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Maintaining
its hard-earned reputation for snagging top US commercials
VFX work, Framestore NY has created a new spot for leading
delivery service FedEx. The spot aired for the first time
during Super Bowl XLII, the most coveted advertising event
of the year.
Carrier Pigeons takes the noble history of the eponymous
birds of burden on an epic and hilarious detour. Directed
by Tom Kuntz of MJZ for ad agency BBDO, Carrier Pigeons
employs an ambitious blend of live-action greenscreen, photorealistic
3D animation, and a nod to past action heroes to produce yet
another compelling reason why FedEx remains the obvious choice
for package delivery.
"In this business, we all hope to work on a Super Bowl
spot," says Satoko Iinuma, Framestore NY's VFX Producer
on the spot. "It's one of the most important advertising
events in our year, and even the most rabid football fans
look forward to the commercial breaks these days. We knew
we had a great opportunity to create a memorable spot with
Carrier Pigeons and we were determined to do it justice.
Everybody is very happy with the results."
Opening in a large mailroom, a young man explains to his older
boss how the company's state-of-the-art carrier pigeon service
has solved all the company's shipping problems. As birds fly
back and forth through the mailroom, the would-be young executive
points out that each carrier is outfitted with a global positioning
system (GPS) and night vision helmets. The older man is suitably
impressed until he asks about larger packages. Looking out
the high-rise window, he sees an enormous pigeon carrying
a huge crate. The giant bird promptly drops the wooden box
to the city street below, where pandemonium already rules.
One monster pigeon eats from an overturned bread truck; another
has a drink from a gushing hydrant; still others occupy nests
in the city trees. All around, humans are panic-stricken.
When one of the birds lifts a car and throws it through the
mailroom window, the older executive blithely states the obvious;
"Let's switch to FedEx."
Appropriately, the Framestore NY team's biggest challenge
came with creating the enormous birds. While it would have
been possible to shoot pigeons against a greenscreen and make
them look big, Framestore NY felt strongly that creating 3D
birds would better sell the hero action shots. It was important
to animate the correct weightiness and wing flap for a 12ft
bird but also stay within the realms of characteristic pigeon
behavior. They also knew that decision would bring daunting
challenges.
"We knew it would be time-intensive to create full CG
birds, and we were already on a tight schedule," admits
David Hulin, VFX Supervisor/Head of 3D at Framestore NY. "It
was a daring move, but we knew we could bring a lot to the
animation and really make these look and feel like 15-foot,
half-ton, genetically engineered creatures. As any 3D artist
will tell you, feathers can be very challenging and this job
was certainly no exception. We created the heavily feathered
Hippogriff in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
but that involved 100 people working for a year. For this
spot, we had to take all that CG knowledge and technology
and apply it to an 8-week schedule. The spot is also in HD,
which leaves no room for error. Managing 30,000 feathers on
each bird was difficult to create and coordinate. And if it
doesn't work, it looks awful!"
Murray Butler, VFX Supervisor/Head of 2D at Framestore NY,
agrees. "On the compositing side, we had to work around
the clock for the last couple of weeks just to make sure that
everything we wanted was in there, and that we could add some
fine touches," he says, "The true achievement of
this spot was the collaborative effort that went into blending
animation together with the research and development work
that was required for all those feathers. From a 2D point
of view, there are tiny details in every corner of every frame,
and we worked hard to make sure they were perfect."
Even with the impressive 3D pigeons, however, the spot required
more than its share of the real birds to make it believable.
"We had some 250 real pigeons on set for the interior
office scenes," says Butler. "We then added all
kind of extra birds to give the right feeling of activity.
When the car comes through the window at the end, we composited
more than 50 pigeons into the scene, and they all had to react
to the crash. We shot greenscreen plates where we clapped
our hands to get the right reaction, then comped the birds
into enhance the reality."
And as if that weren't enough, the project also required an
ambitious three-day shoot involving dropping crates, hoisted
cars, and smashing windows. Says Hulin, "It was an epic
shoot. We were dropping crates from 150 feet, lifting cars
with cranes and throwing them through windows. On a lot of
commercials, there would have been pressure to push all of
that into post production, but everybody knew it wouldn't
look right on this spot. It was such a wonderfully collaborative
project that everybody was on the same page and ready to do
whatever it took to make a memorable spot."
Butler drew on his own memory to add authenticity to the computer
displays within the smaller birds' helmets, referencing some
iconic action movies. "We actually watched Terminator
2 and Resident Evil to ensure the right look
for the displays," he admits with a smile. "More
than that, we ensured that the pigeon identified as 'going
to Cleveland' actually had a map of Cleveland in his display.
Despite the crazy scenario, we felt all that authenticity
would make it even funnier."
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