To launch the Scion xA hatchback, Attik director/co-founder Simon
Needham was charged with creating a compelling spot aimed at young
adults by emphasizing the car’s look and luxury options, from hubcaps
to stereo components. "The product offers a lot of accessories for the
money- things you’d expect to get in a luxury car," says Needham. "In
essence, the proposition is communicating a luxury car in an urban
environment, with street credibility for young people at the same time
we demonstrate the quantity and quality of the accessories."
To communicate energy and excitement to its targeted audience, Needham
decided that adding lighting effects, textures and other 3D touches was
the way to go. "You get a lot of interesting effects working with
light," says Needham. "Lighting was a way of communicating the
prestigious feel to the car." That’s where San Francisco-based Spy
Post’s visual effects artist Alaina Goetz came into play. The two
creatives have worked together before and Needham, whose training is in
graphic design, feels they make a good match. "I do all my
storyboarding in Photoshop, and they’re usually very well polished," he
says. "Then Alaina helps me achieve the look I’m after."
The spot starts with the Scion xA logo, followed by an array of
flashes, flares, streaks and pops intended to up the excitement
quotient. "It’s all based on light in motion," says Goetz. "They wanted
to accentuate the lines of the car, and light does that."
To emphasize the car’s options, Needham shot the car in a studio,
featuring various parts, such as the pedals and gear shift, both of
which come in different colors, and the indicator light on the side
mirror. Working in Flame, Goetz added graphic lines that accentuated
the colors of these particular features.
These shots were intercut with a sequence of the car, as it moves
through a tunnel, trailing light particles. "They’re not photoreal,"
says Goetz, who was at the shoot in Vancouver. "But they had to be
subtle, little sophisticated bits on top of the car." In addition to
creating light particles in Flame, Goetz created additional light
effects with third party plug-ins, including Sapphire, Tinder Tools and
5-D.
Goetz also had some in-camera lighting effects to play with. They had
been shot using glass, metal pieces, mirrors and handheld flashlights
to get some "fabulous flashes" that Goetz compares to a "transparent
color wash." Even so, these in-camera effects introduced some
unforeseen problems: practical lights illuminated and reflected camera
rigs that had to be painstakingly removed in post.
The most complex task, she says, was matching the light effects from
shots of the car in the tunnel to shots taken inside the studio.
"Trying to make it seamless was a challenge," she says. "There was a
lot of trial and error. I just blended it in to the footage as much as
possible, through compositing layers. I tweaked the saturation and
transparency of the lines to make them blend in more subtly." "Alaina
could be a great graphic designer," says Needham, high praise for
someone who admits he’s a bit of a perfectionist. So much a
perfectionist that Needham re-telecined the spot more than once as the
light effects were composited. "After we added the flares and pops, the
overall image might be slightly different," he says. "Based on
experience, I’ve tried to grade it in the Flame, but it tends to be
messy, so I like to do it properly- to focus on it in telecine."
The:30 debuted on October 31, says Needham, and a:60 version opened in
theaters December 21. "It’s my personal favorite," he says. "It’s a
little longer and gives more space to breathe. I think when you watch
it, you just know it’s for young people."