Digital Domain created an oppressive computer generated (CG) world to showcase Toyota’s new GT86 in a new U.K. spot titled “The Real Deal” from Stink director Adam Berg and Saatchi & Saatchi London. Berg, working with Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative team, tapped Digital Domain to tell a story that mimics the car’s key value–breaking out of a monotonous synthetic existence with the power, control and excitement of real life. Expertly wielding Digital Domain’s deep digital production toolset, Berg worked with artists to create everything from digital characters to a stunning full virtual world.
The spot promotes the new Toyota GT86, a sports car that puts control in the hands of the driver rather than computerized systems. Led by VFX supervisor Vernon Wilbert, Digital Domain supervised the shoot and helped realize the vision of the Saatchi creative team and director Berg. The ambitious project was completed by a team of 18 artists in eight weeks thanks to the efficiencies afforded by Digital Domain’s production-proven processes for building digital characters, cars and environments.
Wilbert said, “Because Digital Domain has such deep resources, we were able to handle everything required for this complex spot — from previs to virtual production, live-action integration, 2D and 3D animation and tracking, photo-real hair and cloth, and more — without any dedicated R&D. We were able to repurpose about 95% of the assets for this spot from our libraries, which really helped in terms of cost savings and efficiency. We leveraged the digital human pipeline that has been developed at DD over projects like Benjamin Button, TRON: Legacy and virtual Tupac; we were truly standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The Real Deal” is Berg’s second collaboration with Digital Domain and Wilbert. They teamed up in 2011 for the “Dust to Dust” commercial for the Gears of War video game franchise. Wilbert said, “Adam knows exactly how to leverage digital production and all that it offers. He spent hours on our virtual stage framing up shots within the digital sets.”
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More