A
migrating herd sweeps across the African plain,
the ambling multitude making for an impressive sight.
At a river crossing an all too familiar scenario
plays out, as a group of predators take advantage
of the herd's slow progress across the water, brutally
picking off a few stragglers. Such sequences are
a staple of nature documentaries, a genre ripe for
parody.
Of course, this being Sony Playstation that's doing
the spoofing, the results are that much weirder
than they might have been. The herd we see, for
example, is a herd of golfers; their predators are
porn stars. A second spot features a group of athletes
falling prey to some well-organised ventriloquists,
and a third shows a market trader separated from
his group and dramatically warned off by a territorial
racing car pit-crew.
In other words, it's all very surreal. But for the
gag to work, the material has to be spot on. Agency
TBWA/London and Director Daniel Kleinman came to
Framestore CFC to provide the necessary authenticity,
particularly when it came to making some 50 extras
look more like 4000.
The spots were shot on a South African game reserve,
several hours south of Johannesburg, and VFX Supervisor
William Bartlett attended for Framestore CFC. Over
four days a cast of local extras, as well as some
exotic dancers, were filmed in a variety of locations
and costumes. Bartlett helped make sure that the
groups that were shot were well mixed up, ensuring
plenty of variation in the raw material that he
and his colleagues would be working with back in
London.
Three further weeks of post production got the spots
into shape. In addition to Bartlett and fellow Inferno
Artists, Jonathan Hairman and Chris Redding's sterling
duplication and matteing, one shot in particular
required special attention. 'Golfers' opens with
a beautiful aerial shot of the 4000-strong herd
moving across the plain. Andy Boyd, Head of 3D Commercials,
takes up the story, "I worked closely with Junior
TD David Mellor for more than two weeks on this.
It was very exciting for us, as it was the first
time the Commercials team had worked using Houdini
– and it was one of the most pleasurable learning
curves I can remember. We have developed a very
nice, easy to use crowd system. Now we can't wait
to do another crowd shot!"
With the addition of a suitably hushed commentary,
the Playstation spots are lovingly crafted spoofs
whose originality and strangeness ensures that they
stand well out from the…uh…herd.
Playstation
Spots: 'Golfers', 'Athletes', 'Traders',
'Porn Stars'
Agency TBWA/London
Agency Producer Diane Croll
Production Company Large
Director Daniel Kleinman
Producer Johnnie Frankel
Framestore CFC
VFX Supervisor William Bartlett
Inferno Artists Jonathan Hairman,
Chris Redding
CG Animators Andy Boyd, David Mellor
Matte Artists Nicha Kumkeaw, Tony
Peck, Daria Ashley
Post Producer Scott Griffin
Colourists Steffan Perry, Matt
Turner
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