Toblerone “Christmas” is a character spot campaign directed by Richard Rosenman of Hatch Studios Ltd. This endearing :15 tag features four stylized characters in an equally stylized Toblerone world where various objects throughout the environment appear to have the Toblerone bite taken out of them. The spot opens with a family driving through snow covered roads with a christmas tree attached to the roof of their car. Two happy children and a dog sit on the back seat of the car.
As the car makes it way through falling snow and a cheery Christmas landscape, the children notice large Toblerone bites taken from a roof top and then a garden gnome. The final shot shows the christmas tree perched on top of the family car also has a Toblerone bite mark.
The spot was modeled and animated in 3dsmax 9, rendered with VRay SP2 and composited with Combustion 2009. It was onlined in Flame.
The Toblerone “Christmas” concept was also used across an accompanying magazine print campaign.
About Hatch Studios In June of 2006, Richard Rosenman and two partners opened the doors of Hatch Studios Ltd., a full-service animation and motion graphics production studio located in downtown Toronto, Canada. The Hatch Studios goal is to continue producing cutting-edge animation and motion graphics for print, broadcast and film.
About Richard Rosenman
Richard Rosenman has over 12 years of work experience in the national and international classical and computer animation industry. He has produced over 50 commercials for both film and broadcast, including many award winning projects. Richard Rosenman has extensive experience in all formats of animation including short form, long form, series, gaming, effects, web and film. Additional skills include live-action shoot supervising, computer graphics programming, art direction, storyboarding, conceptual design, character design, broadcast design, print and web development.
CREDITS
Director: Richard Rosenman
Exec. Producer: Randi Yaffa
Producer: Holly Nichols
Characters & Props design: Angelo Libutti
Environment / Props modeling: Stephane Goulet, Raden Slipicevic, Rowan Simpson
Character modeling: Wendy Rozycki, David Emirzian, Corey Hayes
Animation: Scott Guppy, Kevin Vriesinga
TD: Paul Neale, Mathieson Facer, Eric Harvey, Felipe Nogueira
Texture Assist: Chris Crozier
Texture, lighting, rendering & compositing: Brad Husband
Anonymous Content’s Justin Reardon via SF-based Cutwater, directs this wild :60 for video game developer Ubisoft. The pro shines light on true devotion to the sport for his new game Shaun White Snowboarding. Shaun White Snowboarding is a sports video game powered by the award-winning Assassin’s Creed engine for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 system.
The game is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft and was released on November 14, 2008. Shaun White Snowboarding is being developed from the ground up for the Wii system, taking full advantage of the Wii Balance Board accessory and featuring its own unique storyline and adventure with Shaun White. It is also being developed for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Windows.
Developed in close collaboration with Shaun White, Olympic Gold Medalist and eight-time X Games Gold Medalist, Shaun White Snowboarding allows players to enter a world of total freedom, where they can create their own experience and choose how, where and with whom they want to ride.
Anonymous Content is an industry-leading production and management firm that leverages its unrivaled reach and access to talent to create and produce innovative content across all its divisions: Film, Integrated, Commercials, Music Video, Television, and Talent.
Anonymous Content was formed in 1999 by a collaboration of business and creative minds responsible for developing some of the industry’s most respected entertainment and branded content. In launching the firm, the founders combined their unique talents, distinct vision for the future of content creation, and unmatched industry access. Since then, Anonymous has been able to extend its reach across entertainment, exercising its capacity to package talent and mine literary material from deep and powerful resources.
Company principals have developed longstanding direct relationships with talent, talent agencies, advertising agencies, domestic and international distributors, and broadcasters, reinforcing their ability to assemble the right team for any project. They create compelling and entertaining content while facilitating the development, production, and distribution of programming through both traditional and emerging media channels. The firm is currently in production of an impressive slate of highly-anticipated feature films and is responsible for producing films such as Babel and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Its commercial arm has been part of many of the industry’s most successful campaigns, as well being at the forefront of the evolution of brand integration campaigns such as BMW Films. The Anonymous team now consists of more than 100 full-time employees at its Culver City, New York, and London offices.
The Creds:
Client: Ubisoft Entertainment
Spots Title: Let’s Go Ride
Air Date: October 2008
Agency: Cutwater, SF
CD: Fabio Costa
Executive Creative Director: Chuck McBride
Copywriter: Noah Phillips
Art Director: Kele Dobrinski
Producer: Mai Huynh
Prod Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Justin Reardon
EP: Jeff Baron
EP/Head of Commercials: Dave Morrison
Head of Production: Sue Ellen Clair
Producer: Norman Reiss
Production Supervisor: Bob Williamson
Editorial: Spy Post
Editor(s): Edward Feldman, Nathan Petty
Sr. Editorial Producer: Rowena Cape
Telecine: Complete Post
Colorist: Sparkle
Producer: Kevin
Visual Effects: The Mill
VFX Supervisor: David Parker
EP: Gabby
Producer: Ari Davis
DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures Corporation present DreamWork’s first film to be produced in Ulitmate 3-D technology. ‘Monsters Vs Aliens’ reinvents the classic 50s monster movie into an irreverent modern day action comedy. When a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country, The American President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist a motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction. ‘Monsters Vs. Aliens’ is directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon, produced by Lisa Stewart and co-produced by Jill Hooper & Latifa Ouaou.
When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound.
There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a group of other monsters: the brilliant insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and a 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus.
Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.
The cast of ‘Monsters vs Aliens’ includes: Ocar Winner Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy aka Ginomica; Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach Ph.D; Will Arnett as The Missing Link; Seth Rogen as B.O.B; Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar; Emmy Winner Stephen Colbert as The President of the United States; Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland as General W.R. Monger; and Paul Rudd as Susan’s boyfriend Derek.
‘Monsters Vs. Aliens’ is directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), produced by Lisa Stewart and co-produced by Jill Hooper and Latifa Ouaou.
The film marks the theatrical debut of DreamWorks Animation’s Ultimate 3-D, the studio’s proprietary production process of authoring its animated films in 3-D from start to finish. ‘Monsters Vs. Aliens’ is due for release 27 March 2009.
About DreamWorks Animation SKG
DreamWorks Animation is principally devoted to developing and producing computer generated, or CG, animated feature films. With world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced management team and advanced CG filmmaking technology and techniques, DreamWorks Animation makes high quality CG animated films meant for a broad movie-going audience. The Company has theatrically released a total of fifteen animated feature films including Antz, Shrek, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over
the Hedge, Shrek the Third and Bee Movie.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Picutures Corporation is a unit of Viacom. a global entertainment company that produces and distributes filmed entertainment through the Paramount Motion Picutre Group. PHE is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS, PBS and Hasbro, and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.
Shilo and Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam have won the 2008 London International Awards Gold Statue for Television/Cinema Animation. Their work, a collaboration with MTV Networks and The Burma Arts Board; is a provocative, groundbreaking 90-second Public Service Announcement entitled “Burma Viral”. Featuring a custom score from Amsterdam-based Good Sounds and meticulously animated footage of warplanes bombing Burma with flowers as a dramatic call-to-action, the film invited viewers to visit a Burma Arts Board website. There, visitors can send messages of support to the people of Burma in honor of their continuing struggles against their oppressive government, and also learn more about the devastating effects caused by Cyclone Nargis and contribute to relief efforts.
Shilo co-founder André Stringer served as the company’s creative director on the project, and as its lead artist, together with Tamir Sapir and David Hill. The company’s executive producers were Tracy Chandler and Mark Hanrahan, Lindsay Bodanza was their producer, and Brenda Bentz van den Berg was the agency’s producer.
“We seized this opportunity to make a project with Carl Le Blond, MTV and our other partners that people would connect with, that would raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the people of Burma,” said Shilo’s Stringer and Chandler following the presentation of the award in London. “We’re extremely proud that the prestigious judges of the London International Awards chose this project as the best in its category, and we’re still optimistic that the film’s message of powerful people and forces uniting to aid the citizens of Burma can come to pass… despite their harrowing, continuing struggles.”
“In regard to this project, from the very beginning, everyone I met at Shilo was just automatically going above and beyond… and that to me is what filmmaking is all about,” Le Blond said. “As the details of the cyclone came to light, that same spirit allowed us all to take the film a step further, to a point where it could potentially heighten relief efforts, while also raising awareness for the social difficulties these people face every day, even under normal circumstances. So as you might easily imagine, the recognition of this Gold London International Award really is a great result for a great piece of work.”
Of the nearly 18,000 total submissions into the London International Awards from 81 countries, only five percent reached finalist status. From that elite group, less than two percent earned Silver and less than one percent won Gold.
“The standard of animation in film has just made quantum leaps forward in the past few years,” commented Barbara Levy, president of London International Awards. “Only the very best would be considered for metal.”
Last month, the “Burma Viral” project was also presented with the Silver Shark Award during the 46th annual Kinsale Shark Awards, in the category of International Craft: Best Animation. One of the longest running international advertising festivals, the Kinsale Shark Awards celebrate the best work in broadcast advertising from Ireland and around the world.
About Shilo
Shilo is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company representing a group of filmmakers led by directors Jose Gomez and Andre Stringer. Internationally known for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary, Shilo’s deeply held passions for design-infused storytelling and their innovative applications of live-action, design, and animation techniques deliver breakthrough experiences for screens large and small. From its studios in New York and Del Mar, California, where recent projects have spanned short films, commercials and music videos, Shilo has the capacity and experience to originate ideas and handle all aspects of production. Shilo published its first book, We Make It Good, in 2007.
Clients: MTV Networks International and The Burma Arts Board
MTV Networks International: John Jackson, Director of Social Responsibility
The Burma Arts Board: Suki Dusanj, Founder
Sam Roddick, Activist
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam
Executive Creative Director: Carl Le Blond
Agency Producer: Brenda Bentz van den Berg
Writer: Carl Le Blond
Production Company: Shilo (Bicoastal, USA)
Director: Shilo
Creative Director: Andre Stringer
Executive Producer: Tracy Chandler
Executive Producer (UK): Mark Hanrahan
Lead Artists: Andre Stringer, Tamir Sapir, David Hill
Matte Painting: Mathieu Reynault and Rodeo FX, Andre Stringer, Marco Giampaolo, Cassidy Gearhart, Noah Conopask
3D Animators: Henning Koczy, Richard Cayton, Ohad Bracha, Bren Wilson, Eugen Sasu, Kiel Figgens
3D Artists: Christina Ku, Richard Kim, Warren Heimall, Craig Kohlemeyer, Scott Denton
Compositors: David Hill, Andre Stringer, Tamir Sapir, Marco Giampaolo, Cassidy Gearhart, Noah Conopask, Stieg Retlin
Typography: Evan Dennis
Miniature Design: Willi Patton
Editor: Nathan Caswell
Sound Design: Dante Nou
Coordinator: Danielle Smith
Producer: Lindsay Bodanza
Music & Final Mix: Good Sounds (Amsterdam)
RELATED WEBSITES:
Burma Arts Board: www.noneofusarefree.org
Shilo’s portfolio site: www.wemakeitgood.com/article/live/burma
Shilo: www.shilo.tv
Framestore’s digital puppeteers have been hard at work recently, bringing two further adventures of the ‘C’mon’ bunch to the screen. Concert and Cinema were created by DLKW and directed by Dom & Nic for Outsider. The ads are designed to draw attention to some of the in-car entertainment options available for the Corsa. Each spot features the five ‘C’mon’ puppets – Red, Blue, White, Cherri and Moo – who first appeared nearly two years ago. Concert sees our gang headed for a gig. Parking outside the arena, they plug in their stereo to the car’s inbuilt mp3 set-up and start rocking. They are spotted by the star of the show, who soon joins them as they swoon and groove all over the back seat.
Cinema again takes the idea of car as entertainment centre and runs with it, as the gang head for a local cinema. But they are only stopping by for supplies of popcorn and soda. Sprinting back into their car, they fire up the DVD player and settle down for the main feature, soon to be joined by a passing usherette.
As Paul Denhard, Senior TD on both spots, points out, “Technically, we’ve got quite a ‘mature’ set-up at this point down the line, and we took it to the next level, made it a lot more streamlined and uniform, allowing us to hit the ground running. Which we needed to here, as the deadlines were very tight.”
Denhard believes that the sort of material the creatives are coming up with also reflects the ease borne of familiarity with the technical challenges of these ultra-realistic cloth simulation puppets.
Denhard said “There are more characters in the shots, they are seen closer up, the animation is more ambitious, they’re interacting a lot more: it all shows how far we’ve ‘come on’, I guess.”
CREDITS
AGENCY: DLKW
PRODUCER: Christian Lobo
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Outsider
DIRECTORS: Dom & Nic
PRODUCER: John Madsen
No Restrictions is a beautiful, exuberant new spot created for South African telecommunications company, Neotel. Designed to emphasise the freedom from the old restrictions that the company can offer its clients, the spot takes human and animal icons from South African prohibition signs and liberates them via some nifty CG animation. The spot was created by South African agency TBWA\Hunt Lascaris and directed by Jeremy Holden for Riverstone Films. Framestore created hundreds of digitally animated figures for No Restrictions, as well as the spot’s telecine.
Anyone familiar with the South African urban environment will tell you that the ‘No’ sign is a pretty constant feature, from ‘No Crossing’ to ‘No Photography’, signs telling you what you can’t do have always loomed large in the country’s consciousness. Neotel is competing with state monopolist Telkom, whose copper wire-based infrastructure is aging rapidly.
Neotel wanted a way of illustrating the speed and freedom that their new, fibre optic technology offers, and the idea of the sign figures breaking free was born. Aware of the company’s work in 2005 on Hector’s Life for Renault Espace, which won numerous international awards, the director producer team at Riverstone Films approached Framestore with their director treatment. But Hector involved just one paper figure – No Restrictions had a much more ambitious brief.
Opening with a couple of establishing shots of the city, No Restrictions starts off with a single figure peeping around a street corner. As he steps out he throws off the last scrap of the red ‘No’ strip. He passes a café window with a ‘No Dogs’ sign, and the dog scurries out (with the aid of the proprietor’s broom), bowling into a ‘No Hawking’ sign’s figure, who has set up his stall outside the café. From there we cut from scene to scene of our ‘No’ people enjoying all of the activities that have hitherto been disallowed them – ball games, cycling, skateboarding, swimming, and so on. The icons are able to do whatevery they want, “We’re often told what we can’t do,” says the voiceover, “Today, we’re telling you that you can.”
A three day shoot took place in Durban earlier this year to capture the raw plates and essential lighting information, attended for Framestore by VFX Supervisor Simon French and Inferno Artist Jonathan Hairman. Subsequent post production on the spot took some 12 weeks.
“Hector notwithstanding, this spot provided plenty of unique challenges,” reflects French, “And there was quite a bit of R&D spadework that addressed these. The initial brief was for the figures to be made of a variety of materials, for example, although client choices eventually whittled this down somewhat.”
“In addition,” French continues, “There were issues around what worked visually – what the eye could accept as a workable view of how these 2D figures would interact with their 3D environment, for example, and how best to represent the side view of a 2D figure walking.”
Compositing the figures, as well as complementing the environments with touches such as reflections in the window glass and the creation of a warm looking sunset glow at the end, were Inferno Artists Jonathan Hairman and George Roper. The neg was graded by Dave Ludlam, with final DCP duties handled by Steffan Perry.
Mike Mellor, Lead Animator for the spot, adds, “There are a couple of shots toward the end of the spot where the screen fills up with our little guys. I think we underestimated just how many of them it would take to make the shots work – we’d been thinking a few dozen, but they needed a couple of hundred by the end.”
CREDITS:
AGENCY: TBWA\Hunt Lascaris
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Riverstone Films
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Holden
PRODUCER: Saffron Doran
As the largest in-town shopping and leisure destination in Europe, Westfield London is aiming to create a real stir with shoppers of all stripes. Having opened in W12 on October 30th 2008, the complex keeps late evening hours for shopping and even later hours for dining. So a spectacular launch spot was planned, featuring a host of people sprouting wings of an evening and launching themselves, moth-like, towards the seductive glowing light in the west. New Light was created by Adam & Eve London, and the team wanted to bring the very best talent together to realise their vision. Director Daniel Barber (for Knucklehead) was brought on board, and Framestore were asked to provide the digital VFX magic, as well as a Telecine.
VFX Supervisor for the spot was Pedro Sabrosa. “We started with a three day location and night shoot in London for back plates, using a Genesis digital camera,” says Sabrosa, “Daniel captured some fantastic material, including stunning night shots of London taken from a helicopter. Then we had a week to pre-viz the spot, to get a sense of how the people/moths would fit in to the plates. We then used the approved pre-viz shots as a guide during a further two day blue screen shoot, with the actors on wires.”
The shoots were attended by the spot’s 3D Supervisor Diarmid Harrison-Murray, TD Paul Denhard and the company’s Director of Visual Effects, Tim Webber.
The most challenging shots for the Framestore team were those where real actors had to be wed with their CG wings, working with whatever had been captured on the blue screen shoot. For longer shots they could use pure CG, which offered them a much greater degree of freedom and flexibility.
“The clients had a very specific look they wanted,” Sabrosa recalls, “So we spent some time nailing that – making sure that the movement evoked moths rather than birds, for example, getting the clothes to move believably, and so forth.”
Swarms and flocks of creatures are regular requests for the 3D team, who have animated everything from bees to beer labels, butterflies to gift wrapping. But, as Harrison-Murray points out, each spot brings new wrinkles to this familiar trope.
“The difficulties for us in New Light arose out of the need to harmonise essentially different elements,” explains Harrison-Murray, “On the one hand, the creatures had to be convincingly realistic as humans – the weight and consequent flight characteristics; on the other hand, they needed to convey the flutter and lightness of moths. And on top of that, they needed to look beautiful in order to satisfy the aesthetic of the spot. It wasn’t always an easy balance to strike.” Similar considerations applied to the close-up work. “The ratio that needed to be fine-tuned was that between speed of wing beats and distance travelled,” Harrison-Murray concludes.
The 3D team animated and rendered the wings in Maya, with Houdini’s strengths in particle work making it invaluable for the wider flock shots. But, as Harrison-Murray is quick to point out, the spot was never intended to be a CG ’showcase’ – it was vital that his team’s work blend seamlessly into the overall mood and feel of New Light. To further this end, Senior Colourist Dave Ludlam created a TK that aimed to help bed in the work, whilst maintaining the natural feel that Barber had created.
An extra wrinkle to Framestore’s work was added by the creation of tube station escalator content. Handled by the company’s Digital team, headed by Mike Woods, a set of animated 3D moth flocking images were rendered. These featured a group of 5 moths flitting around in a pattern. The Digital team then doubled and tripled these up, also swapping them around to create a variety of patterns for the DEPs (Digital Escalator Panels).
Says Woods, “The client wanted four different versions for the DEPs. Now, each set of DEPs runs over five screens, each screen runs its own 10″ linear piece of video, and each version needs to have an ‘Up’ version as well as a ‘Down’ version. So we had to create 40 different linear 10″ commercials to meet the brief.”
CREDITS:
AGENCY: Adam & Eve London
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Ben Priest
AGENCY PRODUCER: Leila Bartlam
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Knucklehead
DIRECTOR: Daniel Barber
PRODUCER: Matthew Brown
For Super-Dog Bolt, every day is filled with adventure, danger and intrigue, at least until the cameras stop rolling. When the star of a hit TV show is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he begins his biggest adventure yet, a cross-country journey through the real world to get back to his owner and co-star, Penny. Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and the help of two unlikely traveling companions,a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens and a TV-obsessed hamster named Rhino; Bolt discovers he doesn’t need superpowers to be a hero.
Bolt is the latest Disney CGI which is due for release on both regular and digital 3_D on 26 November 2006. Formerly known as American Dog, the film came from an original concept by Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch), about a pampered pooch who ends up in the Nevada desert. The film was eventually directed by Chris Williams.
During a 2008 investor conference, Walt Disney’s Animation chief creative officer John Lasseter explained the synopsis: “Bolt is owned by a little girl whose father is this incredible scientist. Now, to protect the little girl, he gives the dog superpowers, but the dad is kidnapped by these bad guys . . . and the dog is protecting her by fighting off the bad guys with his superpowers, and for 10 years they search for the father and battle the bad guys.”
“Lasseter continued: “But all this is actually a TV show. You see, Bolt is a star of the most popular television show . . . but he thinks this is real. He lives on the soundstage and that’s all he knows, so all of this is real to him. In one unfortunate incident, he falls into a box and he’s shipped from his home on the soundstage to New York City and he comes out of it and he thinks it’s all part of his life, where he has superpowers.”
“But he is in the real world and nothing works like he thinks . . . he’s trying to figure out what the heck is going on with the help of this crazy alley cat and this super fan hamster who is always in his hamster ball . . . he realizes that he is just an actor on a TV show, that his entire life, 10 years of his short life, has been spent being a fake, that he is not really what he thinks he is. It crushes him, but, really, he learns what it is to be a true dog.” said Lasseter.
Main Character Voices:
Bolt : John Travolta
Penny : Miley Cyrus
Mittens : Susie Essman
Rhino : Mark Walton
Additional voice overs include Woody Harrelson, Bruce Greenwood and Thomas Haden Church.
Walt Disney’s Bolt is due for release on 26 November 2008.
To unveil Toys “R” Us’ biggest Toy Book ever, Toys “R” Us and PRPC Partners turned to Superfad/Los Angeles to produce and design an eleven spot campaign that brings the Toy Book to life. The project began with Superfad developing an approach that would immerse audiences into the world of wonder that is offered by the leading kids store for games and toys.
“The project is about the incredible excitement a kid has when getting to go to Toys R Us,” says Creative Director Kevin Lau. “We want to draw the viewer into the fantastically themed environments. It truly is an engaging way to reach audiences while staying true to the inherent qualities of each toy.”
Indeed, once the overarching approach was developed, each signature environment was designed with a featured toy as its centerpiece; much like the structure of the Toy book itself. Using actual toys – including pre-release High School Musical 3 figures – Superfad created the animated likenesses to appear and move in accordance with the real life models.
“We merged the toys and their animated environments into a fun and magical ride of a sequence,” explains Lau. “From page to page, experience to experience, you get the thrilling sense that Toys R US is the place to go.”
Using Maya and AfterEffects as the primary tools, the flagship spots mark a new approach by Toys “R” Us, one that relies heavily on animation as the mode of storytelling.
About Superfad
Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company. Superfad is a collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists.
Superfad’s work runs counter to the trend of design studios who present a singular house style. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London, their work is informed by a wide array of cultural and intellectual influences. Fine art, science, math, and literature are fused with illustration, photography, and technology to produce stunningly original imagery.
Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding.
Production & Animation: Superfad
CD/ Designer: Kevin Lau
EP: Kevin Batten
Producer: Angela de Oliveira
Designer: Will Campbell
3D: Yates Holley, Glenn Shuey, Ian Makowski, Stuart Scanlon, Kimberly Im, Christina Lee, Sal Rangel, Andy Kim, Kyle Cassidy
Compositors: Claudia Yi Leon & Don Kim
Sound Design / Mix: Ravenswork
Engineers: Scott Burns & Eric Ryan
2nd Engineer: Edgar Maldonado
A young man is swimming through an aural amniotic bath, heading towards a bright light representing both the end of this journey, and the start of another. Emerging from a speaker, he checks his W980 Walkman phone and, as the music builds to a climax, our nascent hero heads onwards, emerging onto a street and mingling with the passers by. The camera pans up towards the sun and a W980 fills the screen. Framestore’s VFX Supervisor for Speaker Birth was Jonathan Hairman, who attended the spot’s five day shoot in Barcelona.
“We shot the actor both in an underwater tank and dangling from a rig in the studio,” says Hairman, “Which was tough on him but essential in terms of the visual ingredients we needed.”
Particularly in the close-ups, Hairman used a combination of the sub-aqua and studio shots of the actors face, morphing and blending them to create the impression of someone floating in a peculiar element.
“The location was deliberately ambiguous,” Hairman continues, “We didn’t want to define it too rigidly. In the same way, the 3D elements created for this section were designed to give the impression of being light rays. Diarmid Harrison-Murray and his team used a combination of fluid simulations and cloth simulations, with various shaders on them to get the effect of ‘fingers of light’, reaching out to our hero like fingers or tendrils, organic but not too specific. It’s about mood as much as anything.”
With mood and design being such key elements in Speaker Birth, Hairman was pleased to be able to help director Olivier Gondry get a sense of what Framestore could offer by creating a number of on the spot Photoshop sketches, whilst they were on location, taking stills shot by the DP and working them up in a variety of ways to indicate some possible directions.
CREDITS
AGENCY: McCann Erickson
AGENCY PRODUCER: Jeri Low
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Partizan
DIRECTOR: Olivier Gondry
PRODUCER: Ella Sanderson
