MPC Breaks Glass For Mercedes
MPC NY teamed with Merkley + Partners and director Nico Beyer of aWHITELABELproduct to bring a trio of spots, including “Shattered,” to life for Mercedes-Benz. “Shattered” demonstrates to viewers how the Mercedes GLA’s price and quality “shatters” expectations—along with surrounding objects as it passes by. As it drives through different environments, things begin to “shatter”—windows, neon signs, glasses, even fruit on a fruit stand, all leading up to the culminating shot of a theatre’s brightly-lit marquee shattering.
The MPC effects team helped creatively direct the way objects shattered, their timing, and how the series of shatters unfolds in each of the shots, particularly in the grand finale of the marquee.
New Boston Digs For Brickyard VFX
Brickyard VFX Boston has moved into a new 8,000-square foot studio near downtown Boston in the Leather District. The “new” home is in a 100-year old factory that was stripped to the studs and retrofitted with Brickyard’s collection of vintage doors, furniture, walls, windows, and floors—including an 1890s carved oak bar and glass studded sidewalk from an old industrial neighborhood in Fitchburg, Mass. Brickyard was founded in 1999, and this marks the company’s third location, moving from its previous Newbury Street home.
The new space houses seven Flame bays, multiple CG workstations, a four-wall edit room, expanded production offices, and a screening room to facilitate virtual grading sessions with Company 3 colorists in L.A., NY and Atlanta.
Brickyard maintains shops in Boston and Santa Monica, Calif.
K&C Checks Into Motel 6
King and Country (K&C) produced a VFX-intensive :30 TV commercial for Motel 6, which was created by ad agency The Richards Group.
“Room to Room” highlights Motel 6’s nationwide renovations through a seamless room-to-room journey necessitating some seriously seamless transitions and VFX magic.
Led by K&C partner/director Efrain Montanez, the crew shot on location at a Motel 6 in Carson, California, and at Universal Studios in Hollywood, California, which afforded them space for large room builds, as well as turntable and motion control rigs for a multitude of setups. From a production perspective, the challenge was capturing dynamic, expansive camera moves, such as the 360-degree shots, while maintaining a cohesive look.
The K&C ensemble included EP Jerry Torgerson, line producer Bo Clancey, post producer Seth Gantman, DP Karsten “Crash” Gopinath, production designer Gabe Wilson, VFX supervisor/3D artist/compositing artist/previsualization team member Andrew Cook, designers Brad Mitchell and Marcos Vas, 3D artist/compositing artist/previz team member Yu Okuizumi, 3D artist/previz team member Nick Poznick, 3D artists Kyung Park, Tim Salikov and Henry Foster, compositing artist Jon Lorenz, and editor David Nitzsche.
K&C deployed the Red Epic Dragon, a Hydrascope Telescoping Crane with Amphibian Head, the Gazelle Motion Control system and a software toolkit which included Maya, Nuke and Adobe After Effects.
