Press Release

Visual effects and animation company Quiet Man goes boating in their
latest spot for Visa via BBDO. A preview of the upcoming holiday
season, the spot started airing November 1, 2005.
Set in a bustling and brightly-lit toy shop with holiday music drifting
out of the speakers, a man purchases a toy boat with his Visa card.
After a quick swipe and a swoop of the electronic pen, the toys begin
to shake, and a loud rumbling ensues. While other customers look on,
the cashier and the man exchange glances as the toy boat grows to
gargantuan proportions, destroying and knocking over the other toys in
the store. At this point, a voiceover announces a contest that will
award 50,000 people in Visa’s 1.5 million dollar holiday giveaway.
The previsualization for the spot involved roughly building the boat
and the room in 3D. At the set, Quiet Man brought their roughs and
transposed those elements with the footage shot on set on their
computer to create a mock-up of the scene.
“The hardest part of this job was finishing the look of the boat, which
was very reflective. It reflected everything in the store, which had
Christmas lights and numerous toys. We actually shot our own
reflections with our digital cameras, which was basically the reverse
of what the director was shooting,” says Amy Taylor, Executive
Director/Partner at Quiet Man.
Back at the Quiet Man labs, the boat was completed in 3D. The artists
then animated the growing boat and input all the reflections, including
those of the toys being knocked over.
Despite the heavy coordination required for the spot, Quiet Man
completed the spot and even completed a title sequence for the end. “It
was a delight seeing the reflections dance across the boat in the final
cut,” says Taylor.
Tech Tools: Softimage XSI, Photoshop, Inferno, digital cameras, Mac, PC
www.quietman.com