MPC Makes Samsung T-Rexcellent

MPC Makes Samsung T-Rexcellent

It's not often that you see a herd of wildebeest, a tyrannosaurus rex and a space age assault in a single motion picture, but that's exactly the combo called upon to showcase the cinematic capabilities, voice recognition and motion sensors of Samsung's new television. After London ad agency CHI and Partners dreamt up the staggering spot with its multiple blockbuster motifs, they had to call upon the talents of MPC to realise them.

Working closely with Stink director Adam Berg, the team of visual magicians not only created a series of stunning set-pieces in which to involve the misplaced protagonist of the commercial, they also applied a level of Hollywood sheen that has flabbergasted viewers and led to a flurry of positive comments on the net.

We caught up with Franck Lambertz, MPC's VFX Supervisor for the campaign, to ask him about the challenges of bringing the big screen to the small(ish), the complexities of matching in-camera effects and some of the hidden tricks people may miss.

The work on the advert is incredibly cinematic. How did you feel when you were first approached with the concept?

I was very excited. It's somewhat rare to get a treatment with this level of VFX, its got everything- A CG dinosaur, herd of wildebeest, explosions and UFO's… It was a perfect job for MPC, utilising all of our disciplines. Saying that, I also knew it would be a challenge.

What level of involvement did MPC have with the project?

We've been involved right from the beginning during pre-production. We were responsible for helping to find the best solution for each sequence, before anything was shot. Obviously the T-rex was a full cgi creation, but we worked with Adam and Ben Crocker (his Producer) to see how much inter-action with the environment we could capture in-camera. Our team did the design with the close supervision of Adam.
 

How did you collaborate with the director Adam Berg? Is there a particular breed of director who 'gets' SFX better than others?

Working with Adam is great and he continually challenges us, pushing the creative potential of the work. We worked together to improve the shots and I think we had the same vision on it from the start. We were able to shoot some amazing scenes with him, especially the end shot with the explosions on the ground and the cars blowing up. It's not often that you see ads with such an epic feature film quality and its representative of why he is one of the top commercials directors.

Another plus with Adam is that he has a very good understanding of VFX and is fully aware of what is achievable. Some Directors use VFX more than others, and it can also depend on the project. What they all have in common is a fantastic creative vision. Our role is to help them all realize their vision whether it's the first time they are using large scale VFX or the tenth.

How many of the effects were achieved in-camera? Did you have to create many of the elements from scratch?

Adam wanted to achieve as much as possible in-camera, but elements such as the dinosaur, multiplication of wildebeest; mothership, UFO's and some explosive elements were created from scratch. The wildebeest were especially tricky, we wanted to capture footage of them running and turning a corner, to be integrated into the final version. We went to a Safari Park, just outside of Cape Town and erected a massive green screen. That was the easy part, getting the Wildebeest to co-operate and run across the green screen was a different story!

For the end shot of the explosions, we shut down a street in the middle of the city and miraculously caught a great deal in camera, including the car flipping over. We then added additional explosions and fire, using elements that were shot on set and our elements library.
 

The ad contains a multitude of movie generic conventions. What were your influences for the visuals?

The concept behind this commercial is to surround our protagonist with cinematic emotions. To do so we borrowed from cinematic conventions.

When we were creating the dinosaur we looked to films like Jurassic Park and King Kong. Then for the end sequence we looked to Independence Day and other 'alien invasion' films. After our original concept sketches for the UFO's the feedback from CHI and Adam was that they wanted it to have more of a 'retro' vibe, so we went away and integrated a bit of a Mars Attacks and Star Wars feel.

How long did the project take in total? Was there any particular element, which really took it out of you?

Two weeks in Cape Town, eight weeks VFX work. Having a T-rex breaking through a wall, crushing a car, opening his massive mouth and a close-up of a eye.... that was tough stuff! Measuring the impact point on the wall, as well as the points on the car was tough. We used a hydraulics system to crumple the car and the timing of that was different to how we wanted to animate our foot so we had to shift his claws around a bit.
 

It's easy to see the flagship effects that awe the audience, but are there any subtleties that the untrained eye might miss which you're particularly proud of?

Our team of matte painters added some extra buildings into the city that most people probably wouldn't notice. Adam wanted a claustrophobic-feeling city, so we got rid of most of the trees as well.

Something that not many people know at all: I composited my daughter in the 'family' thumbnail for the packshot at the very end. I didn't see her for 2 months, but she made it through the ads. I thought that CHI might switch it to a provided picture, but she stays through the end… which she is quite pleased about!

After putting together the effects for multiple filmic types for the ad, are there any that you'd particularly like to revisit?

All of them, of course. The software that we have enhanced can always be utilised or further developed again for future projects.
 

What is it about MPC that makes them acutely suited to this kind of project?

For a project of this size, you need a strong company with a highly developed body of work. It's very helpful that we have a strong film pipeline as each shot needs to go to a lot of different disciplines: tracking/rotoscopy/Matte Painting / 3D / 2D / Grading / Versioning.

In advertising, we share a lot of tools with our Film friends and we can use the global network to share the workflow to our different offices around the globe. Often a software tool can be developed for film that we can utilize and develop further. Sharing knowledge is key. Also, artistically, you need strong people in each department to achieve a piece like this one.

What's up next on your digital slate?

Another nice/crazy project with Adam... But I'm sworn to secrecy…

Posted on 10 April, 2013