Football season is back! And The Mission (Venice, CA) collaborates with Samuel Bayer (HSI) to transform a practice field into an NFL game night fantasy for mcgarrybowen New York.
The Mission provided an accurate digital reproduction of Gillette Stadium, fully packed with 85,000 cheering digital fans for a dramatic Jets vs. Patriots clash. In the spot, Mr. Amazing, an average guy with a big dream, gets to spearhead an end zone to end zone kick return, narrowly dodging, juking, leaping, and even flipping over the defending Jets players. He crosses the goal line in an adrenaline rush, letting out a warrior's howl, only to realize he's daydreaming at a crowded family reunion. In this comic twist, Mr. Amazing sheepishly withdraws into his smart phone and he and a relative proceed to enjoy the actual game utilizing his XLTE enabled Verizon service.
"The schedule was compressed, even by current standards,” according to Mission Creative Director Rob Trent. "We had a less than a week to do this one, and with the handheld camera work, baked lens flares and smoke, all our departments were humming. Our set supervisor did a 24 hour round trip to Gillette to photo-survey the stadium right before the shoot to make sure we were accurate to the venue. And about a week later, we were versioning and mastering finals. Wild ride."
Animation Director and Head of The Mission's CG department, Piotr Karwas, worked closely with his team to track, model and light the stadium. The Mission recently decided to develop a proprietary crowd system that would be responsive enough to accommodate short timelines like this one, and without it, the 7 day deadline would have been impossible.
The engineering staff worked preemptively on systems to allocate dedicated servers for lightning fast filesharing between creative workstations, and to channel additional background render power to flame artists or CG artists as they needed it. "When artists have 1 hour to do a 4 hour task, they need all the help they can get. We are here to make the car go fast and take the bumps out of the road," said Chief Engineer, Bill Laverty.
The Mission's Lead Flame Artist, Joey Brattesani conducted a small army of flame compositors and roto artists to seamlessly blend the practical plates and the cg imagery into an immersive, intense runback to remember.
Trent said, "The director's vision of the fantasy was dark and backlit, especially for the wide cinematic framings, so that's what we aimed for, and we were really pleased with how these shots resolved."
The Mission's Managing Director, Michael Pardee said, "We were extremely excited to partner with our friends at mcgarrybowen New York and HSI on this. With the pending expansion of The Mission into New York, we know we'll be able to continue to service these talented people a little closer to home."
About THE MISSION
The Mission is a high-end visual effects studio specializing in commercials, film and digital content. It is located in the middle of the pop-culture hub known as Abbot Kinney in Venice, CA.
With the talents of some of the most creative and experienced artists in the industry, working with the latest tools and a top-notch production staff, The Mission is a lean and dynamic powerhouse of a partner to deploy into your creative process.
From concepting, previs, and on-set-supervision, to 2D and 3D visual effects work & design, and on to final mastering, The Mission brings a smart, beautiful and efficient component to every visual dimension of your project. themissionstudio.com
