Filmworkers’ applied its visual effects wizardry to an ambitious new campaign from State Farm and DDB, Chicago, featuring classic characters from Saturday Night Live.
One spot, breaking the first week of the NFL season, features Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey reprising their ‘90s SNL characters Hans and Franz. The pair employ hilarious means to “pump up” State Farm Discount Double Check spokesperson Aaron Rodgers, including having him tow a tank across a desert and paddle a kayak while they water ski.
For both the desert and water skiing scenes, Nealon, Carvey and Rodgers were shot against green screen and composited into background environments by Filmworkers’ VFX team, Churchill Studio. Creative director Rob Churchill personally shot footage of a Wisconsin lake as background for the kayak scene. The desert scene, meanwhile, was created with background photography of the California desert and a CGI model of an M-1 tank. “We replicated the tank right down to the weld marks on the side panels,” notes Churchill. “You would never know that it isn’t real.”
The water skiing scene required skillful finessing. Rodgers, who was shot in a kayak in a water tank, had to be placed into the lake in proper scale and appear to paddle across it in 3D space. Nealon and Carvey, who were also shot in the water tank, had to be oriented in the background scene in a similar manner. Churchill helped to sell the effect by adding ripples to the water that appear to be caused by Rodgers’ kayak.
Animators and compositors employed similar detail-minded care in placing the CGI tank into the desert. Creative Director Daniel Pernikoff attended the live action shoot with Rodgers and the SNL stars in order to provide VFX advice and gather lighting and camera data. During post, artists created 3D geometry of the scene and projection mapped the desert environment onto it. That gave the scene dimension and made it possible to mirror the camera moves used when shooting the talent.
“We used the background shot like a matte painting,” recalls Pernikoff. “I painted in clouds and color corrected the foreground elements to make it look like Aaron is running in the desert. We added smoke and dust. It was fun bringing the scene to life.”
Filmworkers also provided editorial compositing and color correction services for the campaign.
The State Farm campaign is one of the largest and most complex projects to date for Filmworkers’ newly expanded visual effects and animation team. “We have capability and the depth and the resources to do this work quickly,” observes Churchill. “We have a great team of very talented artists and our aim is to partner with agencies in order to bring their ideas to life.”
Filmworkers is located at 232 E. Ohio St. Penthouse, Chicago, IL 60611. For more information, call (312) 664-9333 or visit www.filmworkers.com.
Video Credits
Derek de Board
Senior Producer
Filmworkers
312.664.9333
Contact Derek via emai
Media:
Linda Rosner
Artisans PR
310.837.6008
Contact Linda via email
Simian Gets An Evolutionary Boost For Collaboration, Reveals “Teams”
Simian, the showreel-building, review & approval, and production asset management platform used globally by creative leaders, is kicking off this fall season with a substantial leap forward for collaboration and project management – with more updates on the way during the holidays!
The new feature, aptly dubbed “Teams”, makes it easier than ever for users to give project responsibilities to team members and clients alike. “You can never have too many options when it comes to permission levels,” says Jay Brooks, Simian’s Chief Technology Officer. “Teams provides a streamlined way to assign multiple users to a project at once.”
“Teams are very powerful, but creating one is effortless,” Brian Atton, Simian’s Chief Operating Officer explains. “Simply enter a Team name, add members, and then apply the newly made Team to any desired project. You can even invite temporary guests without changing settings for other projects or needing to create a new Team.”
“We love helping our clients by providing efficient tools to improve their workflow, and this has been a frequently requested feature as of late,” shares Kellie Atton, Head of Sales at Simian. “It feels great to get Teams out into the wild because I know it’s going to be tremendously helpful to everyone who uses it”.
Teams is now available exclusively to Simian’s enterprise clients. Simian plans to release more product upgrades and enhancements during Q4 2024 and 2025 for enterprise and non-enterprise users, continuing its ongoing evolution as the industry’s leading production asset management solution.
For more information on Simian upgrades and features, visit https://www.gosimian.com/
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