This spot for the Mazda 3 out of JWT Dusseldorf debuted in Spain, with airing in Russia and other international markets slated to follow at press time. Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch of RSA Films, Los Angeles, “Red & White” tapped into the digital assets of digital production/visual effects studio Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. Those assets include an extensive library of landscapes, living creatures, automobiles and crowds of people to call upon and modify for projects.
Among the Digital Domain imagery used for this nearly entirely CG futuristic commercial were a highly modified digital city and a replica of a Mazda 3 model.
“The only shooting we did for ‘Red & White’ was of one man and one woman, who we replicated over and over throughout the spot,” explained Digital Domain’s Jay Barton, visual effects supervisor on the project. “Everything else was computer-generated–the car, the trucks, the plane, the buildings, the road, the paint–everything.”
The commercial opens on a brigade of women and men in skintight white suits painting every inch of their city white. They use hoses attached to fire trucks to spray gallons of goopy paint into the streets and onto the buildings. Everywhere you look it is white–but there is one fly in the ointment.
One fire red Mazda 3 hatchback is rolling down the avenues openly mocking the “white brigade.” The painters aim their hoses on the Mazda and large gobs of paint land like mortar shells all around it, but the car deftly escapes with some quick maneuvering. A prop plane swoops down and opens its cargo bay releasing a reservoir of white paint, but the car narrowly escapes into a tunnel. Things finally look grim for the Mazda 3 when it falls into a trap. Driving into an aqueduct, the car is heading straight for a roadblock of paint trucks. Behind it, a dam opens releasing a river of white paint that rushes toward the car. One of the painters flashes a confident smirk in that he Mazda is clearly cornered.
The car screeches to a halt and is engulfed by a rushing wave of paint. But the Mazda, now white, pulls a 180-degree turn and drives away leaving red everywhere in its wake. The painters’ suits turn red, the roadway is red and in the final shot, the all white Mazda heads back to the now red city.
“We used digital cityscapes, an exact CG car model, fluid simulation, animation, lighting simulation and more to help realize Carl’s vision of a quirky, uniform world,” said Digital Domain’s Ed Ulbrich, president of the studio’s commercial division and executive VP of production.
Barton noted, “We started with a CG New York City but rebuilt it for a more simplified, futuristic look. We took out many of the details and started thinking more about shapes. We adjusted the buildings and smoothed out the edges for an art deco look and more dramatic shadows and light. In the end, it looked fantastic and gave the spot a unique look and feel.
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More