While director Oskar Holmedal of the directing collective Stylewar, which is represented by bicoastal Smuggler, has always loved pop-up books and has quite a few in his collection, never in his wildest imagination did he ever think he would actually construct one.
But he has made a pop-up book–and a rather awesome one–with the assistance of the artisans from a52, Santa Monica, Calif. The book is featured in the aptly titled :30 “Pop-Up,” a commercial created by agency Team One, El Segundo, Calif., for its client Lexus.
Part of the “Actively Safe”-themed campaign, “Pop-Up” promotes the Lexus RX’s active safety features, which help drivers avoid accidents, by telling the tale of the “safest accident” via a gigantic pop-up book. As the pages of the book turn, we see a Lexus RX facing hazards from rocky terrain to ice-slicked city streets and learn in the end that the safest accident is the one that never happens.
Like “Hospital” and “Hydrant,” two previous spots in the Lexus campaign directed by MJZ‘s Nicolai Fuglsig, “Pop-Up” is artful in both its concept and execution. “That’s not by accident. That’s entirely by design,” according to Team One creative director Jon Pearce. “Lexus is the number one selling luxury car, and it’s also a pretty forward-thinking company, so why shouldn’t you tell people about the vehicles in the most contemporary, creative way possible?”
As for why Holmedal was chosen to direct “Pop-Up” (incidentally, he also recently shot another spot in the campaign called “Etiquette”), Pearce remarked, “[Stylewar] seems to be good with intricate visual solutions, and we knew this would be a challenge because we wanted to do as much of it practically as possible.”
Book re-writes After Holmedal read Team One’s brief for the spot, he couldn’t wait to tackle the project. “I was thinking, ‘This is absolutely what I want to be doing–I want to build the world’s largest pop up book!’ ” the director enthused.
While he gave it a serious try, Holmedal had to change course. After three weeks of experimenting with a 30-foot tall book built to accommodate a real Lexus nestled inside, Holmedal realized it wasn’t going to work because “we were underestimating the laws of physics.”
The biggest problem was turning the giant pages quickly enough–due to wind resistance, the needed page turns could not be completed in a 30-second time frame. “Also, you were limiting how interesting the pop-ups could be because you want them to come out and create some depth as well so you really see they are popping out, which meant they needed to come out a couple of meters,” Holmedal said, “and it just didn’t work in the end, unfortunately.”
Undaunted, Holmedal worked with a52 to come up with a different tactic. According to a52 VFX supervisor Andy Hall, it was decided that “the miniature approach” would be taken–Holmedal and his team built a 30-foot-tall green screen book frame with pages that could be turned by stagehands, and then the actual pop-up book itself, which was a more manageable six feet tall. Holmedal and DP Toby Irwin then shot footage of the stagehands turning the pages of the giant green screen book. The pages were heavy, and as strong as the guys were, wires were rigged up to help them move the pages, Holmedal noted.
Once that portion of the shoot was completed, Holmedal and Irwin then turned their attention to the six-foot tall pop-up book, shooting it opening and closing and capturing the animated movements within the pages. All of the elements were later married together at a52. Both Hall and a52 lead Flame artist Raul Ortego likened working on the project to putting together a giant puzzle with moving parts.
CG in the city The city-themed page presented some of the biggest challenges. Initially, a52 wasn’t going to be required to do much CG at all, according to Hall. But after seeing that some of the plates weren’t working ideally for the city-themed page, the company’s artisans recreated every visual element in Maya, tracked them into the live action using Boujou and did the final composite in Flame.
There were also several less complicated but important touches to be completed by a52, including creating the entire cover page of the book and its binding, tabs as well as wheels for the book, the book’s shadow and edges of pages.
In addition to a52, credit also goes to “Pop-Up” editor David Henegar of Butcher, Santa Monica, and Kael Alden, who composed original music for the spot via Robot Repair, Venice, Calif.
Looking back on the project, Team One creative director Gavin Lester said, “By no means was this an easy shoot. Every step of the way was incredibly challenging, and we have to credit the patience of our client in following us along on this journey.” Meanwhile, Pearce praised Kevin R. Smith and Dave Horton, the Team One art director and copywriter, respectively, who conceptualized “Pop-Up.” “Kevin and Dave knew exactly what they wanted,” Pearce said, “and when there are so many variables, it helps when the creatives have a vision in mind.”
For his part, Holmedal said, “I think we’re all happy with the final result…You’re still showing the car for 30 seconds, but you’re definitely doing something else with it. It was a really clever idea from the beginning.”
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