During last month’s Oscar telecast, Goodby Silverstein & Partners NY rolled out a Comcast/XFINITY spot, “Emily’s Oz,” which illustrates what a blind person sees in her head when she “watches” her favorite movie. The :60–directed by Andreas Nilsson via Biscuit Filmworks, with visual effects from a52 and puppets/puppeteering from Legacy Effects–brings to life The Wizard of Oz according to Emily, a seven-year-old girl who was born blind. We see her vision of what such iconic characters as the Tin Man looks like, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and Dorothy herself.
The spot, featuring a voiceover by Robert Redford–promotes Comcast/XFINITY’s accessibility services for its viewers, including a talking guide created in the Comcast Accessibility Lab so that the visually impaired can independently search for and find movies. In addition to voice guidance and one-touch access to closed captioning, Comcast created an online help and support resource for XFINITY customers looking for information about accessibility-related topics.
“We want to create opportunities for people who love film and television but who might not have the opportunity to experience it to its fullest,” said Tom Wlodkowski, who was hired as Comcast’s vice president of audience in 2012 to focus on the usability of the company’s products and services for people with disabilities. “By bringing the talking guide to as many people as possible, we can help to bridge that gap and make entertainment just as compelling, captivating and fun for people with a visual disability as it is for anyone else.”
Paul Caiozzo, executive creative director of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, NY, said, ““It’s not often you get to do something that feels meaningful on a level far beyond advertising. It definitely shows how entertainment truly is for everyone.”
Creative challenges
“Emily’s Oz” topped SHOOT’s quarterly Top Ten VFX/Animation Chart. As for the creative challenges the spot posed to the a52 team, Patrick Nugent, the studio’s executive producer, shared, “VFX supervisor Stefan Gaillot and I worked very closely and collaboratively on set with director Andreas Nilsson, DP Matthew Libatique, the Legacy puppeteers team and the team from Goodby Silverstein & Partners to promote as much creativity as possible while also considering the visual effects work that would follow.
There was a particularly wonderful collaborative spirit on this set while we all worked to bring Emily’s world to life in the magical and genuine way that we see on the screen. Much of the heavy lifting was done in camera with the gorgeous sets and captivating puppet designs you see, which were also very true to Emily’s imagination. This is not to say that there were not very big VFX challenges as well. The nature of the sets combined with the large team of puppeteers operating (and by necessity surrounding) each puppet in nearly every scene added up to a huge amount of VFX work on a very tight schedule.
“Just removing the puppeteers from each scene required hundreds of artist days of rotoscoping, paint and cleanup work so that the viewer doesn’t see the men and women “behind the curtain” or in this case, in the black puppeteer suits. The roto and cleanup team, supervised by Stefan, were both big and brilliant and their work made it possible to see these puppets move “on their own”, which is quite a magical effect.”
Another VFX focus, noted Nugent, both on set and during post, “was to find ways to enhance the depth in every scene. Emily’s Oz is a magical place but it is also always true to Emily’s wonderfully detailed descriptions, so we worked hard to help find the balance of a place that felt both magical AND real, true to Emily’s vision.
“We certainly faced challenges in the schedule (in order to make the Oscar’s telecast), as well as the VFX scope and budget, but it was clear from the beginning that the greatest and also most inspirational challenge, was the effort to stay true to the magical vision of Emily’s mind,” continued Nugent. “I think getting to know Emily, even just for a short time on set, really lifted everyone’s efforts. I’d say Emily is a very magical person herself.”
Legacy Effects constructed puppets of the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man which reflected Emily’s vision. The tin man, for example, has big floppy feet, and has a wig atop his head. The Cowardly Lion walks on his hands and has a startled look on his face. Legacy in essence enables the world to see what Emily envisions when she hears the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. The Emerald City rains and snows green emeralds.
Nugent said, “This particular project and script were so clearly special that we absolutely jumped at the opportunity to help bring Emily’s imagination to life. Together with such a rich pool of talents, it’s really been a dream project.”
Biscuit’s Nilsson noted that was not the director of the spot but rather helped the real director, Emily, to bring her vision to life for all to see.
