Creating The World Of The Chilli Man

Here's a little look at the making of the set for The Chilli Man advert that I've been making for Habaneros Burrito Bar. I needed a set depicting chilli plants growing from the soil. I wanted there to be lots of chillies on the plants to make the scene bright and colourful.

The shape of the chilli plants is inspired not only by the real thing but also the Habaneros' branding, which depicts 2D chilli plants, where the curls of the plant are more angular and change in thickness at their bends. I made a wire armature first, before wrapping it with green tissue paper, using a little PVA to keep it in place.

I then stuck angular tissue paper leaves on to the plant.

I made the chillies from air dry clay, with wire embedded in them (this would act as a stem which I could tie round the chilli plant to attach them to it), I sanded them and then painted them with acrylic inks, to give a more vivid colour.

One of the chilli plants, decked out with chilli peppers.

I created a soil like texture from papier mache. My first attempt at soil created a very realistic effect but I felt this did not fit with the stylised aesthetic I was going for, so found a cleaner, simpler look that still conveyed the idea of soil. My first attempt involved mixing crushed up cornflakes and oats into brown paint and painting this texture onto card.

The loose soil is simply coco pops! I needed this to be movable for when the Chilli Man emerges from the soil.

Here's a photo of my first soil attempt, so glad I kept experimenting as it definitely looks better when made in a cleaner style!

To allow the Chilli Man to pop up from the soil, I  needed to create a trapdoor for him to come through. I bolted some cardboard to the back of the stage to create an overhang, cut a circular hole in the centre of it and glued foam under the hole, so that loose soil could sit on the foam before the Chilli Man emerged, and was flexible enough that he could push up through it. I was using an old fashioned flying rig to hold the Chilli Man in place.

A photo of the foam trapdoor. I painted it brown so that if it was in shot at any point it wouldn't look out of place.

 For the background I painted a big piece of foam board with acrylic paints, depicting a forest of chilli plants.

Lastly, I made some papier mache rocks/pebbles and paper leaves to add a bit more interest to the scene.