Changes: Flat Eric

PERFORMER	Richard Coombs
DEBUT	1999
DESIGN	Janet Knechtel builder

Revision as of 22:37, 2 July 2015

Heatflateric — Flat Eric on the cover of *Heat*, April 3-9, 1999.

Flat Eric was a yellow puppet character seen in a series of commercials in the UK for Levi's Jeans, advertising the "STA-PREST One Crease Denim Clothing" line. In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Phillipe Petit) around California, evading the police as a wanted criminal.

The character was based on a design by French artist Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux). Mr. Oizo had created and built a character called Stephane. Stephane was almost identical to Flat Eric; the only differance was Stephane had ears and his hands were fixed. Stephane had appeared in some earlier short films by Mr. Oizo, and had a small cult following in the the UK and France.

In 1999, Levi's decided to build a television commercial campaign around the puppet, to be directed by Oizo. The character was renamed Eric, a more "international name," in contrast to the original French name Stephane. The original concepts for the initial ad was to have Eric's head get run over by a car giving him a flat head. That idea was later dropped, but the name Flat Eric stuck.

Levi's hired The Jim Henson Company to build Flat Eric based on the original design of Stephane (with some minor changes and upgrades). Mr. Oizo directed all the Flat Eric commercials and performed the music for the ads (with his songs "Flat Beat" and "Monday Massacre"). He commented on the collaboration with Henson:

“When they first made him he looked too much like Kermit. He had a rounded body which Flat Eric isn't supposed to have. It took 15 days to make him but the second puppet was too tall - he was like a small child and he wasn't funny. Flat Eric has to be little and small to be laughable, so I said no to number two. The third or fourth time he was just about right. He had to be redesigned several times before he created the same mood and feeling that I had with my first, original puppet Stephane.”

The Levi's ads took three days to shoot. The original short films made with Stephane cost around 15,000 francs to produce. The two Levi's ads cost around two or three million each. Flat Eric was also featured in Mr. Oizo's music video for "Flat Beat", and appeared as a prop in first season of the 2001-2003 original BBC comedy The Office. The rights to the character are retained by Oizo.

Eric appears in a 5 minute spot promoting Construction Site. Diggs seemed very keen on getting his autograph.

Quentin Duplex took part in the documentary The Wonderful World Of Puppets, in which he was interviewed about both Flat Eric and Stephene.

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+{{character|image=FlatERic.jpg|performer=[[Richard Coombs]]|debut=1999|design=[[Janet Knechtel]]|designnote=builder}}
-'''Flat Eric''' was a yellow puppet character seen in a series of commercials for [[Levi's]] that advertised their "STA-PREST One Crease Denim Clothing". In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Phillipe Petit) around California, avoiding the Police as a wanted criminal.
+[[Image:Heatflateric.jpg|thumb|300px|Flat Eric on the cover of ''Heat'', April 3-9, 1999.]]
+'''Flat Eric''' was a yellow puppet character seen in a series of commercials in the UK for Levi's Jeans, advertising the "STA-PREST One Crease Denim Clothing" line. In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Phillipe Petit) around [[California]], evading the police as a wanted criminal.
-The character was based on a design by French artist Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux). Mr Oizo created had built a character called Stephane. Stephene, was almost identical to Flat Eric - the only differance was Stephene had ears and his hands were not moveable. Stephene had appeared in some earlier short films by Mr. Oizo, and had a small kind of cult following in the the UK and France.
+The character was based on a design by [[France|French]] artist Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux). Mr. Oizo had created and built a character called Stephane. Stephane was almost identical to Flat Eric; the only differance was Stephane had ears and his hands were fixed. Stephane had appeared in some earlier short films by Mr. Oizo, and had a small cult following in the the UK and France.
-The character Flat Eric was called Eric because Mr Oizo (the creator) and the people at Levis' ad agency felt it was a more "international name" rather than the character's original French name Stephane.
-The original concepts for the ad was to have Eric's head get run over by a car giving him a flat head. That idea was never used but the name Flat Eric stuck.
+In [[1999]], Levi's decided to build a television commercial campaign around the puppet, to be directed by Oizo. The character was renamed Eric, a more "international name," in contrast to the original French name Stephane. The original concepts for the initial ad was to have Eric's head get run over by a car giving him a flat head. That idea was later dropped, but the name Flat Eric stuck.
-Levi's got [[The Jim Henson Company]] to build Flat Eric based on the original design of Stephane (with some minor changes and upgrades). On working with the Henson Workshop to build the puppet, Mr Oizo said, "When they first made him he looked too much like [[Kermit]]. He had a rounded body which Flat Eric isn't supposed to have. It took 15 days to make him but the second puppet was too tall - he was like a small child and he wasn't funny. Flat Eric has to be little and small to be laughable, so I said no to number two. The third or fourth time he was just about right. He had to be redesigned several times before he created the same mood and feeling that I had with my first, original puppet Stephane."
+Levi's hired [[The Jim Henson Company]] to build Flat Eric based on the original design of Stephane (with some minor changes and upgrades).  Mr. Oizo directed all the Flat Eric commercials and performed the music for the ads (with his songs "Flat Beat" and "Monday Massacre"). He commented on the collaboration with Henson: {{quote|When they first made him he looked too much like [[Kermit the Frog|Kermit]]. He had a rounded body which Flat Eric isn't supposed to have. It took 15 days to make him but the second puppet was too tall - he was like a small child and he wasn't funny. Flat Eric has to be little and small to be laughable, so I said no to number two. The third or fourth time he was just about right. He had to be redesigned several times before he created the same mood and feeling that I had with my first, original puppet Stephane.}}
+The Levi's ads took three days to shoot. The original short films made with Stephane cost around 15,000 francs to produce. The two Levi's ads cost around two or three million each.  Flat Eric was also featured in Mr. Oizo's music video for "Flat Beat", and appeared as a prop in first season of the [[2001]]-[[2003]] original BBC comedy ''[[The Office]]''. The rights to the character are retained by Oizo.
-Mr Oizo directed all the Flat Eric commercials and performed the music for the ads too (with his songs "Flat Beat" and "Monday Massacre").
+Eric appears in a 5 minute spot promoting ''[[Construction Site]]''.  Diggs seemed very keen on getting his autograph.
-Flat Eric was also featured in Mr. Oizo's music video for "Flat Beat", and he also appeared as a prop in first season of the 2001-2003 original BBC comedy The Office.
+Quentin Duplex took part in the documentary [[The Wonderful World Of Puppets]], in which he was interviewed about both Flat Eric and Stephene.
-The Levi's ads took three days to shoot. The original short films made with Stephane cost around 15,000 francs to produce. The two Levis ads cost around two or three million each.  Flat Eric still has a kind og cult following in parts of Europe to this day. The rights to Flat Eric are retianed by Mr. Oizo.
+==External links==
-==External Links==
 *[http://members.tripod.com/Flat_Eric_/main.htm#About%20Flat%20Eric Flat Eric Web-Ring]
 *[http://fly.to/flat-eric The Cult of Flat Eric]
+*[http://www.flateric.com FlatEric.com - Fan website]
 [[Category:Commercials Characters]]
 [[Category:Muppet Characters]]