Psyop take us back to the birds and the bees (well, actually just bees…) in this week's Hotshot, an operatic visual feast for Häagen-Dazs through Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

To the strains of an impassioned operatic duet, a lone red flower delicately opens its petals, inviting a watching honey bee to come drink its nectar. As the bee sets off on his flight to the flower storm clouds begin to gather overhead, threatening to tear the two apart. As the bee zooms in to receive his prize the wind builds and whips him away from the flower, separating the two lovers and blocking the consummation of their union.

Produced for Häagen-Dazs to support its tie-in website, helpthehoneybees.com, the spot aims to raise awareness of the dwindling honey bee population. The site itself is crammed full of bee and honey related factoids as well as offering visitors the opportunity to customise their very on bee which they can then 'beemail' to a friend.

"To create a slightly theatrical look to the piece we decided to film the spot on a stage in Los Angeles," reveals Psyop's Laurent Ledru. "We wanted it to be stylized but still maintain a level of photorealism in the look and integration of the CG Bee and CG Flower."

Psyop stablemate and fellow director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan elaborates: "Because the spot was set to opera, we also wanted to give the hero characters details that served as nod to the opulent and baroque qualities of opera. The bee has gold detail in his face and wings and the flower is red velvet like texture with the same gold detail and glass pistils. We created and animated the bee and the flower in Maya with a team of seven artists. The CG elements were then composited in Flame with a team of two artists."

Click here to view the spot.