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CGSociety CGFilm
Brickyard VFX creates film-caliber chase sequence for spots.
30 June 2006
Brickyard VFX has completed a spate of high production value TVCs for the Hispanic market through such agencies as Accent Marketing. The recent work includes spots for Farmers Insurance Group directed by Martin Weisz and shot by Amir Mokri that feature actor Edward James Olmos ("Battlestar Galactica," "Miami Vice," "Bladerunner"), and boasts a distinctly cinematic look and feel.
The :30 spot "Indestructible" suggests a classic movie car chase with Olmos at the wheel. His invincible silver Cadillac outruns a pair of dubious-looking sedans, deflecting collisions left and right and ripping down a row of parked cars without incurring the least scratch. Even being broad-sided by a cement mixer (which catapults precisely over his vehicle) does nothing; he walks away coolly, and unscathed.
Taking a cue from many a spy film, "Indestructible" closes with Olmos "stepping" out of the action onto a real theater stage, demonstrating that insurance coverage is life's only real safety net.
Brickyard VFX handled all visual effects and compositing for the campaign, with Geoff McAuliffe providing on-set visual effects supervision and working with the production to complete a complex green-screen and location shoot. "Indestructible" was shot in Los Angeles, with one set of plates shot using a modified Ford flatbed encased in concrete to dummy for the Cadillac. Other action and background plates were shot separately using the real cars and then melded together with the crash plates by McAuliffe and Brickyard VFX compositor Mandy Sorenson in post.
"The gag is that the car never gets damaged,” says McAuliffe. “On set, a modified Ford truck basically a slab of concrete with wheels and mounted cameras was filmed. It had the same dimensions as the Cadillac, so we could take these and elements from the clean plates to tuck the Cadillac into all of the debris. The cement truck was crashed into a big cement block without the Cadillac there at all; we put the car back in digitally after the fact."
Olmos was shot against green screen for stationary shots. Stunt drivers were used for the moving shots. Brickyard VFX's Patrick Poulation completed Olmos' "step out of screen" effect, working from back plates of the actor on green screen and from the live-theater set.
"'Indestructible' was particularly challenging, with a ton of compositing and film-style effects," McAuliffe added. "The idea was to have things look like an action movie, and we did check out a bunch of action films such as 'The Bourne Supremacy' for reference. What we discovered is that you can create an exciting sequence without showing that much 'crash.' If you have the right visuals and sound effects, the human brain fills in the rest."
"Indestructible"
INDUSTRY: Financial/Insurance
AGENCY: Accentmarketing
DIRECTOR: Martin Weisz
CLIENT: Farmers Insurance
AGENCY
Creative Dir.: Diana Ocasio
Assoc. Creative Dir.: Peter Sanchez
Copywriter: Maite Garcia
EVP Account Services Director: Alice Rivera
Exec. Prod.: Rudy Leschhorn
PRODUCTION
Director: Martin Weisz
DOP.: Amir Mokri
Production Co.: A Band Apart
POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Richard Cooperman
Editorial Co.: Mission Editorial
VFX Artist: Geoff McAuliffe
VFX Artist: Patrick Poulatian
VFX Artist: Mandy Sorenson
Exec. Prod.: Kirsten Andersen
Exec. Prod.: Diana Gomez
Related links:
Brickyard VFX |
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