Manhattan Transfer Makes Beetle Zip, Swirl And Multiply In Arnold’s "Turbonium."
CLIENT
Volkswagen of America.
PRODUCTION CO.
X-1 Films, Los Angeles. Nick Lewin, director; Eric Engler, DP; Cami Taylor and Charlie Curran,
executive producers; Tina Nakane, producer. Shot at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood.
AGENCY
Arnold Communications, Boston. Ron Lawner, chief creative officer; Lance Jensen, executive VP/creative
director/copywriter; Alan Pafenbach, executive VP/creative director/art director; Will Uronis, art director;
Keith Dezen, VP/senior executive producer; Ken Kingdon, assistant producer.
EDITORIAL
Manhattan Transfer, New York. Bill Denehy, editor.
POST
Manhattan Transfer. Dino Regas, colorist; Kieran Walsh and Peter Flack, online editors.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Manhattan Transfer. Bill Denehy, visual effects director; Kieran Walsh, visual effects artist/creative
director; Peter Flack, visual effects artist; Brad Fox, lead CG animator; Matt Reilly and Mark French,
digital artists; Greg Ecker, software development; Connie Griffin, executive producer; Mary Maffei,
producer.
AUDIO POST
Blast Digital Audio, New York. Joe O’Connell, mixer.
MUSIC
Ben Neill, New York,
composer.
SOUND DESIGN
Blast Digital Audio. Joe O’Connell, sound designer.
BY SANDRA GARCIA
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that making commercials isn’t rocket science. Ask bicoastal X-1 director
Nick Lewin what it took to create Arnold Communications’ :30 "Turbonium" for Volkswagen. He would
let out a huge sigh and proceed to spin a wicked tale filled with CGI fairies and motion control demons.
Einstein would roll over in his grave to hear about "Turbonium," the new element introduced by the
Boston-based agency that makes things go fast and comes in the form of a VW Beetle 1.8T. As you might
have guessed, the "T" is for turbo.
The spot opens to a quick-cut of the periodic table of elements. Backed by a techno track, a voice that
sounds as if it has been sampled off a TV newscast announces that scientists have discovered a new
periodic element. The word "element" is put on repeat as three metallic green Beetles whiz across a white
screen. The virtual camera pans back as the Beetles, moving in sync with the bass beat, rotate to form an
atom. The voiceover continues in incomplete sound bytes (and in different languages) to explain the
element’s properties as a wider shot reveals little Beetle atoms zipping in all directions, moving in
multitudes that number in the thousands and then transition into tiny particles. The scene cuts to a live
action shot of the VW badge on the hood of the car along with various shots of the car’s details, ending
with the Beetle poised for takeoff. The car disappears into the white background as the words "Pure
Turbonium" flash on the screen and the VW logo fades up.
It took Sir Isaac Newton less time to discover the Law of Gravity than it took Arnold creative directors
Alan Pafenbach and Lance Jensen, director Lewin and a whole slew of Manhattan Transfer effects artisans
to prepare for the creation of "Turbonium."
Lewin worked on last year’s Beetle campaign that included "Flower," "Soul," "UFO," "Heart," "Dream"
and "Past Life," and went on to win the ’98 GRANDY, so both Jensen and Pafenbach knew he understood
the mechanics behind it. "I think they [Arnold] wanted to progress beyond what they had done with ‘UFO’
and make one commercial which took that same simple idea and make it far, far more complex," said
Lewin.
What "complex" translated into for Lewin was a highly mathematical project that took months of planning.
"We had to start off by working out what was the radius of the circle that this car would go in," said Lewin
of the kind of paper-and-pencil arithmetic the spot required.
The next phase of the project involved calling in Manhattan Transfer for post support. Manhattan Transfer
had worked on the launch of the new Beetle last year and was up for the challenge. Both the agency and
Lewin knew from the beginning that the spot would entail some CGI work, but just how much was left
unclear.
The initial plan was to shoot the whole commercial in live action with a motion control rig. After all, this
was how they had shot all the other Beetle spots last year. While Lewin was working out the logistics of the
car’s movements, Manhattan Transfer lead CG animator Brad Fox busied himself making a test animation
model of the Beetle, which he generated from the actual Computer Aided Design (CAD) model
Volkswagen used to manufacture the car. Fox then used Maya to model the wheels, windows, lights and
the car’s interior. The result was an astonishingly authentic replica of the Beetle.
"When we did one CGI test, we realized that CGI had come along in such leaps and bounds that we could
actually do half, if not just over half the spot in CGI," related Lewin.
From that point forward, Lewin, Pafenbach and Jensen nixed the plans to shoot the entire commercial in
live action and enlisted Manhattan Transfer to work on the front end of the spot. Fox did all the animation
in Softimage and then, with Manhattan Transfer effects artists Kieran Walsh and Peter Flack, brought
everything together via Manhattan Transfer’s proprietary 3-D software. Manhattan Transfer had developed
a technique whereby lighting can be simulated as it would be with a light box on a real set, lending the
Beetle that wet paint, photo-real effect. "Doing a portion of the spot in CG was a strong selling point
because we could tweak everything so easily. That offered a lot of creative flexibility," said Fox.
Lewin shot the back end of the spot and the titling at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, the same place he filmed
last year’s campaign. "It made sense to [use] the whole team that had done it last time because it meant we
were all speaking the same language and there was a certain level of trust there," said Lewin.
The only newcomer to the Beetle campaign this time around was composer Ben Neill, who wrote and
performed the music for "Turbonium." Jensen, who has been known to dig up obscure songs for the
Volkswagen work, had several of Neill’s CDs and simply asked him to come up with something for the
spot. (Neill is a digital composer/recording artist and inventor of the mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-
acoustic instrument. He has worked with John Cage, Robert Moog and DJ Spooky.) Sound designer was
Joe O’Connell of Blast Digital Audio, New York.
Will "Turbonium" be the next trophy winner in the Arnold archives? According to Jensen, they’re just
going to keep doing what they’re doing. "We went through a big learning curve shooting the last spots and
we just don’t feel like reinventing the wheel … There is no need when it was built right the first time," he
said.
Curious Channel
Surfs For Kraft
CLIENT
Kraft Foods/Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
PRODUCTION CO.
Curious Pictures, bicoastal. Steve Oakes, director; Tom Lucak, DP; Wayne White, designer; Richard
Winkler and David Starr, executive producers; Josh Porter, producer; Hunt Squibb, set fabricator; Lewis
Kofsky, chief compositing artist/3-D animator; Damon Ciarelli, 2-D/3-D animator; Molly Schwartz and
Gary Goldstein, 2-D animators; Tony Tabtong, John Wilson, Ian Hayden, Scott Rays, Kevin Kong, Philip
Ben, Joe Dilalo and Chris Haney, 3-D animators; Barbara Nash, cel animation producer; Sophie Hogarth,
cel animator; Kris Greengrove, cel animation supervising producer; Joshua Porter, producer; Amelia Dallis,
coordinator.
AGENCY
Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago. Laura Glenn, VP/executive producer; Susan Balaban, VP/ copywriter;
Jim Shirreff, art director.
STOCK FOOTAGE
Fast Images, New York. Discovery Channel Images, Bethesda, Md.
EDITORIAL
Curious Pictures. Anthony Orkin, editor.
POST
The Tape House Editorial Company, New York. John Dowdell, colorist.
AUDIO POST
Chicago Recording Company. Dave Gerbosi, mixer.
MUSIC
Doctor Music, Chicago. Steve Doctor, composer.
SOUND DESIGN
Asche & Spencer/Minneapolis. Richard Werbowenko, sound designer; Joel Smith, producer.
THE SPOT
"Cheese Surfing" spoofs channel surfing by featuring cheese-related network programming. The :30
includes a newswoman announcing that "six noodle babies went home today"; on the nature channel,
young noodles "migrate upstream for their yearly spawn"; curvaceous lifeguards ogle a "hunk" of cheese;
and Cheesaurus Rex, the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese mascot, makes an appearance as a weatherman
reporting "heavy cheese flooding" and as a referee of a wrestling match during which noodles are being
"slammed in the cheese."
Spot broke April 19.
Pavlov Creates
Panic With Oreo
CLIENT
Nabisco Biscuit Co./Oreo DoubleStuf Cookies.
PRODUCTION CO.
Pavlov Productions, Culver City, Calif. John Lindauer, director; Philip Linzey, DP; Paul Kawasaki,
executive producer; Alessandra Pasquino and John Oetjen, producers. Shot at Thomas Studios, Vancouver,
B.C.
AGENCY
Foote, Cone & Belding, New York. Ted Littleford, creative director; Bob Phillips and Bob Neuman, group
creative directors; Howie Ronay, art director; Gerald Cuesta, senior copywriter; Paddy Giordano, senior
producer.
EDITORIAL
Oasis Editorial, Santa Monica. Brendan O’Carroll, editor; Michael Hackett, assistant editor.
POST
525 Studios, Santa Monica. Jais Lamaire, colorist.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Orbit Imaging, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Kevin Jackson, visual effects supervisor/computer
graphics/compositing artist. Digital Revolution, Santa Monica. Amy g. Davis and Marla Carter, Henry
artists; Michael Peterson, Flame artist.
AUDIO POST
Sony Music, Culver City. Ken Korbett, mixer.
MUSIC
Woodland Music, Mission Viejo, Calif. Patrick Woodland, composer.
SOUND DESIGN
John Frost, Los Angeles, sound designer.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Blob" opens on a pastoral city park. Suddenly, a tidal wave of Oreo cream descends upon the
streets, sending citizens scurrying, hurling cars into the air and wreaking mayhem. Eventually the source of
the bedlam is revealed to be two boys munching on Oreo DoubleStuf Cookies.
Spot broke June 13.
The A+R Group
Dunks For Nike
CLIENT
Nike.
PRODUCTION CO.
The A+R Group, bicoastal. David Ramser, director; Julian Whatley, DP; Lori Lober, executive producer;
Joseph Sassone, producer. Shot on location in Houston and Los Angeles.
AGENCY
Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Jim Riswold, creative director; Tim Hanrahan, art director; Derek
Barnes, copywriter; Ben Grylewicz, executive producer; Henry Lu, producer; Jessica Vacek, assistant
producer.
EDITORIAL
FilmCore, Santa Monica. Paul Norling, editor; Tiffany Burchard, assistant editor; Therese Hunsberger,
executive producer; Christie Price, postproduction supervisor.
POST
HD West, Santa Monica. Ernie Camacho, online editor. Riot, Santa Monica. Bob Festa, colorist.
AUDIO POST
POP Sound, Santa Monica. Mitch Dorf, mixer/engineer; Jill Ambrosino, audio assistant.
MUSIC
Elias Associates, bicoastal. Michael Sherwood, composer, "Camp Force."
SOUND DESIGN
FilmCore. Paul Norling and Tiffany Burchard, sound designers.
THE SPOTS
The :30 "Camp Flight" features Kevin Garnett helping teens to improve their dunking skills by sending
them off a diving board high above a pool of water. In the other :30 "Camp Force," Charles Barkley and
Cynthia Cooper take basketball camp to a new extreme by incorporating livestock as defense during
training sessions at Camp Force.
Spots broke in late
