Based on the true story of a Chipotle farmer, “A Future Begins” champions a family farm’s remarkable revival. The stop-motion animated film begins by depicting a farming family sending their child off to college. While the family battles to keep their farm intact, ultimately putting their land up for sale, the child struggles to discover his calling away at school. After a moment passes where his true duty becomes clear, the child returns to save the family farm by introducing new technology and sustainable growing techniques, which are inspired by current Chipotle suppliers and partners.

In the last ten years, the U.S. has lost more than 20 million acres of family-run farmland, a trend that continues at an average rate of 2 million acres per year. A Future Begins is dedicated to the family-run farms that make up Chipotle’s supply chain, showing how sustainable practices and technology can support the next generation of farmers.

The film was made entirely in-camera, using stop-frame animation, with no additional visual effects from a technical standpoint. Stop-frame is a traditional technique where each frame of animation is captured individually. It’s a laborious technique, our two animators moved each puppet one tiny increment at a time: every aspect of the production is considered, from avocados the size of your little fingernail to flooded tomato fields. The team really pushed the medium, combining a single fluid camera move across ten separate sets, each on a successively larger scale.

Every single piece of this production was crafted by hand. A team of exceptional animators, designers, prop makers, and set makers built the farm. The production consisted of 10 different sets, featuring 82 tiny resin puppets; 12 sheep, ten cows, 12 pigs, ten chickens, 12 farm helpers, ten characters on campus, and 16 audience members, all captured in one fluid camera move. The commitment to authenticity ensured only farming techniques used by Chipotle suppliers were shown, including solar panels to provide shade for animals and miniature polytunnels. The ambitious project combined small details and big decisions, from creating original artwork for the subway scene to making an entirely virtual version of the film in 3D ahead of the shoot, which was used as a guide for the motion control camera rig (a giant robotic arm on a train track, effectively).