"We've constructed a bar for this shoot," said Littlechild from the set of his latest endeavor, an interactive project for Heineken created via The Red Brick Road, in conjunction with digital agency Ruby and digital production firm Unit 9. "The project calls for a 360 degree view, and as a result we're open for business."

The business at hand - thirsty Ukrainian patrons aside - is a series of live action web films helmed by Littlechild for www.knowthesigns.com, a Website from Heineken designed to inspire responsible drinking this holiday season. Littlechild has completed the project, and a trailer has debuted on YouTube, hooking viewers with a bar scene in which several patrons overstep the boundaries of acceptable behavior. The site itself allows visitors to observe the scene as a panorama, moving a virtual joystick over the screen and identifying the many embarrassing characters who've simply had one too many.

"We came to the project in collaboration with Unit 9, which was designing the site," said Outsider producer Ben Roberts. "We were involved from the start, trying to figure out how the films would work, how to make the story work and the action succeed an interactive element."

To block the action, Roberts, Littlechild, and company constructed intricate flow charts, marking the positions and business of all the actors, who must keep resetting and restarting the action to maintain the proper flow. "The action runs on an imperceptible loop, with characters you're meant to pick out, but not too easily," Littlechild explained. "The Red Brick Road creative team had a great idea but wasn't sure it would work, so we all had to prove that it could."

An acclaimed spot director who has done notable work for IBM, Kia, Nestle, Citroen, and others, Littlechild is adept at grabbing a viewer's attention. However, he acknowledged the challenge of going interactive. "Getting an audience to focus on one or two characters for :30 is one task," he said. "Engaging them in a story on a website, is quite another, especially when you only have 5 or 6 seconds before they might choose to turn away."

The site has now launched, and it is live in every country that sells Heineken. That means Littlechild's characters - and their stories - are enjoying global exposure.

And the bar in Kiev? "Well, it's a Soviet exhibition hall," said Littlechild, "but that doesn't mean they've struck the bar."

Client: Heineken

Title: "Sleeper, Cryer, Groper, Exhibitionist, Fighter"

Agency: The Red Brick Road
CD: Justin Tindall
CW: Gemma Philips
AD: Mark Slack
Agency Producer: Charles Crisp

Digital Agency: Ruby
Digital Production Company: Unit 9

Production Company: Outsider
Director: Henry Littlechild
Producer: Ben Roberts
DOP: Ian Foster

Editorial: Final Cut
Editor: Adam Rudd