MPC Life, MPC Advertising’s new character development team, has completed Samsung’s new “Do What You Can’t” spot. Directed by MJZ director Matthijs Van Heijningen for Leo Burnett, the ad gave MPC the opportunity to create a fully photo-real and anatomically correct ostrich–and give him his own quirky personality.
The ad promotes Samsung’s revolutionary VR technology and hopes to change consumers’ ideas on what is humanly possible via the mantra, “Do What You Can’t.”
Opening with a curious ostrich stumbling into a VR headset, the spot shows the character beginning to dream of achieving the impossible. “We make what can’t be made so you can do what can’t be done,” Samsung proclaims as the ostrich reaches new heights to the beat of “Rocket Man.”
A reference shoot involving several real ostriches took place in South Africa before the computer generated counterpart was re-born via MPC London creative director Diarmid Harrison Murray and MPC LA creative director Michael Gregory and a global team of experts in LA, London, Paris and Bangalore.
Murray noted, “You could tell from the beginning that if we got it right, this could be a special film. A photo-real ostrich definitely ranks as one of the toughest CG creatures I’ve faced, bar none. Their feathers are insanely fluffy and dynamic, and not like any other bird we have created before. We completely upgraded our existing feather system to deal with these challenges. You know you are onto something when we you start freaking yourself out with the realism of your own renders!”
Mark Gethin, MPC’s US creative director of color grading, enhanced the ad with a beautiful atmospheric grade.
