Framestore brings Kevin Bacon’s dreams to life for EE and Apple’s new campaign

Directed by the acclaimed Noam Murro, co-founder of Biscuit Filmworks, the spot makes use of Framestore’s VFX prowess and the specialist grading skills of Jean-Clément Soret at renowned sister company Company 3, to showcase the new iPhone 14.

The spot sees Kevin Bacon live out three of his wildest dreams: headlining a rock festival, drifting in outer space, and speaking at a presidential rally. In each, Bacon’s environment is larger than life, whether surrounded by a seemingly endless cheering crowd or the unlimited vastness of empty space. No matter where he is, however, it’s the new iPhone 14 that captures Bacon’s attention, taking centre stage no matter the dream.

Saatchi & Saatchi teamed up with Framestore to deliver this collaborative project between EE and Apple. Having worked on multiple of the Kevin Bacon campaigns in the past, including the heart-stopping A Close Yet Far Shave, the studio was excited by the narrative and the opportunity to craft more complex scenes for this latest iteration, being tasked with developing a trio of expansive worlds that explore the inner workings of Bacon’s mind in a magical dream sequence.

Framestore’s team was led by Matthew Thomas and Ed Mykolaitis, who headed the 2D team and CG team respectively.

“We crafted CG and effects in Houdini, built assets in Maya, composited in Nuke, graded in Baselight, and used Flame for final mastering,” says Matthew Thomas. “As we were brought on early in the project, we were able to streamline the process by developing concepts before production had even started, locking down the look and scale of each shot, figuring out what was possible, and communicating it all to the production team.”

Commenting on the space sequence, Ed Mykolaitis reveals, “Kevin Bacon was initially shot in a spacesuit on set, sitting on a swinging podium chair; however, we wanted greater control over the individual elements, so we ended up replicating the shot with VFX, ultimately crafting all but Kevin’s face in CG.”

He adds, “Framestore has a wealth of cinematic experience in the outer space setting in particular, which we were able to draw on to craft a sequence worthy of the big screen. To emphasise the sense of deep space, we manipulated the lighting to reflect the harshness of the sun, while adding light movement to accentuate the feeling of weightlessness, complementing the scene’s dreamlike quality.”