Nowadays spots rely heavily on visual effects, and some commercials are entirely computer generated. In essence, visual effects are the stars of these state-of-the-art ads. It makes sense then that often an ideal director for this kind of spot would be an effects expert—someone such as Eric Barba of Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. And Barba, indeed, often wears two hats: director and visual effects supervisor.
Recently, he’s done double-duty on ads for such clients as American Express, Global Crossing and Clarus. In the past year and a half, Barba has worked on more than a dozen commercials promoting American Express’ Blue card via Ogilvy & Mather, New York. The visually dazzling spots use techie imagery to convey qualities that distinguish the new card from traditional, green-colored Amex plastic.
Each spot focuses on a different quality of the card. To show that American Express’ new product has been "upgraded," "Microsurgery" features technicians altering nano-technology within the card. "Flexible" demonstrates a revolving credit option by having high-tech claws twist and bend the card every which way. "Transformer" promotes a Blue card for small businesses by showing the plastic metamorphosing into a powerful robot. And in "Possibilities," the Blue card turns into a multicolored cube to illustrate what can be done with the product.
"They had some good concepts, and they had real rough boards," notes Barba, who directed "Microsurgery" and "Possibilities," as well as several other ads in the series; he has supervised the effects work on the campaign since its inception. "I would take their rough boards and work with their creative team and start fleshing out an animatic.
"From the animatic," Barba continues, "we could immediately see what was working and what wasn’t working, and what we would have to change to tell the story visually. It was very collaborative because it would start with a simple board, and we’d make it into a piece with music and sound design."
A key collaborator on the first seven Amex ads was director/DP Irv Blitz of bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander. Blitz directed live-action material that was handed off to Barba. "[Irv Blitz] was certainly a great part of those original seven spots," according to Barba. For the next series of ads, Ogilvy & Mather went straight to Barba and Digital Domain for both the live-action and visual effects.
"There are times when the agencies will come directly to us because the live-action is really small, or because they’ve worked with us before and they know we can give them what they want," says Barba of some of the ad shops that use Digital Domain for effects and production. "Or there may not be enough money in their budget to go to an outside production company."
Other recent Barba directorial/ visual effects efforts include "Clear Solutions" for Clarus via J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta; and "Omnibus," an all-CGI spot for Global Crossing via Gotham Incorporated, New York. The latter features a range of images—everything from filmstrips to credit cards to an X ray—to illustrate the powers of the telecommunications company.
In addition to spot assignments, Barba also does feature work. He was the CG supervisor on director Walter Hill’s Supernova, and contributed to Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. Both films provided Barba with a chance to work with noted visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson. "One of the good things about Digital Domain is, if you have the opportunity to work with a great special effects supervisor like Mark, it’s a tremendous learning experience," Barba observes.
He notes that one of the main differences between working on spots and film is the schedule. "On a feature, you’ve got the luxury of time," Barba explains. "You’ve also got resources and a [larger] budget. The teams that work on commercials have to be much more flexible to get things done in a short amount of time. They’ve got to rock and roll from the beginning."
While he enjoys feature assignments, Barba ultimately prefers spotwork. He points out that commercials, unlike features, allow him to work more directly with directors. "I like being able to work a little more closely with them," he says. "[Commercials are] a better and more rapid learning environment for me. You work on a project for eight to twelve weeks and then you’re on to another one. A lot of times I’m working on multiple projects. Every project has its different challenges and artistic needs. Working closely with the agency and the director, I’m able to be a bigger part of the creative process."
Barba graduated from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif., with a degree in industrial design, and a major in transportation design. "A lot of Art Center transportation and industrial designers end up in the entertainment industry," he notes. Barba wound up doing visual effects work on Sea Quest, a Steven Spielberg-produced television show, for two and a half seasons. During that period, he also worked on several other projects, including Weird Science and Star Trek: Voyager, through now defunct Amblin Imaging. In addition, he served as CG supervisor on the first six episodes of the sci-fi series Sliders, before joining Digital Domain in 1996.
Barba is interested in branching out into doing more live-action spots. "Because my background was in visual effects, the window has been mainly visual effects commercials," he explains. "I’m starting to do more and more live action, but my reel is predominantly visual effects commercials. I’d certainly like to branch out into doing more of a mixture. The nice part about doing a lot of stuff with CG is that it allows incredible flexibility and creative flow to whatever an agency is looking for in their commercial."
