UNIT & LNER bring back beloved Puppet Eleanor for their latest campaign

UNIT, the independent shortform and longform creative studio based in Fitzrovia, has partnered with DAWN Productions to deliver VFX and finishing for LNER’s latest digital out of home campaign, continuing the brand’s ongoing platform featuring the Eleanor puppet.

Building on the visual language of the previous campaign, the new work, Directed by Jack Terry with Executive Producer Dawn Moretti & UNIT Executive Producer Phil Delaney, comprises five digital out of home executions and sees the familiar puppet character return in a series of composed, character-led moments. 

UNIT’s involvement spanned offline edit, online, colour, compositing, with a particular focus on seamlessly integrating multiple elements into a unified final image.

The Eleanor puppet was shot on green screen with puppeteers, within a practical carriage built in a studio surrounded by a greenscreen. UNIT combined extensive compositing and colour work to place the character convincingly into a range of environments, using multiple plates and locations to create a single, coherent visual world. A key challenge lay in removing puppeteers while adding background action and passengers, ensuring the character remained central and believable across all executions.

The work was led by UNIT Flame artists Fraser Cleland and Rob Ellis, Grade was by Creative Director of Colour Denny Cooper and Offline Edit by Colin Sumsion.

Reflecting on the collaboration, UNIT Executive Producer Phil Delaney said “Working with DAWN on this campaign was a genuinely collaborative process. There was a shared understanding of the character, the tone and the craft required to bring it together, which made it a rewarding piece of work from start to finish.”

The campaign continues LNER’s use of character-driven storytelling, combining humour, familiarity and craft-led post production to extend an established brand world into new executions.

Creds:

Stills & Moving image Production Co: DAWN Productions

Executive Producer: Dawn Moretti

Senior Producer: Fliss Cruickshank

Director/Stills Photographer: Jack Terry

DOP: Dom John

1st AD/Producer: Dave Treagust

Puppeteers: Andy Heath, Iestyn Evans, Lynn Robertson Bruce

Production:-

Focus Puller: Nacho Guzman

Clapper Loader: Róisín Byrne 

Playback Op: Rob Toft

Gaffer: Pete Hepplewhite 

Spark: Roger Richards

Digi Tech: Gareth Williams

Runners: Max Blunt, Ally Hicks, Willbur Collier 

Belgrade, Serbia Unit: 

Exec Producer: Goran Djikic 

Line Producer: Vladimir Dudar 

Production Manager: Aleksandar Mitrovic 

Production Manager: Ivana Popovic 

PA: Sara Popovic 

PA: Petar Pusic 

2nd AD: Katarina Bošković & Ratko Obrenov 

Unit Manager: Milos Eric 

Unit Runner: Vanja Vorgic 

Focus Puller: Marko Jokic 

Clapper Loader: Andrei Panov 

Video Assistant: Zeljko Nikolic 

DIT: Filip Orlandic 

Qtake Op: Ivan Tanaskovic 

Digi Tech: Matt Lloyd

Gaffer: Dragan Šapić 

Desk Op: Branislav Djurkovic 

Key Grip: Ivan Lekovic 

Truss Op: Predrag Perovic 

Production Designer UK: Mar Ingham

Art Director: Damjan Paransosic

Standby Props: Alen Hasanovic

Props Assistant: Dejan Piljak

Costume Designer: Ivana Ivic

Costume Designer Assistant: Anja Radovic

Make Up Artist: Irena Miletic

Hair Stylist: Zvezdana Svetozarevic