Franà§ois Vogel understands working in multiple dimensions after directing (and starring) in a series of award-winning spots for HP, where real life instantly becomes a photograph. It wasn’t a big jump for the Paranoid Projects: Tool director to play with space, time and multiple personalities in three effects-intensive spots for the 2006 Lexus IS sport sedan campaign. Its theme, "Why live in one dimension?", unites the spots. The first, "Running Rings," opens on a man and woman standing in a forest and multiplying into versions of themselves, which then interact with each another. Vogel likens the proliferation to "a magic trick" where, by reproducing, the couple conjures up the car as if from "the hat of a magician."
On set, three women and three men were asked to act separately or together, depending on choreography. To pull off the delay effect, instead of using a motion-control rig moving around the car, "we had a dolly with very good hand-control technicians who could make the same exact move for each take," says Vogel.
To make it all work, much of the post team came to the Prague location. Editor Hal Honigsberg of Chrome used Avid and After Effects to make the rough cut and was joined by members of Paris-based BUF, which handled visual effects. Executive producer Olivier Gilbert says the delay effect was handled with great attention to detail. "Franà§ois was very precise in his desires. His experience as an effects artist greatly enhanced the process. Sometimes the simpler it is, the harder it is."
The men and women were multiplied in post. "It’s a compositing effect with a lot of roto mattes," says Gilbert. "It features a lot of time-consuming tasks, a lot of layers." BUF used proprietary rotoscoping and morphing software to work on the elements and completed the project in Inferno. BUF received the footage in HD, which Gilbert says "permitted reframing, extra space on sides for stabilization and material for the delayed part of the master character."
