Two buddies sitting at a coffee shop counter have a chat, with one asking the other if there are any nearby Capital One Bank branches. Armed with a laptop computer, the man responds that he has a new mapping system software that should instantly locate convenient branches. On his computer screen, we see a push pin appear on a map, designating a local branch.
But this red push pin system plays quite differently in the real world as we see a giant pin plummet from the sky, landing on terra firma where a Capital One is located–more accurately, the pin lands on a taxi cab, smashing the vehicle which is parked in front of a Capital One branch. Suddenly other red push pin “missiles” fall from the sky, hitting a sidewalk, a fire hydrant in front of yet another branch, and so on. Looking out the coffee house window, we see the last pin land just across the street–talk about convenient.
A voiceover relates that Capital One Bank has hundreds and hundreds of branches and ATMs.
A cabbie then appears on camera next to the sight of his taxi hood impaled by a huge push pin. He utters the Capital One Bank slogan query, “What’s in your wallet?”
“Push Pins” was directed by Tom Routson from bicoastal Tool of North America for BBDO Atlanta. Lesley Robson-Foster served as VFX supervisor for Tool.
Stephen McMennamy was creative director for BBDO Atlanta, with Melanie Lambertson serving as agency producer.
Filmworkers Club, Chicago, assembled a VFX team led by creative director/lead compositor Rob Churchill, which created the giant push pins as CG elements and integrated them into the background scenes.
“We tried to make the push pins as realistic as possible by adding nicks, scratches and mold markings,” Churchill said. “We also took reference photos outside of objects made from similar rounded plastic to see how they would react to the light.”
Churchill and his team applied a myriad of subtle touches to make the effects look real. That included adding CG elements of bursting concrete and asphalt and exploding dust to the impact sites, as well as shadows and reflections of the falling push pins. In one instance, a stream of water from a broken water main was applied to the scene. Shaking and bouncing cars were added as foreground elements and, in some scenes, the entire background environments were fabricated.
While the background environments for most of the effects scenes were shot with a static camera, Churchill added artificial zooms and camera moves to make them look more dynamic. “For the final scene in the restaurant, we added camera shake as if the impact of the pushpin had caused the building to move,” Churchill observed. “For further emphasis, we put in lighting fixtures and caused them to sway and also added shaking blinds to the window.” The entire scene viewed outside the restaurant window–including the pushpin and the Capital One bank branch–were added during the visual effects process.
Noting that the spot is intended to be funny, Churchill said that it was important that the falling push pins didn’t appear too menacing. “We didn’t want to evoke tragedy so we scaled down the destruction a bit,” he recalled. “When the pins hit, they break up the concrete, but it remains very localized.”
A graphic that appears near the end of the spot, where the camera pulls out of a satellite image of New York and reveals the Capital One Bank logo, was created by Filmworkers Club’s affiliated design studio, Lift Motion Design. Filmworkers Club also produced an alternate version of the spot set in New Orleans.
Editor was Dustin Stephens of P.S. 260, New York.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More