MPC Amsterdam collaborates with Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam for Milka’s latest pan-European campaign 'Dark Milk'

The film introduces Dark Milk by leveraging a truth about tenderness and the effect it can sometimes have when we feel it. It depicts the moment this new chocolate was created, telling the story of a lovestruck worker at a chocolate factory. Overcome with joy, he expresses his feelings for all to see but, in a punch drunk daze, accidentally adds more cocoa to a batch of milk chocolate.

For this project, MPC Amsterdam was given the visual task to create both the exterior and interior of the Milka Chocolate Factory and its magically endearing horizons. “Using our team of compositors, flame artists, and digital matte painters, we were able to bring the Milka landscape to life” explains Ricky Weissman, Creative Director at MPC Amsterdam.

He adds: “From the outset, we knew that one of our main challenges was going to be centered around the interior of the factory. The interior that was chosen for the shoot was very large, and the Hobby Film production team delivered a wonderful build to help bring this vision to reality. Our goal at MPC was to take that production build and enhance it to a larger, and even grander, scale than what could be captured in camera. Some of the backdrops to the factory were so cavernous, that is was physically impossible to populate the entirety of them with interesting elements and machinery.  So, we took photos of everything we could so that where needed, we could build these amazing backdrops and blend them seamlessly into the live production.” 

With regards to the exterior builds of this advert, Ricky describes how the team helped to curate a landscape that embodies the very soul of Lilaberg: “Time and time again, we were finding interesting new sources of light, and helping to bring that light to life.  We also found great enjoyment in populating these landscapes with physical life and character. By placing some small creatures in the situation with our matte paintings, such as the small butterflies that dance about the grassy fields in the opening shot, and having "Lila" the cow resting peacefully in a field, we really found that we became more deeply rooted to the environment. When all of these elements were combined appropriately, everything felt integrated into this particular world of light and colour.”