B.yond the call of duty

The Skinny

Astro wanted a commercial that could deliver the concept of ‘an experience like never before’, bigger than life and communicate the innovation and richness of high definition (HD). It had to resonate with the consumers, with the same feeling of awe from TVC to actual HD experience on Astro B.yond.

The TVC called for great ingenuity and craft – a concept that would captivate audiences beyond their wildest imagination in sharper pictures, vibrant colours and cinematic surround sound. The advertising agency Y&R presented a whole range of ideas and agency and client fine-tuned the aspects of the ideas that they thought would convey ‘content come to life’.

Director, Al Isaac explains the evolution of the commercial: “We wanted to create a world that was surreal and unique, one that was right next to you and you could actually live it. We tied in this powerful creative vision so that we could play on making the whole commercial more cinematic in a wild and beautiful way.”

The 2.5 min running TVC, among the longest produced in Malaysia, had the scalability to be scaled down to 60s and 30s.

The Production

Most of the shoot went smoothly in parks and open areas in and around Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. A large part of the storyboard required sunshine but every time it rained the team was forced to use the big lights. Plates were also shot at different times when sun was available and later composited in to keep a consistent sunny look.

The Phantom, Arri film camera 235 and the RED cam were used. The Phantom, which runs about 1000 to 1500 frames per second, was used to catch intense action at very slow speeds. The film camera captured richness of color and quality and the Arri 235 is light and versatile. The RED

cam was used as a second unit camera to pick up plate shots.

As it was the first HD commercial for the HD platform launch, Astro had their own technical specifications that they had to adhere to. It was a new learning curve for all involved as they learned a whole new workflow that came with HD and Dolby E audio specs.

The most memorable scenes involved horses. One scene had a horse jumping with a stunt rider on it. At one point, the rider fell but both horse and rider were not injured. Another scene had a Red Indian character on a horse walking into a surreal looking garden. The horse had to move awkwardly through a narrow path and stop on the mark.

Lots of side and backlighting were used to create strong dramatic images throughout. Colours in art direction were coordinated to maintain a certain style that presented the rich quality of HD. The choice of using Geoffrey Rush, an Australian DoP, was key as he had the right reel experience.

The Post

TigerTiger Post had the technical know how and experience working with hi-res data format so it took on the first HD project in Malaysia with confidence. Because of the tight deadline, the online suites were on 24-hour work call, with both online artists working around the clock. The Flame suite worked for 22 days non-stop.

Scanning was on the Lasergraphics film scanner – The Director at HD resolution – then on to base color grading with the powerful Resolve DI. The Resolve had great control over the images, a great deal of colour treatment was applied to get fantastic results from the raw images.

Then offline was done on Final Cut Pro (HD) with comping and cut/paste put together to create the film. Then EDL was sent back to the Resolve for final grade for colour matching with precision.

Finally the footages and VFX components were sent to the Bright Storage where online artists and touch up/rotoscoping artists had access to put the final film together. Online machines such as Flame, Combustion and Shake were used, whilst 3D and graphics was ongoing.

Credits Title: Astro B.Yond Client: MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd (MBNS) Agency: Y&R Malaysia Production Company: superwonderful films sdn bhd Director: Al Isaac Producer: Sunita Petrus DOP: Geoffrey Rush Post-Production House: TigerTiger Post Producer: Tresa Fernandez Offline Editor: Nik Johan Online Editor: Hamman Amin/ Kitson Ong/ Matthew Ho Chee Hin