This spec spot takes us back to the early 20th Century. A car of the time period is seen puttering along the road. In the background are the San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean and the water passage that connects them–the Golden Gate Strait.
A boat is seen making its way through the water. Back then the body of water was just that–with no bridge to span it.
We are then taken on a journey forward through time, primarily during the four years (1933-’37) when the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed. In one scene, we see a construction worker in the foreground as the bridge starts to build itself before our eyes. Finally the bridge is seen spanning the Strait’s vast reaches, connecting San Francisco to Marin County. To this day the bridge still ranks as one of the construction marvels of all time.
A voiceover relates that the Golden Gate Bridge was originally just a dream. “But with the right strategies and the right resources,” says the voiceover, “dreams begin to take shape. And the bridge–that many said could not be built–was.”
The black-and-white construction footage then turns to full color as we see the Golden Gate Bridge today in its full splendor. The voiceover continues, “Bank of America was there–celebrating 150 years of lending for projects big and small.” A Bank of America logo serves as the spot’s end tag, with a supered message echoing the voiceover reference to the financial institution’s 150-year history of lending.
Titled “Golden Gate,” this spec ad was directed by David Dozoretz, who also served as hybrid writer/art director on the job. Dozoretz runs a Los Angeles-based pre-visualization shop, Persistence of Vision, and recently completed pre-vis on Mission Impossible 3 and X-Men 3. On the side he has directed some spec work to further his aspiration to get into commercial helming.
Dozoretz’s background includes working at Industrial Light+Magic (ILM), San Rafael, Calif. (now in San Francisco) where he helped to develop the pre-vis pipeline for the Star Wars films.
For “Golden Gate” Dozoretz deployed such tools as the Maxon Cinema 4D for 3D modeling and animation, and Apple Shake for compositing. The work was done largely on Mac G5s.
The spec job entailed considerable planning and meticulously executed effects. For example, for the opening shot, a background plate was captured in HD. Visual effects work included replacement of the current San Francisco skyline with a digital version circa the 1930s, sky replacement, a digital ocean and boat, and removal of the present day Golden Gate Bridge and the road’s rail guard.
Among other touches were the creation of a digital crane, an animated trellis and north and south towers for a subsequent scene as the construction of the bridge unfolds before our eyes.
Additional credit goes to DP Ron Fricke, producer Ted Gagliano and CG artists Kevin Aguirre, Chad Hoeftig, Shane Cook and Hunter Kuhnert.
A Nomination Tradition: DGA Award, Best Director Oscar Discrepancy Continues
The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the 77 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts. This time around Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat are in line with the predominant history. Fargeat earned a Best Director Oscar nomination this week for The Substance (MUBI). Berger, who didn’t make the directorial Oscar cut, earned a DGA Award nomination for Conclave (Focus Features). Four of the five directors vying for the DGA Award and the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Oscar are in sync this year: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (Netflix) Sean Baker for Anora (Neon), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (A24), and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (Searchlight). On the flip side of tradition, if Fargeat were to win the directing Oscar, that development wouldn’t be aligned with but rather bucking history. Only eight times has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Fargeat has already made a bit of history, scoring just the 10th Best Director Oscar nomination ever for a woman. The Substance is up for five Oscars--the other nominations being for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Demi Moore), Original Screenplay (Fargeat), and Makeup & Hairstyling (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stephanie Guillon, Marilyne Scarselli). Even without a Best Director nomination, Conclave tallied eight Oscar nods--for Best Picture, Leading Actor (Ralph... Read More