Cobra Man overcomes odds

The Skinny

The campaign is an expression of Cobra’s brand philosophy – to succeed in the game of life, heart or perseverance and determination trumps all. Beyond the simple promise of instant energy or bursts of power, Cobra is a brand that understands the needs and aspirations of the working man – helping him with his struggles and daily grind.

The idea of ‘Maze’ was to show the character, Cobra Man tackle obstacles or maze with intelligence, brawn and determination/skill. The Cobra Man decides to drink the product and use his skill and determination to evade, engage and jump over the obstacles thereby reaching his goal.

An army of fire-breathing minotaurs acts as the antagonists of the story. The minotaurs represent life’s obstacles, personified as an army of brutal, mindless and fierce soldiers with metal bull masks. The king minotaur is the main adversary perched on top of his throne.

The Production

The project was shot in a studio with chroma walls and an 80ft x 80ft soil flooring. The team shot with two RED cameras since it has higher resolution of 2K to 4K and could work with up to 120 progressive frames per second for slow-motion shots. This resolution provides more flexibility in post-production.

The main challenge was to make the ad look epic, considering the limitations in set and number of actors. There were only few minotaur soldiers on the set, and to recreate an army was a big challenge during post-production.

One of the most memorable scenes was the running scene where the director wanted a full sprint from the lead talent. The dolly just could not keep up with the talent and was always left behind. In the end, the talent had to run in place with some wind effect.

The commercial had to look dark and gloomy with shadows and contrast, and touches of warm fire flickering every now and then. The look and mood was achieved as planned.

The Post

As the project was shot on the RED camera, there was an RIS (Red Imaging Specialist) on set running a Final Cut Pro on Macbook Pro. Grading was done on the da Vinci Resolve. Online was finished on the Quantel EQ3.

The creative intent was a cinematic feel in a surreal setting. The matte painter who served as art director created various layouts and colour palettes for the director to approve. Most of the ‘look’ was achieved in post in colour grading and compositing. During the shoot, the plates were shot ‘flat’ with a safe exposure so it could be tweaked in post.

The post process took approximately a month. VFX Software used was Nuke for compositing. Maya and Zbrush were used for the 3d Snake and flag. Photoshop was used for matte paintings.

Project Maze is a very composite heavy TVC. It was a full chroma shoot with about 10 soldier minotaurs and one king. The only prop was the king’s throne and the studio was filled with dirt on the ground. Multiple passes were shot of the soldiers for crowd multiplication. Fire elements were shot for compositing of the minotaur flames.

Most of the shots were handheld with dirt, dust and smoke in-camera to give a more realistic effect rather than to generate dust and smoke in post. Tracker markers were also difficult to remove from the smoke.

Nuke was used as the main compositor and formulated a workflow that handled difficult shots with ease. Comps were done in 1080 HD then rendered to SD for final output. Nuke proved so efficient in handling high-resolution images that it was not necessary to comp in SD.

Credits Title: MAZE Client: Interbev Philippines, Inc. Client Team: Hubert Tan, VP, Marketing Abe Cipriano, Marketing Manager Bernice Bobadilla, Sr. Brand Manager Agency: Euro RSCG Manila Agency Team: Executive Creative Director: Meong Lacao Executive Art Director: Lucas Luchico Art Director: Allan Faustino Client Services Director: Agnes DiosoProduction Company: 88Storey Films Director: Sid Maderazo Producer: Steve Vesagas & Lei Hosseinzadeh DOP: J.A. Tadena Post-production: RoadRunner Network, Inc. Post Producer: Abelle Serraon and Anna Lim Offline Editor: Billy de Leon Online Editor: Mary Solomon