How do you make the most outlandish scenario seem strqangely plausible? When RSA DP/director Samuel Bayer undertook the Mountain DEw spot "Sled" for BBDO, the challenge was depicting an icy race between a dogsled team and a bunch of mushing men. To keep the gag convincing, Bayer aimed to create the most of the effect in-camera. Method Studios' lead VFX supervisor, Alex Frisch, who was on hand for the three-day shoot in Whistler, British Columbia, highlights the crew's execution of the rugged Artic effect.
The Power of Velcro: One reason the spot looks so good is that the dog
was absolutely fantastic. We were able to rig the dog so it could raise
its paw. It was all practical. The dog trainer put little booties on
the dog with Velcro underneath, so the dog was basically Velcroed to
the sled. I think he had the time of his life. We’ve done a lot of
facial enhancements for animals in Mountain Dew commercials, but we
didn’t have to do anything this time because the dog was so good!
The Right Approach: After the camera rig was built, it was just a
matter of shooting in Whistler, Canada, for about three days. Sam used
several cameras— one was on a Ski-doo to track with the rig -— and most
of our work was to remove the wires and the rig from different shots.
We shot it practically, and that’s why it looks so real. We stayed away
from shooting them on stage. We wanted to shoot it for real, on the
ground, with real guys hitting the snow.
Getting the Shot: It was an idea from Bill Bruce, the creative director
at BBDO, of guys driving the sled instead of dogs. So we had to try to
figure it out. Both Bill and Sam [Bayer] really like to shoot
practically — the stunt’s in the can — and rely on computer-generated
images the least amount possible. So Method artist Cedric Nicholas and
I thought about a rig that would allow the stunt runners to run on all
fours, like gazelles.
Keeping it Straight: The Cablecam system was basically two big towers
about 300 feet apart, 30 or 40 feet high, with several wires running
from one to the other. A computer-controlled system maintained a
constant suspension on the stuntmen’s harnesses so they could perform
their run.
Modding the Cablecam: [The crew] had to test to find the minimum
space that must be between the eight runners so they could run safely.
They also had to design the truss that was actually holding the wires,
but that truss itself was attached to a standard Cablecam system.
Speed Demons: One of the problems was getting the rig to move fast
enough to outrun the actual dogsled— because the dogs were actually
faster. On some of the shots showing one next to the other, we had to
separate them and shoot different takes while varying the camera speed.
We shot the dogs at 30 fps and the humans at 20 [and then composited
the separate images].
The Sky’s the Limit: This was a matte painting created off a plate
because, obviously, we set up the rig at the bottom of a valley— there
was no way we could do that on top of a mountain. So we combined a real
plate shot from a helicopter on top of a mountain with our plate of the
guys running with the rig, and then created the sky in the Inferno.
On Collaboration: We are really here to help creators and filmmakers
achieve their vision. Here, our role was to come up with the right rig,
the right device, in the first place. I have to give a lot of credit to
the riggers, the Cablecam people, and the stunt coordinator, Charlie
Croughwell. They made it so easy because they were all so professional
and right on the money.
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