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Mini Pinball is the third and climactic spot in a 2007 campaign for the small, stylish cars. Airing in the United States and Europe, the 30-second spot was directed by Happy for ad agency Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners.
Pinball opens with five futuristic soldiers breathing deeply as they prepare for battle. Moving forward as one, they push a wall down what looks like a brightly lit hallway. Epic techno music swells as they make impact with a giant silver ball, sending it speeding into a gleaming, spaceship-like space identified as "Clubmania". Waiting there are several teams of white-and-orange suited people, all serving a beautiful brown Mini with flipping backdoors that keep sending the ball back into play. In what can only be described as scenes of epic battle, real-life humans bounce, deflect, and otherwise direct the giant pinball as other humans turn the dials that keep score. Finally, the Mini simply swallows the oversized ball into its trunk, ending the game and the spot.
"When they direct, Happy typically like to do as much in-camera as possible," says Murray Butler, Visual Effects Supervisor and Lead Flame Artist at Framestore NY. "And Pinball was no exception. The entire set was physically built with a real silver ball rolling around, so it was an epic operation in its own right."
While the ambitious spot was shot almost entirely in-camera, the production team wanted a Kubrick-like look that only Framestore could give them. Says Butler,"We worked hard to create a pristine, limbo-like world. The ball was expertly shot, but without motion blur, it looked as if it was stop-motion. We added motion blur to every shot of the ball, then retimed the scenes so they would have the appropriate frenetic energy. There were also several shots where the ball would not do just what they wanted, so we created those scenes in 3D. They did a fantastic job of matching up the real and created shots. You can't tell the difference between them, and you really feel the force of the ball as it careens through each scene."
Towards the end of the spot, a series of figures rise tower-like from the floor, twisting as they do so. The extra surreal touch was actually created by Framestore NY, using blue screen elements that were seamlessly timed into the already complex scene.
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