A man approaches a single, compact, leather, car seat set on a podium in an open symphony hall. Without hesitation, he begins to unfold the seat. From inside the seat of the first, another is revealed, then several more. The man effortlessly pulls out another row like a drawer, then lifts a large car frame from the floor. The gestures are quick and elegant, made with same finesse as a painter.
Details are carefully discovered, giving just a sense of the Ford C-Max shape. The spokes of the hubcaps each open from a semicircle, and the headlights are instigated by a slight push-in, before popping out and turning on. A steering wheel unfolds from an impossibly compact opening in the dash, and the Ford C-Max is complete.
The Ford C-Max spot, directed by 1stAveMachine‘s Asif Mian for Ogilvy U.K., is the most recent of several projects that 1stAveMachine, N.Y., and Stink, London, have completed together since their European partnership was solidified just last year.
The ambitious practical shoot was done in Prague, where Mian, who has a background in sculpture, worked with fabricators and welders to customize each unfolding car prop. The indistinguishable line between practical effects and CG has in large part to do with the effort to stay within the laws of the real world. During the conception stage, even Mian and his team were amazed by how far they could push the practical effects. “I knew that I wanted every movement to be based in real physics. Once we committed ourselves to that limitation, we really opened the possibilities to a world of advanced rig design.”
The design process was aided by creating a 3D previs with realistic movements of each before anything was built. “It was so important for the art department to have the previs. It laid out exactly how everything should move kinetically. In drawings, this is so much more difficult to show.”
Photorealistic CG was deployed as a way to enhance the practical effects and to embellish on some of the more complex movements. While some might choose to do entire scenes in CG, Mian had a strategy for how to determine exactly what would be done practically from the beginning. “We decided that anywhere the actor had an interaction with the car, it had to be done practically. I don’t like the idea of making an actor pantomime, so we built props for him to handle and used CG to bring it to another level.”
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More