A large school of fish frolics in what appears to be the deep blue sea, as do seals, rays and other forms of aquatic life. Yet the camera soon reveals that the underwater environment they’re in has some man-made peculiarities–seals swim by a ticket counter, through an x-ray machine. Tortoises congregate at a bar/lounge. Dolphins glide up escalators–all to the accompaniment of the song “The Good Life,” adding to a serene, peaceful feel.
The camera pulls back to show London’s Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, a huge glass encased structure that appears in this spot as an aquarium, with sea life cavorting about. Indeed this is the calmest airport in the world as super’s invite us to “Upgrade to British Airways” and to partake of the exclusive new Terminal 5.
The TV :60 titled “Aquarium” is part of a campaign with digital and print components out of BBH London, directed by Daniel Barber of Knucklehead, London, with VFX from Framestore, London. Pedro Sabrosa was VFX supervisor/lead Flame operator for Framestore. 3D lead technical director was Simon French. Animation leads were Mike Mellor and Jimmy Farrington. Framestore producer was Michael Stanish with Dave Ludlam serving as colorist.
The BBH team included creative directors Alex Grieve and Adrian Rossi, art director Paul Yull, copywriter Adi Birkinshaw and producer Victoria Baldacchino.
Ben Davis was the DP.
Paul Watts edited via The Quarry, London.
VES CALLS FOR STUDENT INVOLVEMENT The Visual Effects Society (VES) is accepting entries for its first ever Student Award. The deadline for submissions is December 5, and the winning student will receive the award live at the 7th Annual VES Awards Show, to be held on February 21, 2009 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Sponsored by Autodesk, the student award has been established to honor outstanding achievement in visual effects on any project that was created by a student or group of students while attending an accredited school. Qualified students at schools from all over the world are eligible and encouraged to send in their submissions by the deadline. The winning student will be provided with free airfare from anywhere around the world and two nights’ accommodation to attend the show.
Rules and procedures can be found at www.vesawards.com.
The annual VES Awards show honors outstanding visual effects in film, television, animation, commercials, special venue projects and video games.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS…. Smoke artist Derek Johnson has joined the roster of digital post house Drive Thru Editorial, Minneapolis. He comes over from Crash+Sues, Minneapolis, where he worked on spots for such brands as Best Buy, FedEx and Target. Johnson came up the ranks at Crash+Sues where he spent 12 years, the last five as a Smoke artist….VFX artist/supervisor Ed Mendez has joined DIVE, a division of Shooters Post & Transfer, Philadelphia, that specializes in VFX and post supervision for features. Mendez had been compositing supervisor at Santa Maria, Calif.-based Café FX. At DIVE, Mendez has been working on The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron; and Happy Tears, starring Demi Moore. At Café FX, Mendez worked on Spider-Man 3, The Kite Runner and John Adams, the latter resulting in his first VFX Emmy…..
