This spot for AT&T plays like a bit of an homage to Christo and Jean-Claude, creators of urban and rural works of large-scale art in the great outdoors. The directing collective Traktor, BBDO New York, visual effects house MPC L.A. and edit shop Arcade teamed on a visual story in which blankets unfurl and cover such landmarks as the Hollywood sign and the Gateway arch in St. Louis, skyscrapers, the Vegas strip, even an expansive beach.
The visual tour de force artfully conveys the message that AT&T covers 97 percent of all America.
The plan was formulated to shoot some of the blanket fabric on large models, shot high speed that would later be composited onto the live action element–in the hope this would take the pressure off full photo-real cloth. These elements worked particularly well on the St. Louis Arch, the Hollywood sign and beach scenes. However, this process worked less so on other larger structures, thus necessitating 3D support.
At the end of each shoot day, BBDO and Traktor agreed on a live action plate that MPC moved forward with on the effects front. The creatives and directors used Photoshop to draw on the 2K scan image to show MPC where they would like to see orange fabric. This saved time going back and forth approving “coverage” areas and direction of roll movement.
The live action plate was also camera tracked in 3D and passed onto the motion control camera operator. This camera track was imported into the motion control rig and the exact same camera move was carried out over the enlarged fabric model on a studio day.
Paul Martinez of Arcade continued editing the full 30-second spot while MPC tested CGI cloth simulations and tended to essential rotoscoping/clean up.
By the time the edit was fully client approved, MPC had a good head start on several key VFX shots
MPC’s CGI team created a Maya cloth script that could simulate realistic vertical and horizontal rolls, with wind and surface resistance. While render time was slow, the script helped the 3D team control the parameters of the simulation.
It was then the compositing team’s job to integrate all the CG and model elements using Nuke & Flame.
The BBDO N.Y. team included chief creative officers David Lubars and Bobby Pearce, executive creative directors Greg Hahn and Ralph Watson, art directors Jean Robaire and Stephen McMennamy, and producers Carolyn Carbone and Amy Wertheimer.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More