To the casual television viewer these days, it might seem that advertisers have stepped back somewhat from big special effects spots. And there is some truth to that, at least as it applies to spectacular, in-your-face, Men in Black-type extravaganzas. Less obvious are the kinds of spots that use photoreal visual effects or blends of those effects with live action. In fact, some players at leading visual effects houses say photorealism is practically routine, as agencies continue to emphasize that kind of work.
While such work is being churned out at a considerable rate, tight margins and strong competition are making for a challenging business model. The good news though is that agencies, directors and production companies are increasingly treating visual effects houses less as a postproduction supplier and more as a creative contributor.
Neysa Horsburgh, executive producer at Method, Santa Monica, sees a definite trend toward effects that are photoreal and organic. By organic, she means work that feels as if it was shot in camera, but is really a combination of different elements. A recent photoreal spot from Method is Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP’s "Moth," directed by Dante Ariola of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander, for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.
"They shot close-ups of real moths, and we created all the ancillary moths in the medium and wide shots in CG," says Horsburgh of the spot, which features moths attracted to the light of a Gameboy. "It was very important that the moths look real because viewers’ eyes are so trained these days that if something doesn’t look real it pulls them out of the moment and detracts from the creative."
For Mountain Dew’s "Animated," directed by Samuel Bayer, then of bicoastal Mars Media (now with bicoastal RSA USA and Black Dog Films), out of BBDO New York, Method mixed live-action extreme sports with cartoon-like climaxes. Bikers, snowboarders and street skateboard racers push it a little too far and wind up in situations inspired by Road Runner cartoons—peeling off cliff faces, stretching limbs and doing double-takes while momentarily suspended over chasms.
A recent spot that mixed photoreal effects and live action was General Electric (GE)’s "Orville and Wilbur," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA, for BBDO. The spot was a reenactment of the Wright brothers’ first flight, but with a GE jet engine for power. Effects were done at Quiet Man, New York, where founder/Inferno artist Johnnie Semerad says photoreal work has always been a specialty. "Some of the time, the plane was real; some of the time, the plane was CGI," he says. "The jet engine was CGI all the time. That was pulling all the tricks out of the bag."
One element of the spot was an onlooker being bowled over by the jet wash. "We wanted more," Semerad says. "We wanted him to tumble and fly through the air." Quiet Man took a volunteer, shot footage of him taking a tumble, and incorporated the footage into the spot.
Charlex, New York, added a 3-D CGI team about a year ago, and president Chris Byrnes says almost all the boards he sees nowadays have some element that requires photoreal 3-D animation.
"We just created the Rags and Moldy characters for Allegra and McCann-Erickson [New York]," Byrnes relates, referring to the characters representing allergens in the "Laptop" spot directed by Charlex founder/executive creative director Alex Weil. "Products, candy, phones, bottles, cars—we’re creating those things in photoreal 3-D," Byrnes continues.
Because visual effects are becoming such an integral part of so many ads, company execs say agencies are growing more comfortable with effects, and are more likely to work with effects companies early on in the process.
"The flow of jobs is different," says Jerry Spivack, partner/creative director at Ring of Fire Advanced Media, West Hollywood. "You used to get a board, bid it, talk to the agency, talk to the director—get involved that way. Now we’re getting more involved with the agencies than ever—helping them flesh out creative ideas, doing little tests for them to help sell ideas to clients."
For a cellular phone job that was still in production at press time, Spivack says Ring of Fire worked with the director before the job was awarded to either of them. "We came up with interesting ways to shoot the spot and created 3-D people in an environment that showed how we wanted to [create the ad] in a rudimentary way, and sent that along to the production company. They sent it to the agency, which helped both of us get the job."
Semerad sees early involvement as a definite trend. "We’re not in the business of postproduction," he says. "We’re in the business of figuring out how to do the effects. It’s to the point where sometimes you have to talk to three different directors on a job because they don’t know which director they’re going with."
Horsburgh recalls that Method worked with director Jason Smith of bicoastal Bob Industries to pick stock footage that would be blended with original material for Mountain Dew’s "Whale." "Agencies and directors have become more reliant on the visual effects person," Horsburgh says. "We’re on set, asking for what we need to make all this work more efficiently. Agencies and directors are seeing the value. I don’t hear the words ‘fix it in post’ any more, which is great."
Richard Bjorlin, executive producer at Creo, Santa Monica, says Creo, a unit of Post Logic Studios, Hollywood, makes every effort to work with directors from beginning to end. "We’re brought in earlier and earlier," he says. "We’re trying to keep everyone in the game rather than splitting it up."
Jonathan Notaro, creative director of bicoastal Brand New School, says the kinds of conversations that can take place early on often lead to better work. He cites a recent Panasonic campaign, directed by Carolyn Chen of bicoastal/international Believe Media, out of Grey Worldwide, New York. "There were three spots with graphics integrated," he says. "We modeled all the Panasonic equipment in 3-D so she wouldn’t be limited by shooting it. Just talking with her before shooting, we started to stumble into new ideas."
Test Subjects
But even with greater agency and production company acceptance of an expanded role for visual effects companies, principals say it’s a tough business in which competition is global, budgets are tight, margins are thin and agencies are increasingly demanding more during the bidding process.
"Agencies are more aware of what they can do in the bidding process and how much work they can actually get there," says Harry Dorrington, creative director at Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design (RVED), New York. "That’s definitely changed. The bidding process is much more detailed and competitive. Now tests are definitely part of the bidding. I pitch against companies in Australia, London—on that level it’s a bigger market, and it’s going to be competitive."
Rick Wagonheim, partner/executive producer at RVED, says companies need bigger staffs because of testing. "You almost have to do the job to get the job," he says. "You can spend twenty, thirty or forty thousand dollars on a test for a job that could go away."
"Budgets are smaller, but the creative hasn’t really changed," says Horsburg. Agencies aren’t necessarily asking for more tests, she adds, but the competitive climate requires it. "If you’re very interested in a job, you’ll do whatever you can to show your interest, your ideas and how you would approach it," she says.
Notaro calls the process "horrible" and notes that it can, in some circumstances, hurt the work. He says that his shop will put together a test for a job in a few days that the agency will sometimes accept as the finished product. "They go straight into production," he says. "You don’t get the two weeks necessary to actually design the thing. The system produces a lot of really immature work because you haven’t had enough time to try other things. We suffer when that happens because we pride ourselves on research and figuring something out. We suffer financially too, because you can’t have a bid that reflects two weeks of design time."
Alan Barnett, partner/visual effects supervisor at Sight Effects, Venice, says testing by itself isn’t a major problem. "The difficulty we find is that you will bid a job as honestly as you can, based on the information you’re given by the director or agency, and then you’re told there is only a certain amount of money," he says. " ‘Do you want the job or not?’ That’s what we see in the bidding process. It’s no longer about realistic numbers.
"We’re doing a substantial amount more work than we were doing three or four years ago for the same dollars," he adds. "Margins are very slim, but they’ve always been that way in this end of the business."
Wagonheim echoes that thought. "Now we’re all backing into a number," he says. " ‘This is the number—can you meet it, can you do it?’ There are many jobs we all walk away from. It’s a difficult business. If you don’t have a passion for it, don’t bother. Go into dry cleaning."
