the entire holiday village in Unreal Engine, complete with said scans – the perfect backdrop for a holiday spot. Set to a rewritten rendition of ‘The Night Before Christmas’, and furthered by work from Pirate Sound, Hope’s Clover Farms, StylePhotos Studios Inc., Darling VFX and others – all of whom donated time as well – it comes together to send a strong message and emphasise the importance of putting warmth back into the world.
To learn more about the process, and how we can all do our part to spread a little more empathy, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with Public Inc.’s head of production, Marc Milliard, CEO Phil Haid, as well as director Drew Lightfoot, and ROE president and founder, Mary Gordon, for a chat.
LBB> From the top, tell us about this partnership! How did this get started?
Mary> Phil first heard about Roots of Empathy (ROE) about 17 years ago, and we’ve never forgotten each other. We’ve reconnected time and again over the years – the last being at Public’s 15th anniversary. This partnership came about because we had this positive early connection, as well as the fact that working with Public has never felt like work. I don’t work with people unless I feel the vibe; as I always say to my staff, ‘If it isn’t fun, it isn’t done’.
Phil clearly felt that too, which is why he reached out in the summer to ask if ROE wanted to be featured in Public’s annual pro bono holiday campaign. The transfer of ideas among the team was like popcorn. We would bounce off each other. It was a completely productive and enjoyable experience.
LBB> Building on this, tell us more about what Roots of Empathy does! What should people know about you?
Mary> The first thing I always say is that empathy is caught. We live in an emotionally illiterate society, we fear saying something and getting it wrong, and we don’t know how to identify and share our emotions.
In our programme, children have an opportunity that they might have never experienced in their life, where they can build a sense of belonging – a comfort of expressing their true feelings – and, together, explore what those feelings are. It's non-judgemental. And because we are not their teachers, it's a safe and trusted space. And they do share readily.
For example, we might ask, ‘What is the baby feeling? What makes you think they are stressed? Why do you think they feel stressed?’. Then, we help to extend those feelings to ourselves – when was a time that you felt embarrassed? How did you express it? What did you do? And then, we help children develop the ability to identify and understand how their peers are feeling.
Through the programme, children spend a year thinking about how they feel, and learning to recognise that others feel the same way – or differently. It broadens our horizons and helps us recognise that we are all different, and that difference is good.
LBB> Guiding this campaign is the key statistic that empathy has declined by 48% over the last 30 years. What’s causing this? And what can Canadians do to combat that?
Mary> One of the major declines in empathy began around 2000, parallel to the increase in the internet and possibilities of connecting beyond in-person relationships. Since that time, if you look at how we spend our time, face to face relationships are decreasing. And it’s more extreme for young children because their brains develop so fast.
This rise in loneliness is directly related to the decline in empathy. We have a poverty of relationships. And when children only have relationships online, they lack the learning on how to make and keep a friend.
In terms of what we can do, it’s time to invest in empathy. Doing this can build bridges within organisations. It connects opposing views and helps us form a common ground. It creates community where none existed and, the more we use it, the more it spreads and opens up a world of possibility. That is the power of empathy. An investment now - and for the future.
LBB> How did knowing about this empathy decline translate into your creative ideation process? And what made this the right approach to take?
Marc> The holidays are supposed to be joyful. But bright lights are only a temporary distraction from our biggest social challenges: loneliness, youth mental health and bullying, violence, polarisation. These are all rooted in the same thing – the empathy deficit in society.
To get our point across, we paired an idyllic, nostalgic holiday village with scenarios from our less than cheery reality. The juxtaposition helps people think about the world we live in and the world we want to leave behind. The way we can change things is ROE. The organisation is a proven solution to this crisis, paving the way to a more positive future.
LBB> Of course, creating a holiday miniature village filled with people being unempathetic is not a small task. At what point did you know this would be feasible?
Phil> To be honest, our desired goal was a leap of faith at first.
With a limited budget, we quickly ruled out the possibility of filming, which left us in the world of VFX. Enter Objex Unlimited and Little Canada. Objex is the leading service provider of 3D scanning, so our head of production took an example Christmas village and unannouncedly arrived and asked to speak to the president of the company, Steve Cory. Steve greeted us at the door and, thanks to our inspiring script, was on board after a few minutes of explanation. As soon as the team scanned the Christmas village we had with us (that day!), we knew everything would work out fine.
From there, it was just a matter of investing the time and energy to scan 100 villages, along with all the props, signs and, of course, the humans. Seeing as Objex supplies the scanning support used at Little Canada, the team opened its doors to let us and volunteers from our various partners, like Pirate Sound, to come play dress up and immortalise ourselves as 3D figurines. Those are the people who you see in the film!
LBB> And what was this people-scanning process like?
Drew> Unlike live action, we only had one frame to telegraph the human emotion for each character. The scanning technology is an array of 160° cameras that fire simultaneously, which enabled us to capture people mid-stride, or even jumping in the air.
Our original plan was to scan and 3D print each of the models, before filming in live action, but the printing process was set to take weeks. It was our DP, Vinit Borisson, who suggested a fully digital approach. So, instead of printing the figurines, we took the scans and modeled them to look plastic and painted in Unreal Engine.
LBB> From here, what was assembling the actual village like? What went into creating each scenario?
Drew> Because each and every miniature ceramic building was scanned at Objex, we were provided our exterior texture and color information. In Unreal Engine, we then had to paint out each window for transparency, and affect the rest of the model surface to recreate the glow of backlit ceramics. From here the fun started, putting the elements together to create an entire immersive world for our characters with cars, streetlights – right down to the glow of mobile phones.
LBB> Naturally, all of this is guided by a great rewriting of ‘The Night Before Christmas’. What was the rewriting process like for this? And how did you ensure it would perfectly complement each sequence?
Phil> ‘The Night Before Christmas’ is a cozy universal classic that instantly puts you in the holiday mindset. And it’s an observer telling the story of this crazy thing they’re seeing – perfect for this concept and the darker twist we put on it.
For our version, we first came up with a list of the ways society shows a lack of empathy. Then, we weaved our favorites into the existing rhyme scheme, trying to keep a few of the most recognisable moments from the original poem, such as ‘what to my wondering eyes should appear’. We had to be flexible as we discovered which scenes would work on a miniature scale, and we kept evolving the script up until the VO record. We’re so happy with how it turned out, and find it really helps the viewer follow along.
LBB> What was the shooting process like? How does one approach filming at that scale, and do you have any anecdotes from the experience?
Drew> Although it may look photo-real, the entire film was generated in Unreal Engine and Houdini, save the ending shots where our hero girl comes to lend a miniature hand to the bullied boy. Our miniature world was modeled and lit entirely in Unreal, using equivalent lenses and cinematography techniques as if we were shooting it for real. We wanted to recreate the feel of snorkel and macro lensing. We scanned the living room where the live-action scenes took place and rebuilt that in 360 as a backdrop for our miniature world.
LBB> Do you have any memorable lessons learned from the making of this new campaign?
Drew> When utilising bleeding edge technology, you quickly discover its shortcomings and have to pivot on the fly. We likely lost a full day worth of time and effort due to top-of-the-line machines crashing under the pressure of our digital demands.
Mary> We had never been in a relationship before where we were putting such faith and trust in another organisation to build something risky. That’s scary, because reputation is everything, and we were putting ours on the line. But, if you hold onto your dreams and trust your partnerships, a little magic can happen.
People often ask me how I make decisions, and I say, ‘strategic serendipity’. Serendipity is a combination of accidentally finding that you have shared values and dreams. Everything about working on this project with Public has been total strategic serendipity.
LBB> What has the initial response been like?
Phil> We’ve seen overwhelmingly positive responses across the board! With positive reviews in the press and a wild amount of shares and comments from people across the globe, the nostalgic setting of the traditional holiday village (albeit, one that’s a little less merry and bright) has proven to be the right vehicle to make people stop and take notice.
LBB> How does this campaign fit into Roots of Empathy’s plans for 2025?
Mary> Our goal is, always, to reach more children with our programme and help grow empathy around the world. We need to bring a megaphone to the movement so that we can bring empathy to more communities, governments, companies, unions – to anyone who has a circle where they are leaders. This campaign helps bring more attention to our cause.
LBB> Finally, is there an element of the campaign you’re most proud of?
Phil> While our annual holiday campaigns are always an endeavor of love, generosity and creativity, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of time, expertise and passion that all our partners provided towards creating this incredible campaign. The mission and programme of ROE struck a chord with each and every one of us, and it showed in the dedication everyone brought to this project. Every person whose expertise has helped bring this work to life spoke to us about the need for more empathy in the world – and ROE has been working tirelessly to build more of it for decades.
Mary> I am most proud of a moment at the end of the film – the real girl reaching into the scene. It brings the magic of human connection to the spot. It shows that it truly does take a child to raise a village. It’s a metaphor that I always use when I talk about the ROE programme, and it’s portrayed beautifully in the film.
