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For Immediate Release a52, GO FILM, RAD-ISH AND TBWA/CHIAT/DAY DELIVER NISSAN'S CURE FOR THE COMMON CAR Unique
Perspectives, Provocative Themes and Invisible Effects
HOLLYWOOD – Nov. 12, 2001 – Visual effects company a52 today announced details of their visual effects work for Go Film and director Rad-ish (Austrians Christoph Chrudimak and Mortiz Friedel) for TBWA/Chiat/Day’s new 2002 Nissan Altima campaign, dubbed “the cure for the common car.” Nine spots of the campaign’s ten involve a52’s visual effects wizardry, and among those, a52 has been cleared to discuss work on “Addictive” (which broke on Oct. 1) and “May Impair” (which debuts today). Discussing how the campaign’s core elements came together, TBWA/Chiat/Day’s campaign art director Jason Stinsmuehlen commented, “I didn't look at a52 as a vendor, I looked at them more as a creative collaborator.” Brewster served as visual effects supervisor and Inferno artist on “Side Effects,” and recently worked with Stinsmuehlen and the TBWA/Chiat/Day LA team on the 2002 Infiniti Q45 campaign. “We really enjoyed working on this campaign because it's the type of work we do best,” said a52’s campaign co-producer Darcy Leslie Parsons. “We take beautiful photography and we take it one step further to make it stand out that much more. It was a great marriage.” The 2002 Nissan Altima campaign is based on the tag-line which states that this Altima is the cure for the common car. Its high-impact broadcast campaign relates the car’s medicinal qualities – and its physical, mental and emotional effects. Each spot reveals some new effect before a signature sound evokes the dot-matrix din of your pharmacist’s printer and prescription-bottle orange labels (courtesy of Brand New School) deliver the tag above the campaign’s closing shot. In that shot found at the end of each of the campaign’s :30s, the Nissan spins to a dramatic braking halt. “Even that shot is a move you don't usually see a car make,” said a52’s campaign co-producer Leighton Greer. “That tells you this car is new and it's different.” “Addictive” – Airdate: Oct. 1, 2001 To debut the 2002 Altima, this spot takes a unique approach: The car actually sits still while the camera and the rugged Icelandic backdrop move all around it. By exploring the car from various dramatic angles edited together by Rock Paper Scissors’ Adam Pertofsky in a hypnotic sequence, the car’s addictive qualities come into focus. “We didn't know how well the two-shot helicopter-to-bridge sequence would work until we saw it at a52,” said Jason Stinsmuehlen. “Having looked at the video tap from the helicopter on location, I can tell you getting those shots to match was all art.” Patrick Murphy, a52’s visual effects supervisor for the spot, detailed his challenges in marrying the helicopter shot with the crane shot. “As soon as you cut between them,” Murphy explained, “there was a huge jump. We were able to get the car to match, but the mountain and the clouds didn't. So we cut the mountains out of the second shot, moved the car, re-tracked it over mountains, and then placed clouds from a completely different shot over the car and the mountains.” Many different rigs were used by Rad-ish, DP Thommy Wildner and the location crew to get interesting angles of the car – which then required a lot of rig-removal, reflection beautification and clean-up to make the car look shiny and sleek. “When you see those beautiful shots, you don't see a giant crane in the middle of the hood painted out,” said Leighton Greer. “There's a lot of work unseen in this spot,” she added, including extensive sky replacement. “May
Impair” – Airdate: Nov. 12, 2001
To help convey each watcher’s point-of-view, a52’s spot visual effects supervisor and Inferno artist Mark Loso ordered a 2K telecine transfer from Company 3. Working with these files, which are four-times normal screen size in NTSC resolution, Loso subtly adjusted and enhanced the camera moves in Inferno. “This spot has a more subdued approach than most of the others,” Loso said. “I think our efforts were effective in helping to sell the idea that the car is really turning heads.” Loso’s
talents appear throughout the campaign, as well as those of Infinity artist
Scott Johnson, who conformed the final online edit for each spot.
a52’s project team was led by managing director and executive producer Liz Roewe and producers Darcy Leslie Parsons and Leighton Greer, and also included visual effects supervisors and Inferno artists Simon Brewster, Mark Loso and Patrick Murphy, on-set visual effects supervisor Ed Chapman, Infinity artist and online editor Scott Johnson and 3D animator Westley Sarokin. Production was overseen by Go Film’s executive producers Robert Wherry, Jonathan Weinstein and head of production Lisa Tauscher and also included producer Steve Frederickzs, production supervisor Caroline Kousidonis and production manager Sandy Schwartz. The team from Rock Paper Scissors was led by executive producer and managing director Linda Carlson and included producer Romi Hoffman, editors Adam Pertofsky and Ben Longland and assistant editor Lawrence Thrush. Brand New School provided graphic design of the campaign’s on-screen prescription labels, and music and sound design were handled by Stimmung in Santa Monica. Stimmung’s credits include executive producer Gulla Petursdottir and sound designer Reinhard Denke. About
a52
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