Grace & Wild recently provided production, creative editorial, telecine, graphics and visual effects, and finishing services for a new Ford F-150 commercial on behalf of Team Detroit.
Key personnel from multiple Grace & Wild divisions joined forces to assist Team Detroit with a new Ford F-150 commercial, titled “Cow” in late 2010. “Cow” is a part of the Ford F-150 ‘Rant’ campaign and promotes ‘The Built Ford Tough Invasion of the Bulls’ contest. The contest offers a chance to win a trip to the Professional Bull Riders World Finals held in Las Vegas, as well as a limited edition PBR Ford F-150. “Cow” will begin airing in January 2011 and run throughout the year during PBR programming on Versus and NBC, and winners will be announced in October 2011.
Grace & Wild was charged with matching “Cow” to the new 2011 ‘Rant’ campaign being produced by Team Detroit with King & Country in Los Angeles. Since the work was happening simultaneously, the team at Grace & Wild had to match techniques, color, and style of the new work, based on rough cuts from King & Country. According to Team Detroit senior producer Bob Rashid, “With a short deadline and a large amount of material to sort through, Grace & Wild put on a full court press. Steve Persin did an excellent job building a pre-visualization and attending the shoot to help with shot composition and scene selection. Lori Woods, Tim Heslip and Brent Feeman brought great ideas to our storyboard. The way they approached the concept, and pulled it all together was wonderful. “Cow” fits the new campaign precisely, even though it was finished three weeks before the new spots from King & Country were complete.”
Griot Editorial editor Steve Persin completed the creative editorial in the span of three days, while the design teams at Postique and Division X set to work on the graphics and visual effects. Postique’s executive creative director Lori Woods and senior visual designer Tim Heslip and Division X director of digital imaging Brent Feeman provided creative direction, design, and compositing. Division X CGI artists Max Lazzarin, Dan Olson and Troy Wehner created and supplied CG elements. Postique director of telecine Eric Maurer, telecine producer Mike Diegel and associate colorist Chuck Klatt completed color correction, and senior editor Jeff Fleck and assistant Kyle Thacher cleaned and roto-scoped scenes to provide mattes. Heslip completed compositing for a majority of the scenes and conformed the entire spot. Additional support was provided by Postique graphics assistant Nicole Finateri.
In addition to utilizing stock and existing PBR footage, Grace & Wild director of photography CJ Johnston, senior engineer Mike Burke and executive producer Robin Tracey captured high-definition footage of cows at Wolcott Mill Metropark, seen in the open of the spot.
The team worked long hours and weekends to complete the work for Team Detroit under an unusually short deadline. Rashid continued, “The efficiency of being in one place, from the transfer to the graphics and the finishing, was really helpful and accommodating to the schedule.”
Sound design and final audio mix was completed by Rob Sayers of Sound Lounge in New York. Team Detroit contributors included producer Bob Rashid, writer Bob Havlena, art director Vic Quattrin, group creative director Paul Kirner, group creative director Brad Hensen, and executive creative director Toby Barlow.
Grace & Wild, Inc. offers a wide variety of creative and technical services within the audio, video, and film industry via its operating divisions Grace & Wild Studios, Postique, Griot Editorial, Emerge, and Division X. Clients include broadcast advertising agencies, business communicators, government entities, and entertainment companies. Capabilities include sound stage rental; studio and remote video production; motion picture processing; film/video dailies and color correction; new media development specializing in interactive video and rich media; CGI/3D computer animation and effects; video editing; audio recording and mixing; creative editorial services and supervision; mass and custom duplication; 24P HD video equipment rental; and new media development, authoring, and replication. For demonstrations and information, contact Grace & Wild, Inc. at 23689 Industrial Park Drive, Farmington Hills, MI 48335, or call (248) 471-6010 or (800) 451-6010.
Team Detroit, headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, brings together five of WPP’s largest marketing and communications agencies in one central location to provide its clients access to best practices and talent for all necessary marketing and communications services. Team Detroit is the 21st century equivalent of the full-service agency, acting as a portal to provide a single point of contact and accountability. For more information, please visit www.teamdetroit.com.
