If you want big branding, you want to see your spot on the big screen. And if you really want to make an impression, you want that spot to show in stereo 3D in front of 3D movies. The BMW-owned Mini brand employed that strategy for a large-scale cinema spot using ultra-high-speed footage to show a heavy monster truck gliding through the air above one each of the four different cars in Mini's product line. Mini says it took a crew of 120, including the stunt driver, to make the shoot happen. That figure includes stereo-3D experts Joshua Ferrazzano and David Shafei, whose World War Seven production company was brought in to figure out how to make stereo 3D happen on time and on budget. We talked to them about prepping for the day, shooting with Phantoms and Reds, and monitoring super-slow-motion footage in stereo.... »
When it comes to top-quality post-production work, high-end toolsets are becoming more affordable to boutique users. That trend helped DI colorist Micah Kirz start his own New York company, Out of the Blue, with executive producer Steve Bodner this summer.... »
For Givenchy’s new fragrance “Play for Her,” fashion ad agency Anton & Partners turned to Nola Pictures and wild(child) post to create time-lapse effects and sync the movement of city lights with music in the :30 spot.... »
The typical viewer of Nicktoons is a 12-year-old boy in couch-potato mode. How do you get them excited about your programming? According to Michael Waldron, creative director at Nailgun*, it all comes down to blowing stuff up. But in a good way.... »
Everyone may find something to like somewhere in the bizarre programming on VH1 — that's the message of "If You Like," a new 60-second promo for the cable channel directed by Bryan Buckley for agency Y&R in New York. Y&R Producer Lora Schulson pulled post-production studio Absolute into the mix for rig-removal, compositing, and other eleventh-hour touch-up work on the promo.... »
“You can wait your whole life,” says animation director Ken Lidster, “to get a script that has the opening line: ‘Open on a stop-motion animated world in which Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sasquatch, a leprechaun, an alien, and a Diet Dr. Pepper deliveryman discuss the public’s inability to believe in them.’”... »
Scion's new "Brand Manifesto" campaign is the latest salvo of hip, colorful advertising meant to strike a chord with the Toyota brand's young demographic. The pitch for Scion in general is "vehicle as self-epxression," and Simon Needham, co-founder and creative director at the creative agency ATTIK (San Francisco, CA), was tasked with figuring out ways to convey the personality of three different Scion models on TV, online, in print, and in out-of-home media.... »
Santa Monica's Eight VFX brought its knack for sophisticated motion graphics and traditional CG work to "Efficient Dynamics," a BMW spot that compares the engineering features of the new BMW Series 3 to the attributes of a competitive swimmer.... »
“Mecha-Mosquitos,” “Defense Mechanism,” and “Bats” take place in an edgy, sci-fi CG world where gas-guzzlers can have mosquito wings, a horde of bats can live in a car trunk and automobiles inhabit a predatory underwater-like environment.... »