Creating a new look for an advertising icon is always a challenging assignment. When that icon happens to be the Merrill Lynch Bull, it can be downright dangerous.
During pre-production for "Digital Bull 2"—directed by Kinka Usher of Santa Monica-based House of Usher via J. Walter Thompson (JWT), New York—visual effects producer Sue Troyan and visual effects supervisor/lead artist Alex Frisch of Method Studios, Santa Monica, found themselves face-to-face with the real thing. And, as Troyan recalled, "They were a lot faster than we’d expected."
"Sue and myself and a small crew went out to the Castaic Ranch [in Castaic, Calif.], and shot footage of three Spanish-style bulls," Frisch explained. "The footage wasn’t to be used in the commercial. It was for referencing the texture and muscle tone of the bull, as well as the motion—the distance that it covers between strides, the hoof position, how fast it’s moving."
While a trainer was on hand, the Method crew soon discovered that bulls are not easily trained. "There was one time when a bull was in a pen, and it destroyed the fence and went into the pen next to it," noted Frisch. "At another point, the most powerful bull got pissed off at the trainer, charged right at the camera and started hitting the lens.
It sounds more like stunt work than visual effects, but Frisch said the Castaic shoot was essential: "We needed to do it in order to understand the morphology of the bull."
It’s that hands-on approach that first impressed Alain Briere, who served as the freelance art director for JWT on "Digital Bull 2." "Method really has a creative presence," Briere explained. "They are very collaborative."
The bull is invisible throughout much of "Digital Bull 2." The ad opens with a man in a Wall Street coffee shop, feeling the impact of a spectral steer as it charges past, shaking the asphalt and splashing through a puddle. The invisible bull proceeds through the Latin American countryside, a high-tech laboratory, the Bolsa stock exchange and even the bottom of the ocean, gradually taking on a digitized, ghostly form until it is fully revealed at the top of a mountain. "The classic Merrill Bull is really the signature of the brand," explained JWT’s executive VP/global business director, Dan O’Donnell.
"The digital bull is more of a tactical device to represent Merrill’s embracing of technology and online services."
Briere, who in addition to freelance creative work, directs with Kim Jacobs—they comprise the team Jacobs/Briere—had, along with his co-director, helmed several Merrill Lynch ads for JWT in the past. One of the ads the two directed was "Digital Bull 1," which was produced by their former roost, X-1 Films, bicoastal and Chicago. (Jacobs/Briere has since shifted to bicoastal/international Propaganda Films.) "Digital Bull 1" featured a bronze statue of a bull that is injected with "Merrill Lynch DNA," and transformed into a digitized creature, consisting of swirling numbers and codes; the effects were created by FrameStore and Smoke & Mirrors, both in London. While the gradually appearing bull of "Digital Bull 2" is an entirely different animal, the commercial was equally reliant on visual effects.
Troyan and Frisch, who had previously worked with Usher on Mountain Dew’s "Cheetah" via BBDO New York, were happy to hook up with the director again. "Kinka’s great," Troyan said. "He’ll come to us and say, ‘This is my vision. How can I do it?’ And then he collaborates with us." Frisch agreed, saying of Usher: "He’s not really a techie, but he respects all the people he works with."
The compositing for "Digital Bull 2" was done on Inferno from Discreet Logic. Visual effects artist Frisch headed up a team of five 3-D artists (utilizing the Houdini program and MatchMover software for 3-D tracking), and seven additional artists. According to Frisch, the spot’s opening sequence, in which the invisible bull stampedes through Wall Street, was the most difficult to realize. "At first, we thought we could shoot in New York, and actually dig up some of Wall Street and set explosives to fire charges so we could get the effect of the bull splashing through the puddle," he said. "We quickly realized that was impossible."
Method found its way around those logistics by creating its own four-foot deep Wall Street puddle on a lot at Universal Studios. A matte painting of Wall Street buildings—based on photographs taken by a second-unit crew in New York—was rear-projected on a 30-foot screen, reflecting off the puddle. The impact of invisible hooves through the water and street was accomplished via timed, computer-controlled rigs. "We combined many different elements together to create that first sequence of Wall Street," Frisch related.
On other ads, Method artists have collaborated with an extensive list of commercial directors, from newcomers like GusGus of Public Works, Santa Monica, to established names like Samuel Bayer of bicoastal Mars Media. Method recently finished work with performance artists The Blue Man Group, on an ad for Intel, directed by David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous, out of Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York.
