Sight Effects/In-Sight Pix Create Moving Sand Dunes For "Drifts."
BY KATHY DeSALVO
In 1994, the Cannes Grand Prix award went to the Chrysler Jeep spot "Snow
Covered," via Bozell Worldwide, Southfield, Mich., directed by Eric Saarinen of
Plum Productions, Santa Monica, with effects by Digital Domain, Venice, Calif.
It conveyed the power of the Jeep, but the vehicle went unseen in the spot-
instead, it burrowed beneath layers of snow, stopping and turning at a stop sign
poking above the snow surface.
Now Saarinen again successfully plays with nature’s elements in a new spot,
"Drifts," for Chevy Tahoe out of Campbell-Ewald Advertising in Warren, Mich.
However in this sophisticated balance of live action and visual effects, we
actually see the vehicle as the Chevy Tahoe propels itself through sand,
creating massive sand dunes in a desert landscape. Visual effects were supplied
by Sight Effects, Venice, whose sister company, In-Sight Pix, handled the
animation/CG duties.
"The idea was to show the power of Tahoe in an interesting way," said John
Clarey, the spot’s art director, who teamed with copywriter/associate creative
director John Stewart. "Sight Effects did a really good job with the special
effects. The idea was there, but [without the execution] it could have gone
either way."
"We always talk about execution being [key]," said Saarinen. "If it’s well-
executed, it works, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a joke. I think the spot
is pretty cool."
Indeed, "Drifts" is laudable for its seamless integration of live-action footage
and realistic CG. The spot opens on an aerial wide shot of a spectacular, vast
desert. A closer view shows undulating waves of sand forming into dunes; a
camera pan to the right reveals that the dunes are being created by the driving
force of the Tahoe. We see the vehicle from various perspectives as it continues
to traverse the desert, altering the landscape behind it. The spot ends with a
sequence of the Tahoe continuously rotating around 360 degrees, to four
different environments representing the four compass directions: North (glacial
scenery, shot in Alaska/Yukon territory), East (an urban cityscape, shot in New
Jersey), South (lush tropical greenery, shot in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and West
(a Wild West setting, shot in Valley of Fire, Nev.). The final shot is that of a
hazy, cloudy sky, shot in Turkey, over which the superimposed copy reads,
"Tahoe-Like A Rock."
Saarinen is well-versed in special effects; in fact, Sight Effects digital
effects supervisor Alan Barnett said he’s one of the few directors for whom an
on-set effects supervisor is not a necessity (there was none on "Drifts"). Even
so, Saarinen said the prospect of the moving sand dunes initially "scared the
daylights" out of him. "It’s one thing to have a car go through and create
drifts out of sand," said Saarinen. "But they were supposed to move, and then
supposed to freeze in place as they do. How do you do that?"
The solution involved using CGI to create the moving dunes. Saarinen first shot
the foreground plates: stunt driver Gary Davis maneuvering the Tahoe through
sand in Yuma, Ariz., and the Dumont Dunes in California. From this footage,
Saarinen said, they made certain selects of the film, which determined what kind
of backgrounds they needed. "We wanted to make it look as if these sand dunes
were endless; a sand sea," he said. Phase two took the production team to
Namibia to shoot the background plates: panoramic shots of the desert vistas,
shot using a space-cam, a gyro-stabilized platform mounted on a helicopter to
permit panning and tilting aerial shots. They shot all the plates at sunset and
dawn.
Meanwhile, Sight Effects had been conducting extensive R&D. Barnett explained
that the agency supplied them with a composite of magazine artwork that
indicated the kind of sand formation it wanted. "We started with an off-the-
shelf software package called Arete, a water program," said Barnett, "the idea
being that we could use waves and then color and light them to make them sand.
We found that didn’t work too well for us; they looked too much like waves."
Ultimately, Flame was used to design the look of the dunes, which were assembled
in CG using Maya and proprietary software.
"There were only three shots for which we did these CG dunes," said Barnett,
"but they’re incredibly complex. They don’t appear to be so in the final
product," in which you see: the waves of sand moving, then the car at frame
right; the car at 3/4 angle driving away from the camera with the dunes fanning
out behind it; and the car, shot very low-angle, driving past the camera and
away to the left.
The 3/4 shot, said Barnett, consisted of three practical plates: the very far
ground, the mid-ground (both shot in Namibia) and the foreground car elements.
"That shot was particularly tricky because of the geography of the land," said
Barnett. "The CG dunes had to roll up hills and go through dips; it was fairly
complex animation."
The hard part was the final, 360-degree sequence, according to Saarinen. The
typical method, he said, would be to shoot the car on location in the North,
South, East and West settings-an extremely time-consuming and costly process. "I
said we don’t have to do that," said Saarinen, who opted to dolly around the car
and shoot the backgrounds separately. This involved taping a 20×50-ft.
bluescreen to the side of a large moving truck and positioning it behind the
Tahoe; as the camera dollied around, the bluescreen truck moved with it.
After Saarinen shot plates in each of the four locales, Barnett related, Sight
Effects composited the car in, put the reflections on and timed the rotation of
the backgrounds "so that everything felt as if you were continuously panning
around the car and finding each of the four compass directions." (The sequence
also appears at the end of another Saarinen-directed Tahoe spot, "Garage.") In
all, the post process took between six and seven weeks.
"[Shooting with bluescreen] solved Alan’s problem," said Saarinen. "If we hadn’t
done it that way, they’d still be working on it today."
Publicis, Pinnacle
Work Out For WSL
CLIENT
Washington State Lottery.
PRODUCTION CO.
Ober Lenz Films, Seattle. Kelly Evans, director/DP; Brad Lenz, executive
producer; Brian Hammon, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Publicis/Seattle. Gail Anne Grosso, president/creative director; John Holm,
VP/associate creative director/art director; Mark Jones, art director; Bill
McGee, senior copywriter; Binky Walker, executive producer; Jennifer Phillips,
producer.
STOCK FOOTAGE
BeFit Enterprises, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
EDITORIAL
Pinnacle Studios, Seattle. Alan Nay, editor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Pinnacle Studios. Justin Conant, designer; Alan Nay, creative editor; John
Davidson, colorist; Ramon Ramos, digital artist/animator.
AUDIO POST
Pure Audio, Seattle. Paul Goldberg, engineer.
MUSIC
Durkee Music & Sound Design, Seattle. Norman Durkee, composer.
THE SPOT
Four :30s-"Get Rich," "1,000," "In Shape" and "Fun"-star the "Godfather of
Fitness," Jack LaLanne, as spokesperson for the Washington State Lottery’s
"Lucky for Life" campaign. The spots, shot game-show style, feature original
black-and-white footage from LaLanne’s 1950s exercise show combined with new
scenes of LaLanne.
Spots broke Sept. 9.
Sight Effects Drives
Jeep Grand Cherokee
CLIENT
Chrysler Corp./Jeep Grand Cherokee.
PRODUCTION CO.
Flying Tiger Films, Santa Monica. Bob Gordon, director/DP; Lance O’Connor,
producer; Matt Caltabiano, production manager; Sarah O’Connor, coordinator. Shot
on location.
AGENCY
Bozell Worldwide, Southfield, Mich. Gary Topolewski, chief creative officer;
Bill Morden, creative director; Mary Kondrat, executive producer; John Van
Osdol, managing partner/broadcast production; Paul Renusch, senior producer;
Jaime Perry, senior art director; Craig Pines, senior copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Swietlik Inc., Hollywood. Bob Jenkis, editor.
POST
POP Television, Santa Monica. Wayne Hampton, colorist. Sight Effects, Venice,
Calif. Chris Stevens, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Sight Effects. Alan Barnett, digital effects supervisor; Adrian Hurley, visual
effects supervisor; Jeff Blodgett, visual effects producer; Phil Brennan, Chris
Stevens, David Neuberger and Scott Polen, visual effects artists. In-Sight Pix,
Venice. Andrea Morland, producer; Stephen McClure and Paolo Moscatelli,
animators.
AUDIO POST
Michael Boyd Music, San Francisco. Charles Judge, engineer.
MUSIC
Michael Boyd Music. Michael Boyd, composer/producer; Charles Judge, composer;
Hector Perez, sound designer.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Mansion" opens with a butler in front of a mansion checking his pocket
watch. Meanwhile, a Jeep Grand Cherokee is driving on a remote mountain road and
eventually arrives at the manor. The butler walks to the garage and unzips the
door to allow the Jeep to enter, revealing that the mansion is actually a tent.
Spot broke Sept. 14.
JMC&P Grows Hair
With Men’s Rogaine
CLIENT
Pharmacia & Upjohn./Rogaine Extra Strength for Men.
PRODUCTION CO.
Independent Artists, New York. Michael Moir, director; Ed Stephenson, DP; Neil
Hallenborg, executive producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
jordanmcgrathcase&partners, New York. Steve Kambanis, senior VP/creative
director/art director; Gene Case, creative director/copywriter; Peter Cohen,
producer; Jennifer Picarelli, assistant producer; Bob Portune, VP
producer/manager of jmcp Editing Group, New York.
EDITORIAL
Boomtown, New York. Steve Kraftsow, editor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Empire Video, New York. Lenny Davidowitz, online editor; Michael Bianchi,
graphic artist. Manhattan Transfer, New York. Dino Regas, colorist.
AUDIO POST
Howard Schwartz Recording, New York. Roy Latham, engineer/mixer.
MUSIC
Red House Music, New York. Alan Zahn, composer.
THE SPOT
Two :30s-"Guarantee/Matt" and "Guarantee/Jamie"-announce a money-back guarantee
that Rogaine Extra Strength will either regrow hair or stop hair loss.
Spot broke Aug. 31.
Chromavision Is
Green For Scotts
CLIENT
The O.M. Scott & Sons Co./ Scotts Turf Builder.
PRODUCTION CO.
American Pictures, Portsmouth, N.H. Steve Sanger, director; Alan Thatcher, DP;
Bob Pollak, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Partners & Shevack, New York. Jeff Williamson, creative director/copywriter;
Akiko Naito, art director; Jerry Mason, producer.
EDITORIAL
Chromavision, New York. Peter Shelton, editor.
POST
Chromavision. Robert Bader, online editor. Image Editorial, New York. Gary
Scarpulla, colorist.
AUDIO POST
Chromavision. Matt Kaplowitz, sound editor/mixer.
SOUND DESIGN
Chromavision. Matt Kaplowitz, sound designer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 "Three Amigos," a trio of friends in Chicago engage in an animated
debate as to who has the better lawn. They all agree on one thing: that Scotts
Turf Builder is essential to a beautiful yard.
Spot broke Aug. 24.
non•fic•tion spots
Surprises Wards
CLIENT
Montgomery Ward & Co.
PRODUCTION CO.
non•fic•tion spots and longform, Santa Monica. Barbara Kopple, director; Mark
Dektor, DP; Michael Degen and Loretta Jeneski, executive producers; Nona Sue
Friedman, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
DDB Needham Chicago. Fran Johns, group creative director; Mike Willeford,
creative director/ art director; Sandra Soczyk and Cindy Bokoff, copywriters;
Thom-as Clark, executive producer.
EDITORIAL
Swell Pictures, Chicago. Ed Maroney Jr., editor.
POST
Swell Pictures. Mark Dolnick and Frank Carioti, online editors; Tom Rovak,
colorist; Rick Thompson, type design.
AUDIO POST
Swell Pictures. Steve Wilke, engineer.
MUSIC
SPANK! Music and Sound De-sign, Chicago. Steve Schafer, composer. Van Beek
Music, Chicago. Connie Van Beek, composer.
THE SPOT
Five :30s in Montgomery Wards’ "We’re Changing Everything" campaign-"Furniture,"
"Family Casual," "Teens," "Career Wear" and "Soft Home"-capture the reactions of
people told that the merchandise they are checking out is available at Wards.
Spots broke Sept. 15.
Posnick & Kolker
Grill Ranch*1
CLIENT
Ranch*1.
PRODUCTION CO.
Shadowrock Productions, Beverly Hills, Calif. Oscar Bassinson, director; Ron
Williams, DP; Ken Eggett, executive producer; Lawrie Badger, producer. Shot at
Showline Harbourside Studios, Toronto.
AGENCY
Posnick & Kolker, New York. Steve Kolker, president; Paul Posnick, creative
director; Helen Polise, producer; David Lanfair, copywriter; Edward Rupp, art
director.
EDITORIAL
Cabana, New York. Billy Senia, editor; Noelle Livrieri, assistant editor.
POST
Post Perfect, New York. Mark Tyler, online editor; Robert Leaton, colorist.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Laurie McCulloch, project manager; Richard
Scott, lead artist; Alan Brown, producer/rep.
AUDIO POST
Fearless Music, New York. Jamie Lamm, mixer.
MUSIC
Fearless Music. Jamie Lamm, composer.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Ya Gotta Have *1" features a montage of hip people in front of brightly
colored backgrounds and Ranch*1 sandwiches, "The best grilled chicken sandwich
on earth."
Spot broke Aug. 17.
