Coke is it, or not?

1 January 2008

The Skinny
The not-so-simple story of Coke Zero is being illustrated through the eyes of two young men on a road trip. Stopping over for a freshen-up, one of the boys buys the new Coke Zero from a drive-by convenience store. Receiving the bottled drink from his road trip buddy, the driver takes a swig and thanks his friend "for the coke", to which his buddy replies: "Dude, that's not Coke." Stumped by the remark, the driver, quite certain of his own taste buds, challenges: "What do you mean it's not a Coke. It tastes like Coke." Downing a few more gulps, the disbelieving driver confirms, "It's as good as Coke. So how can it not be Coke?" This is when his irritated buddy retorts: "Because… it is zero sugar." At this point, the driver looks dumbfounded by the revelation, loses control of the vehicle, and sends it tumbling off a cliff. The closing montage shows the car dangling precariously atop a tree branch, which sticks out from the side of a cliff. Inside the car, the passenger realizes aloud, "but it is Coke!"
The Production
Shot on location at Genting Highlands, Malaysia, the crew had experienced unstable weather, compounded by the inconsistent natural lighting conditions. Due to the unstable lighting, many of the original 35mm shots lacked continuity and had to be corrected using CG.
The Post
The month-long post began with the modeling of the car and matte painting of the trees, while production was still ongoing. Once shooting wrapped, the team at Fame Post full graded the negative before sending it for offline edit. Meanwhile, the CG department continues work on car modeling, tree matte painting, as well as other effects and particles. Following completion of offline edit, the online sessions include color correcting and comping the rest of the TVC. CG Supervisor Olivier Welter was tasked to touch up the various shots that were obtained under differing lighting conditions, so as to achieve a semblance of continuity throughout the ad. Referencing against still photography, Welter took great pains to recreate "the hills and skies' so that the montages appeared evenly matched. Then it was down to online artist, Peter Tresize, to finalize the footages. Tresize had to retouch the label on the bottles according to the country in which the ad was supposed to air, because different versions of the same ad would be shown in different countries. For the final touches, he added more 'greens' to the surrounding, and emphasized the matte paintings.
Says Jeffery Chow, regional EP at Fame Post: "All in all, the post production managed to create a magnificent illusion of continuity of light, weather and surrounding area in the background; all these in addition to exaggerating the effects of the car crash. We are very proud of our involvement in this TVC."