RPA, Skunk and The Mill Gaze at a 3D
Director Raf Wathion (seen here) directs the brand's first stereoscopic TV commercial for the new CR-Z Sport Hybrid, taking the 3D approach to the automotive category.
RPA, Skunk and The Mill Gaze at a 3D "Eclipse"
Agency, production company and VFX house team up to produce the brand's
first stereoscopic commercial for the new CR-Z Sport Hybrid, taking the
3D approach into the hotly competitive automotive category.
By Anthony Vagnoni
In the car category, hybrids are often associated with models heavy on function and light on form. But Honda is trying to buck that trend, introducing its Sport Hybrid CR-Z Coupe in the US market with a new TV spot that represents both the brand and its agency’s first forays into the Stereoscopic 3D craze.
The spot is titled “Eclipse,” created by RPA of Santa Monica and produced by Skunk, which partnered with The Mill in New York on the project. It’s part of a larger, integrated campaign that includes a 3D magazine ad—which ran in the US version of Maxim magazine—as well as advertising messages embedded in video games and a live event in Times Square showing off the 3D spot to the flood of tourists who congregate there.
The spot opens with a moon covering the sun as the voiceover talks about opposites do attract. The overlaid image appears above a circle of light, and from there we see shots of the slick CR-Z, all metallic and glimmering, as it races along the floor of a cavernous warehouse. The car zooms along under a series of overhead lights that extend back into the distance; as it swerves and swoops, it presents 3D viewers with a bevy of shifting perspectives and angles that accentuate the feeling of ‘being there.’
In addition to “Eclipse” there’s a second spot in the campaign, shot only in 2D, titled “Fire & Ice,” which features flames licking out from under a giant block of ice. Both were directed by Skunk’s Raf Wathion and began airing began airing at the end of August. The 3D version of “Eclipse” will run in theatres through the end of the year.
As the agency creative team explains, everything about this model was designed to be not just be cutting edge, but to take drivers into what they described as a new dimension in performance. What better way to convey that than by taking them into the third dimension via a 3D spot?
The agency team was toying with the idea of shooting at least one of the TV spots in 3D, says Creative Director/Copywriter Adam Lowery, as a way to extend the concept of the CR-Z representing a leap forward in design and engineering, but the basic question was, which one? After talking it over with the director and the team at The Mill, Lowrey explains, “Eclipse” was deemed the stronger candidate. “We all felt it presented more opportunities to grab people,” he says.
The agency’s concerns going in, he adds, were a bit of uncertainty about the process, since they’d never worked in 3D before, and whether or not to go the post-conversion route and shoot both spots in 2D. After consultation with the teams at Skunk and The Mill, they decided to shoot stereoscopically because they felt it would provide the best results.
“We knew this was going to run in cinemas, and since it was going to be on the big screen we wanted it to look really good,” Lowrey adds. “We wanted to make sure that this was more about adding depth to the spot, rather than just having things jump off the screen.”
The agency cut both spots at Spot Welders in Los Angeles, working with editor Michael Heldman. Color grading on "Eclipse" was done at The Mill in New York, under the supervision of the VFX team there, to ensure that any picture registration and color issues between the two cameras used were ironed out. Both studios are equipped with 3D monitors for playback.
The final result, says Group Creative Director Joe Baratelli, was deemed fantastic. “When it was all said and done, we felt it had even more impact than we imagined it would,” he comments.
Wathion was happy with the outcome, too—it’s his second 3D project, after one he shot in Europe last year—although he did feel a wee bit hamstrung by the pacing, which he described as somewhat more languid then he’d have liked. “Making the 3D effect work means that you have to allow time to your eyes to adapt,” he explains.
Wathion collaborated on the project with DP Paul Cameron; together they brought in Stereographer Sean Philips. The stereographer works on set with the director and DP to make sure that the convergence—the area where the dual stereoscopic images more or less come together to form the illusion of depth—is working best in each shot.
Angus Kneale, VFX Supervisor and Executive Creative Director at The Mill, says that with the “Eclipse” project, as with all 3D projects, there are a set of technical rules that you more or less have to follow. Tight shots don’t work well, nor do quick cuts. “We spent a lot of time helping the creatives deal with the limitations of the format,” he says of their approach to working in 3D. “Our goal is to give them a relatively painless work flow—that’s what we’re typically working towards. We want to remove any of the obstacles to the process, since it can be riddled with land mines.”
Kneale says that much of their work in the area of 3D is dealing with people’s basic misconceptions of what the format is all about—not so much things poking off the screen like in horror films, he says, but rather the goal of creating immersive environments that help sustain interest and drive the narrative, like in “Avatar.”
“The agency wanted to feel as much depth as possible in the spot, and have the car feel sporty, high tech and futuristic,” adds The Mill’s Westley Sarokin, Lead 2D Artist on the spot. “The movement from background to foreground as the car swept across the warehouse floor invited a lot of perspective and parallax,” he explains, “which lent to the stereoscopic effect.”
“Eclipse” was filmed using two RED cameras mounted on a beam splitter rig: they were perpendicular, one looking through the mirror and one looking at the mirror. The car and foreground were filmed in live-action. Previsualization of the effects and the shots was crucial to achieve the spot’s aesthetic, says both Kneale and Wathion. The use of RED, adds the director, was because the camera rig needed to be low to the ground for the shoot, and a 35 mm rig would have been too heavy for the tracking shots.
So overall, how was the experience? Wathion, for one, thinks it’s great.
“One thing that I like is that it allows the client to see how their vehicles look in real life, which is an added benefit,” he says. The more familiar he becomes with shooting 3D, he adds, the more he likes it. “There are a lot of interesting things you can do with the technique, particularly in the automotive category,” he comments. Shooting in 3D affects every aspect of the production in different ways, he adds. “You design your sets differently, and your choice of lenses and your lighting is different, too. You want the perspective to be more noticeable, because you want some elements to jump out.”
Wathion says that as the TV commercial production industry produces more original 3D ads, it will open up new vistas for agency creatives. “There’s still so much to explore,” he says. “I think as we progress, creatives will start to pick up on the things that you can do with it.”
Agency credits on “Eclipse” go to Group Creative Director Joe Baratelli, Creative Director/Copywriter Adam Lowrey, Chief Creative Officer David Smith, Creative Director/AD Nathan Crow and Executive Producer Gary Paticoff. For Skunk, Shelly Townsend and Matt Factor were Executive Producers, and Ken Rosen was Line Producer. The campaign was edited by Michael Heldman at Spot Welders. For The Mill, credits include VFX Supervisor/ECD Angus Kneale, VFX Supervisor and Lead 3D Artist Vince Baertsoen, Lead 2D Artist Westley Sarokin and Producer Bethan Thomas. Music for the campaign was created by Hum and composed by Alex Kemp. Framework handled audio post and sound design.
Published 30 September, 2010
Membership
