“Queen of Hearts” is the story of a woman stuck in an unsatisfying job. Unable to act on her own, her heart takes matters into its own ventricles and busts forth with gusto to take care of business.
This literal execution of “follow your heart” remains practically unchanged from the initial script. Thai director Suthon Petchsuwan added whimsey though the set dressings, casting, and edit. Though hard to notice, the huge lobster helped peg the boss as a bad boss. A placeholder heart made of foam with wire feet was used during shooting for the actors to reference. It was replaced with a CGI model made by the SFX firm The Mill. Originally, we had wanted to use puppetry for the heart to make it more comical and less slick. But these days it is actually easier and cheaper to use CGI hearts.
For the branding at the end, the animators of the show Robot Chicken built and destroyed a miniature office park. The logo and the words START BUILDING were made out of painted acrylic and mounted on a metal plate to slide along. Gravity and some compositing did the rest. It took 6 takes, and six buildings to get right.