"Framestore NY is the epitome of what a great visual effects house should be: a magical combination of extraordinary talent, true vision plus perfect follow through."
Kathryn Bigelow, Director, Baileys 'Bubble'

Framestore NY has just completed work on an artful 30-second spot for BBH NY. Baileys 'Bubble' was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days), and lensed by Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List). It's a beautiful example of the sort of work that Framestore NY has been creating for nearly a year now from its SoHo, NYC premises.

'Bubble' follows the progress of a bubble, formed in a glass of Baileys Irish Cream, as it floats up and across a crowded bar, eventually escaping out into the streets. It settles briefly on the hand of a woman waiting in a cab, before she sends it on it's way, as the tag – 'Don't burst the bubble' – appears and the spot ends.

The two-day shoot in Montreal was supervised for Framestore NY by Maryanne Lauric, who then completed around two weeks of post-production compositing in Inferno. She was assisted in one shot by CG Lead, David Hulin, who created the 3D bubble that first appears as the Baileys is poured over ice in a glass. Says Lauric, "At first, we wanted to see what we could manage with the real thing, so we had a 'bubble wrangler' on set. Some of his work was beautiful, and I peeled off one or two, resized them and used them in a couple of shots; but ultimately the practical bubbles proved too unreliable and variable for our purposes. I made sure I had plenty of black-screen bubbles on film to take back to the studio with me, and got to work."

This was director Kathryn Bigelow's first foray into commercials, and she was pleased to find that she could safely rely on Framestore NY for the post-production support she needed. Delighted by what the VFX team did for her spot, Bigelow commented, "My experience on 'Baileys' was, in a word, flawless. Framestore NY created realism that was both intuitive and uncanny as well as being invisible as an effect, which is…the greatest challenge of all."

The US spot marks a nice transatlantic double for the company, who have already created a Baileys spot for the UK market with director Daniel Kleinman, and agency BBH.