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On the Road with The Dempseys' New Short Film


Experiential advertising isn't a new phenomenon, but with advances in technology (and the resulting sparks in creative thinking) brand interaction can verge on the magical. Such is the feeling with the incredible outdoor work created by NY's MPC Creative for fashion brand Ralph Lauren - a water-screen projection that towered above Manhattan's Central Park.

The event saw Ralph Lauren Polo models appear as four-story-tall holographic effects, framed by a perfect cityscape that paid homage to New York landmarks, such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the High Line. The high-resolution images, created and captured by MPC, were beamed onto a water screen that measured a staggering 60 feet tall and 150 feet wide. Mixing live- action movement and CG, the runway presentation was a short film that featured models visiting the streets and icons of a hyper-real New York. All in all, a staggering effect!

We were beguiled by the project, so spoke to the MPC Creative New York team - Executive Producer Tim Dillon, Creative Director David Estis, VFX Supervisor/2D Lead Alex Harding, Senior Producer Adele Major and VFX Supervisor/3D Lead Victoria Osborn - about how the amazing effects were realised.


How did you get involved in the project?

Tim Dillon - We started talking to Ralph Lauren four years ago for their 4D experience. It was a great collaboration on architectural projection mapping. This year, it was a natural fit to start talking about reinventing the Polo fashion show in a new way; looking at live events, CG environments, and projection onto water.

Was the concept always to project on a 'water screen' or was this aspect added later? It seems like a fairly unusual request.

David Estis - From the start, we always knew that the event would be in Central Park, with the ambition to use the lake in an interesting way. Ralph Lauren wanted the show to be very much inspired by New York, and we all wanted to take the experience to new heights, exploiting the scale of the content and the grandeur of the setting. What we achieved is definitely a milestone in outdoor projection, especially for a fashion brand.



Had you done much R&D on these sorts of projections? Do you have to compose the images differently (i.e. the dome-shaped projection)?

TD - We've projected onto moving surfaces before, such as smoke. Projects of this nature require a great deal of R&D. At the start of the project we set up a full-scale test to see what worked on the water.

Adele Major - We composed the image differently than we would on a conventional screen. The test shoot enabled us to see which areas of the projection were sharpest and which were likely to "fall off" at the edge of the viewable area. The movement of the water also made certain content look really dynamic when close to the water screen's edge, such as small points of light, or smoke/water effects.

Alex Harding - That's right, the test projection was extremely useful - it allowed us to design with the strengths of the screen in mind. Based on our documentation, we then created custom 'safe action' cages to work with in production, which helped us avoid composing content outside of the arc-shaped frame. It was very important for Ralph Lauren to see the fashion in the clearest area.

What were the pre-production stages? How did you go about designing the locations?

Vicky Osborn - We planned out the whole piece in great detail, creating a CG pre-vis to choreograph the camera moves, the environment transitions, and the models so we knew exactly what needed to be captured on set. Due to our compressed schedule, we started animating and rendering earlier than we would have normally, so it was important that all of the camera moves designed in 3D were matched on set. We started the process with style frames created by our designers. After a few rounds, we landed on a hyperreal look that everyone was happy with. From there, we built the scenes around the models to create the seamless shots that take us on a tour through New York City.



How was the shoot? How did you ensure the filmed footage matched the virtual sets?

AH - The live action shoot was a lot of fun, in part due to meticulous pre-shoot planning. The camera moves and lenses were all pre-designed in Maya during the pre-vis. We then programmed a Techno Dolly (a particular kind of motion control rig) to recreate these camera moves on set. The process was technically challenging and required some improvisation. Fortunately, this is where the Techo Dolly sings, allowing you to export modified camera data which we then fed back into Maya to render the environments, and the live action models lined up with the rest of our environments.

The 'making-of' shows you changing the colours of the garments on the fly! Forgive our naivety, but is that a fairly common practice? Did you have to get a Ralph Lauren thumbs-up to make sure you got the correct hue?

AM - The colors were adjusted to first be accurate to the clothes, and then later graded to match the scene. In some cases, the clothes appeared brighter on screen to "pop" against the sets. We shot a range of items in different colors to allow us to separate them from the green screen, for example Ralph Lauren supplied us with orange, purple, and blue clothes that we could then change to green where needed.
 
 

Did anything crop up that you hadn't anticipated? How did you solve the problem?

AH - The "one – shot" nature of the piece is tricky. We always knew it would be. All the shots feed into each other, so what seems like a minor change to a background, for instance, can have a huge knock-on effect that requires communication between the whole team and a lot of rendering. The solution really came down to rock solid teamwork and a lot of hogging of our render farm.

How long did it take to render the final piece? The picture-size looks pretty massive on the day!

TD - Over the two months we were constantly rendering, in this case we started well before the shoot. The timings were challenging for sure, but that makes it perfect for MPC; one of our strengths is taking on big projects where we're able to draw on our global team, infrastructure, and production pipeline that scales very well.

AH - Put simply, this project would not have been possible in the time without our significant render farm. During the final push we had over 100 Nuke machines rendering in parallel.



Did you get much time to test? How nerve-wracking was that initial projection?

DE - Testing was difficult, partly because our location was in the middle of Central Park and hardly discreet, and partly because it's an operation with a lot of expertise required. The first test in the park was under very windy conditions, which greatly reduced the size and clarity of the screen, but led to some careful last minute planning in calibrating the experience for the weather before each show. Live events are always a little nerve-wracking, however we planned for contingencies, which meant being able to push the event to other days if necessary.

Were you pleased with the results?

AM - The moment we saw the moon rise over the lake on the night of the event, we were all super proud.

TD - It's a new take on a fashion event, and we're very happy to be involved in projects like this, it's been incredible working with the Ralph Lauren team. We've all been very excited to see each one of the scenes come to life at every stage of the process. Everyone had a great understanding of what needed to be accomplished in a short amount of time. The creatives on both sides, at Ralph Lauren and MPC, were very aligned right from the beginning. That's a process that's continued all the way through production.



Is anything else happening with the film?

Watch this space! We hope to take this show on to the next evolution.

What's up next for you guys?

TD - We're exploring technology such as Oculus Rift and Leap, as well as bringing the Andy Warhol collection of unseen films to light. We're also hoping to work with our friends at Ralph Lauren again soon.