TV Asia Plus
Asia Image
Invalid username or password!
Free Magazine Subscription
Printer-friendly version
Alpenliebe Summer, Festal & Romance
Compiled by Christine Wong, 1 January 2010The Skinny
Emerald City Design in collaboration with Autumn Films (Shanghai) created the Alpenliebe spots for JWT. The Emerald City team of designers conceptualised the magical worlds taking into consideration that each one of the ads was going to target a different age group.
This was no easy task as all the commercials needed to feel like they were part of the same campaign. With refined aesthetic sensitivity and attention to detail, the team blended creative precision with technical dexterity and came to the pre-production table with informed and inspired vision.
The Production
Shot part in studio and part on location, all the designs for the environments were conceived Shot part in studio and part on location, all the designs for the environments were conceived prior to the Emerald City VFX supervisor and design director flying to Shanghai to supervise the shoot. It was of course very important to have a clear picture of the camera moves and composition.
Everything was shot on 35mm and transferred to HDcam as a 4:3 format. By having the full image picture it permitted the team of compositors to re-frame and to create camera pans in the 16:9 composition.
Having the clients on set proved to be very challenging as 80 percent of the commercial was shot on green screen. The client was worried when they saw so much green in the framing and tried to compensate by framing tighter on the talent.
Green screen technology assists in cutting out the key action and removing it from the green background to place it in an artificial, CG or other wise impossible or impractical space.
People often make the mistake of throwing too much light onto the chroma key background. The ideal chroma key is one that is even and smooth in colour. Throwing too much light on will create hotspots and troublesome ‘green spill’ (objects reflecting the green light) on the subject.
However, having the storyboards, pre-viz and style frames for all the shots prior to production meant that the visuals could be composited live on set to bring Emerald City’s vision alive and to make sure everything was done according to plan. The initial concepts varied very little when compared to the delivered product.
The Post
On the post side of things, each one of the spots took anywhere from 3-5 weeks to be finalised. Having David Mosqueda, VFX supervisor, on set meant that the Emerald City Team could start working on assets before the shoot was wrapped. Mosqueda takes design to the next level, pursuing excellence with a dedication above and beyond the call of duty, adding magic in motion to the footage.
Once the commercials were onlined, a combination of Maya, Boujou, Shake, After Effects and Final Cut was used to produce these beautiful images.
All shots were graded in compositing with minor tweaks in a final grading session. This path proved to be more effective for Emerald City as they were able to work with the director as a process as opposed to a rushed one-day grading session.
