Patrick Jean melds the worlds of digital and live-action with wit, a strong narrative and conceptual bent and an expert eye for what resonates in pop culture in “Pixels.” Familiar 8-bit videogame characters from the 1980s invade New York City in this short, which garnered one million views in 24 hours.
Ogilvy West tapped David Rosenbaum and Digital Domain to tell a simple story about a complex concept.
Cheerfully aware assembly robots are a metaphor for Cisco Intelligent Networks that can fix and diagnose
themselves in an all-CG spot that delivers film-caliber computer animation that is entirely photo real.
Nike tapped David Rosenbaum to conceive the :51 second short that launched its Flyknit technology and
shoe collection. Inspired by the concept of body schema, David developed a story in which the shoe
becomes a seamless extension of the runner’s foot through a progression of organic visuals, and took the
piece from start to finish.
Derin Seale shot two cars meticulously using a motion control camera to create a precise separation-and-
merge effect that showcases the split personality of the new Volkswagen Passat CC, for Leo Burnett Berlin.
Beauty and violence come together in this powerful Derin Seale spot for the New Zealand Transport Authority and Clemenger Wellington (under Finch Productions) that shows the devastating results of speeding. Aside from the hood crumpling, all of the effects were done in camera. Crews built a 6-meter rail onto which the car was secured. When it hit the end of the rail going 30 kmph it came to a dead stop – all of the inertia seen on the stunt actors’ faces and bodies is entirely real. To execute the action of the objects in the car, Derin hung the car (and its occupants) in a vertical rig with the speed rail on top to enable the objects to fall using gravity, and shot it with a high-speed camera. To show the impact of the crash on internal organs, Derin worked with model makers to build a heart, ribcage and brain 4x scale, then shot them inside containers full of liquid, underwater inside large tanks. While it was a highly technical shoot, the result is not simply a visual impact, but an emotional one.
Neil Huxley’s powerful, dark teaser looks like it was shot right on Cybertron, with hand-held cameras. Gamers who saw the piece’s premiere during the 2011 VGAs were hooked by its filmic look and feel, haunting track and redemptive story. Virtual production at Digital Domain enabled Neil to shoot CG like live action and take the action to a more artistic plane.
Zuffa, LLC, owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship brand, tapped Director Neil Huxley to create an
explosive show open that reflects the sport’s rise from its humble beginnings to the mainstream. The :60
piece combines archival footage of iconic UFC bouts mapped into entirely imagined backgrounds, timed to
a score by famed film composer and music producer Hans Zimmer.
David Rosenbaum teamed with Goodby Silverstein & Partners to roll out Sprint’s 4G mobile phone with an
elaborately choreographed domino effect that topples the world’s technological and cultural firsts. Practical
props were digitally enhanced and augmented by Digital Domain.
An unbelievable in-camera shot creates a breathless interplay of diving and driving in this ethereal spot for Toyota by Derin Seale (under Finch Productions) from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney. Two worlds collide in one character, with confidence as the element that powers both. To capture the amazing cliff dive, Derin scouted the elusive NZ location that delivered the right cliff height and water depth. Under specific direction, crews worked to construct a camera descender rig over ten stories in height that could follow at the speed of the diver falling. With opportunities limited by dangerous wind and ocean surges, Derin’s precise direction and the crew’s exhaustive technical achievement enabled the camera to capture one of the world’s best cliff divers in an awesome and unique way.
Derin Seale puts a creepy twist on the classic mis-direction storyline in this David & Goliath
Los Angeles spot for Universal Parks’ Halloween Horror Nights. A band of marauding monsters chases a
group of pre-teens in cinematic slow motion -- only to pass them, revealing that their intention was not
annihilation, but escape, from something even more terrifying.
David Rosenbaum and TBWA\Chiat\Day came together again to promote Infiniti’s annual Winter
Sales Event, highlighting the vehicle’s ability to handle challenging driving conditions and an average Joe’s
winter revenge fantasy, complete with a storm of CG snowballs.