Motel 6 and agency The Richards Group recently joined forces with production company King and Country (K&C) to create a :30 that debuted as the centerpiece of the agency’s cross-media campaign celebrating the brand’s 50th anniversary.
The Richards Group approached K&C with a simple idea: For the 50th anniversary of Motel 6 they wanted to send a family on a classic road trip spanning 50 years.
“When Pete [Everitt, agency creative/art director] and I came up with the idea, we didn’t think it would ever happen,” said Chris Smith, brand creative group head/writer at The Richards Group. “It was just so much more ambitious than anything we’d ever tried for the brand. But that’s exactly what the client wanted for their 50th, so they took a risk. We feel really lucky to have a client like that. It’s funny how such a simple idea can be so complex to execute. The trick from a creative standpoint was for none of the effort to show. It all had to come off with the campaign’s long-established simplicity and approachability, with a subtle sense of humor that was surprising but not broad or slapstick.”
Director Rick Gledhill, a partner in K&C, noted, “To quickly transition through five decades in just 30 seconds required a deft blend of VFX, slick edits, and camera trickery. From CG to CG car changes to hidden wipes and quick camera moves, we called upon a variety of old and new school techniques. The goal being that the focus of the audience’s enjoyment is on the fact that the world is changing, not the actual changes themselves.
Gledhill added, “Crafting the precise period feel was not only reliant on what we see within the world, but the lens through which we see it. So we designed a slightly different film look for each decade. Color, grain, and lighting subtly change to help the audience quickly access which time period they are in.”
The spot begins with a shot of a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad cruising down a desert highway with suitcases on top and a family of four inside. The well-known Motel 6 music arrives with Tom Bodett’s one-of-a-kind voice: “Over the past 50 years, the way America travels has changed,” he says, as the station wagon transforms into a ’64 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. Inside the car, visual changes to costume, hair, makeup and even the warmth of the imaging depict the 1970s, as Bodett speaks. “But through all that time and all those many changes, there’s been the same place to find a comfortable night’s rest.” While Bodett relates his thoughtful message, K&C’s storytelling fuses spot-on directing, casting, art direction, editing, animation and visual effects artistry to bring family, gadgets and vehicles up-to-date, as the destination is reached. “Motel 6,” Bodett ends: “Fifty years, and the light’s still on.”
Led by Gledhill, the crew shot out in the desert using the RED EPIC on a process trailer, camera car and a Technocrane to achieve all the external car shots. Day two was for green screen interior shots and the Motel 6 resolve shot.
“The interior shots of mom and dad transforming from the 60s to 70s involved shooting everything separately so we could time everyone’s performance down to a split second,” Gledhill explained. “The camera was locked off as we shot the son and daughter individually in both wardrobes, then we shot mom in both wardrobes, then dad and finally the moving background plates were shot as well as an interior exposure. In total, 11 plates were captured just for those two shots, and that’s before they were tracked and recreated in 3D so we could transition the inside of the cars, add hair growing on dad’s face and extend his collars.”
Although all the cars were photographed, 3D versions were also painstakingly recreated in Maya, inside and out, to give the filmmakers complete control over transitioning them through the decades.
“When it came to compositing the CG cars, we wanted things like the lighting, texturing, and colors to perfectly match the original cinematography,” said K&C’s art director Jon Lorenz. “We made the decision to render the 3D from Maya V-ray, and generated some stunning results for our compositors to work with in After Effects. Having our Maya artists render out UV Passes allowed the compositors to take a 2D texture image and re-map onto whatever was rendered from 3D, adding back in all the detail to the aging body work.”
The father’s facial hair was another of many postproduction challenges. Since the actor’s head is turning while his mustache and sideburns grow out, K&C’s artists had to track his movement using a combination of PF Track and a few hand keys in Maya. Styling the digital facial hair involved inventive use of Maya fur. “The hair was lit with a basic setup of five lights and rendered with Mental Ray,” said K&C’s Andrew Cook. “To finish off the effect, the hair was color and light matched to the actor’s real hair and blended into the final shot with a combination of Nuke and After Effects.”
“Every so often a job like this comes through our doors, and there is a definite air of excitement in the studio,” added Gledhill. “This project is a truly original concept, great creative, and such an iconic brand. We all remember a certain decade for different things, and as we transform from the 1960s through to present day, we layered this commercial with so many details and nuances to trigger those memories. Our hope is that each time viewers see the spot, they’ll see something new.”
K&C exec producer Jerry Torgerson, noted, “A spot like this was a perfect fit for our studio, with production, direction, editorial and VFX all under one roof.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More