|
||||||||||||
MAIN
|
||||||||||||
NEWS RELEASE |
||||||||||||
|
For Immediate Release HONDA CIVIC IS REBORN IN RPA’S “KEYHOLE” SPOT, CREATED THROUGH a52’S NEW DIRECTORIAL COLLECTIVE FOR PHOTOREAL CGI STORYTELLING HOLLYWOOD — Award-winning Los Angeles visual effects company a52 today detailed its team’s evolving role in the creation of high-end television commercials that benefit from large-scale, CG-based creative approaches. Key hires made at a52 this year, coupled with important changes in many facets of the company’s workflow and the increasing importance of CG-based creative approaches, led to a52 serving as the director for a HD spot entitled “Keyhole,” which debuted on Sept. 18 as part of advertising agency RPA’s massive year-long multiplatform marketing campaign for the all-new 2006 Honda Civic. a52’s collective features the talents of CG/VFX supervisor Andrew Hall and co-VFX supervisor Pat Murphy, and also relies upon the creative involvement of Rock Paper Scissors’ editor Angus Wall. Hall is a skilled VFX supervisor as well as being a world-class animator, with credits spanning major commercials and feature films. Pat Murphy’s work has been recognized in every major U.S. and international advertising competition over the past three years, including 2005 and 2003 Clios for TV and Cinema VFX, the 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design and the 2003 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. A long-time collaborator with Angus Wall, Murphy contributed his talents to the Nike “Magnet” spot directed by Jake Scott, which is honored in the 2005 AICP Show’s Advertising Excellence category, and earned Wall the Association of Creative Editors’ 2005 honor for best editing for a commercial in the Storytelling category. “For this project,” explained a52’s managing director and executive producer Mark Tobin, “the agency’s creatives essentially came to us and asked us how we would treat their theme; there was no script or storyboards. It was a true collaboration between Angus, our team and the agency creatives, which allowed us to take a very creative concept and run with it.” Camille Sze, RPA’s copywriter for the Civic campaign, shared her thoughts on the “Keyhole” spot’s challenges, and how a52 addressed them. “Honda treated the model's eighth cycle redesign as an opportunity for major revision, and we wanted to show the Civic's exciting new design and features. Obviously a tall order, with a big premise. Which is why we looked to a52's animation and creative forces." Hall explained that his CGI team began by working closely with Wall, using Maya to pre-visualize the entire treatment, thereby creating the spot’s template and identifying what could be done in CG (more than 80% of the spot’s content, in the end) and what needed to be shot in live-action. Hall and Wall then worked with director of photography Tobias Schliessler to get the footage of the new Civic they would need to complete the spot. “Since everything you see in the finished spot besides the car is CGI – and considering that we finished the project in 1080p HD – our main challenges were creating and rendering the large volume of original animation,” Hall explained. “Since I’ve come onboard with a52, we have embraced Maya for CG creation and Mental Ray for rendering, and these changes have given us the abilities to work new levels of quality and speed, even when we’re finishing in HD.” Using Discreet Inferno, Pat Murphy then worked with 2K transfers of the live-action footage, cleaned-up the live-action elements, composited them seamlessly within the CG footage and performed a final overall color-grade, before outputting the final content in 1080p HD format. Mark Tobin further explained that his team looks forward to continuing its long-standing relationships with all directors, while also clarifying the new approach. “What can be done through CG is changing every day, and that’s making huge impacts in the world of commercials,” he said. “Our expertise relies upon turning those changes into benefits, and this is our way of offering better access to the professionals we serve.” For RPA, project credits include creative directors David Smith and Joe Baratelli, art director Nathan Crow, copywriter Camille Sze and producer Gary Paticoff. The production company representing the a52 collective is Pecubu Productions, and Kathy Rhodes served as the project’s line producer. a52’s team also included producer Ron Cosentino, Flame artists Tim Bird and Justin Blaustein, and CG artists Dan Gutierrez, Craig “X-Ray” Halperin, Helen Maier, Maxx Okazaki, Brandon Perlow, Casey Schatz, Max Ulichney and Vania Alban-Zapata. The spot features The Postal Service’s song, “We Will Become Silhouettes.” About
a52
About
RPA
# # # |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||
