Motel 6 and agency The Richards Group recently joined forces with production company King and Country (K&C) to create a :30 that debuted as the centerpiece of the agency’s cross-media campaign celebrating the brand’s 50th anniversary.
The Richards Group approached K&C with a simple idea: For the 50th anniversary of Motel 6 they wanted to send a family on a classic road trip spanning 50 years.
“When Pete [Everitt, agency creative/art director] and I came up with the idea, we didn’t think it would ever happen,” said Chris Smith, brand creative group head/writer at The Richards Group. “It was just so much more ambitious than anything we’d ever tried for the brand. But that’s exactly what the client wanted for their 50th, so they took a risk. We feel really lucky to have a client like that. It’s funny how such a simple idea can be so complex to execute. The trick from a creative standpoint was for none of the effort to show. It all had to come off with the campaign’s long-established simplicity and approachability, with a subtle sense of humor that was surprising but not broad or slapstick.”
Director Rick Gledhill, a partner in K&C, noted, “To quickly transition through five decades in just 30 seconds required a deft blend of VFX, slick edits, and camera trickery. From CG to CG car changes to hidden wipes and quick camera moves, we called upon a variety of old and new school techniques. The goal being that the focus of the audience’s enjoyment is on the fact that the world is changing, not the actual changes themselves.
Gledhill added, “Crafting the precise period feel was not only reliant on what we see within the world, but the lens through which we see it. So we designed a slightly different film look for each decade. Color, grain, and lighting subtly change to help the audience quickly access which time period they are in.”
The spot begins with a shot of a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad cruising down a desert highway with suitcases on top and a family of four inside. The well-known Motel 6 music arrives with Tom Bodett’s one-of-a-kind voice: “Over the past 50 years, the way America travels has changed,” he says, as the station wagon transforms into a ’64 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. Inside the car, visual changes to costume, hair, makeup and even the warmth of the imaging depict the 1970s, as Bodett speaks. “But through all that time and all those many changes, there’s been the same place to find a comfortable night’s rest.” While Bodett relates his thoughtful message, K&C’s storytelling fuses spot-on directing, casting, art direction, editing, animation and visual effects artistry to bring family, gadgets and vehicles up-to-date, as the destination is reached. “Motel 6,” Bodett ends: “Fifty years, and the light’s still on.”
Led by Gledhill, the crew shot out in the desert using the RED EPIC on a process trailer, camera car and a Technocrane to achieve all the external car shots. Day two was for green screen interior shots and the Motel 6 resolve shot.
“The interior shots of mom and dad transforming from the 60s to 70s involved shooting everything separately so we could time everyone’s performance down to a split second,” Gledhill explained. “The camera was locked off as we shot the son and daughter individually in both wardrobes, then we shot mom in both wardrobes, then dad and finally the moving background plates were shot as well as an interior exposure. In total, 11 plates were captured just for those two shots, and that’s before they were tracked and recreated in 3D so we could transition the inside of the cars, add hair growing on dad’s face and extend his collars.”
Although all the cars were photographed, 3D versions were also painstakingly recreated in Maya, inside and out, to give the filmmakers complete control over transitioning them through the decades.
“When it came to compositing the CG cars, we wanted things like the lighting, texturing, and colors to perfectly match the original cinematography,” said K&C’s art director Jon Lorenz. “We made the decision to render the 3D from Maya V-ray, and generated some stunning results for our compositors to work with in After Effects. Having our Maya artists render out UV Passes allowed the compositors to take a 2D texture image and re-map onto whatever was rendered from 3D, adding back in all the detail to the aging body work.”
The father’s facial hair was another of many postproduction challenges. Since the actor’s head is turning while his mustache and sideburns grow out, K&C’s artists had to track his movement using a combination of PF Track and a few hand keys in Maya. Styling the digital facial hair involved inventive use of Maya fur. “The hair was lit with a basic setup of five lights and rendered with Mental Ray,” said K&C’s Andrew Cook. “To finish off the effect, the hair was color and light matched to the actor’s real hair and blended into the final shot with a combination of Nuke and After Effects.”
“Every so often a job like this comes through our doors, and there is a definite air of excitement in the studio,” added Gledhill. “This project is a truly original concept, great creative, and such an iconic brand. We all remember a certain decade for different things, and as we transform from the 1960s through to present day, we layered this commercial with so many details and nuances to trigger those memories. Our hope is that each time viewers see the spot, they’ll see something new.”
K&C exec producer Jerry Torgerson, noted, “A spot like this was a perfect fit for our studio, with production, direction, editorial and VFX all under one roof.”
Hwang Dong-hyuk On Season 2 of “Squid Game,” Wrapping Production on Season 3; What’s Next?
Viewers may gasp, cringe or cry out watching characters die on Netflix's "Squid Game," but those simulated deaths have a different effect on its creator, writer and director. Instead, Hwang Dong-hyuk feels happiness seeing them go.
The show has a huge cast and Hwang says it was "really difficult" to manage everyone on set.
As characters would die, Hwang recalls saying to the actors on their last day, "'Oh no! How sad! I won't see you tomorrow,' but I was always smiling inside."
"Squid Game" season two premieres Thursday. It once again stars Lee Jung-jae and centers around a secret competition in South Korea that targets people in debt and the winner gets a big cash prize. What they don't know is that losing the game is deadly.
Hwang originally conceived of the show 15 years ago as a two-hour film but it failed to gain traction with financiers or even interested actors. He put it aside and worked on other films instead. He then had the idea to make it a TV series instead and took the project to Netflix. There, it could reach a wide audience.
"I never in my wildest dream thought it was going to be this huge," said Hwang, who spoke about the show and what comes next. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What have you learned from "Squid Game"?
HWANG: I learned that I shouldn't give up. If you love something and if you want to create something, it might not work now, but the time might come later. Or that idea could be the source of inspiration for something else.
Q: You've already finished filming season three of "Squid Game." Have you thought about what your next project will be?
HWANG: I'm afraid to talk... Read More