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.
Credits
Client Samsung Agency Leo Burnett Matt Blitz, producer. Production MJZ Matthijs Van Heijningen, director; Joost Van Gedler, DP. VFX MPC LOS ANGELES team: Karen Anderson, exec producer, VFX; Nicole Saccardi, producer; Dori Sharvit, coordinator; Michael Gregory, creative director; Gustavo Bellon, Toya Drechsler, Benji Davidson, Dominic Edwards, Brendan Echsner, Rocco Gioffre, Ryan McDougal, Kathleen Kirkman, Alvaro Segura, Rodrigo Carrasco, Jared Sanders, Ted Abeyta, L.A. VFX team. LONDON: Carsten Keller, head of 3D; Tomek Zietkiewicz, London producer; Diarmid Harrison Murray, creative director; Amir Bazazi, CG supervisor; David Bryan, Andrew Roberts, Martino Madeddu, Brendan Fagan, Brett Margules, Tim Van Hussen, Denis Krez, Chloe Dawe, Oz Dolphin, Radu Ciubotariu, Maximilian Mallmann, Alexander Gabucci, London VFX team. PREVIS PARIS Sophie Lebreton, Paris producer; Jeremie Abrial, Xavier Zahrra, Paris previs team. BANGALORE: Neela Kumuda Parankusham, Bangalore line producer; Rashabh Bhutani, Venkata s, Bala Krishnan R, P N Arunkumar, Silambarasan R P, S. Samson Samuel, Stalin Balan, M D Karthikeyan, Shaik Abdul Adil, Shalwin Shaiju, Bruno Roosewelt, Joslin J Mathew, Padma Priya, R Kumaresan, Sreejimol CP, Kiran V, Sachin Sureshrao Dhapudkar, Gowri Shankar Velusamy D, Ankit Dheraj Toppo, Earnest Victor, Elangovan Ganeshan, Hemanth Anusuri, Shaik Abdul Rahim, Sindhuja B, Sravan Kumar Jyoti Prakash Panda, Baskaran S, Mohan Pugaz, Bangalore VFX team. Color Grade MPC Mark Gethin, colorist; Meghan Lang, exec producer; Rebecca Boorsma, color producer; Elyse Robinson, associate color producer. Music "Rocket Man" by Elton John
Tom Tagholm of Various Films directed this moving piece for the U.K.โs Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) out of creative agency MullenLowe UK.
Focused on adult social care, the public service film delves into the world of care providers and how they connect with those they help. We feel how gratifying it is to assist people in daily tasks, the value it brings to their lives--and to the lives of those who provide this special care.
Itโs a special career for people who might not have previously considered the role. Itโs about a fulfilling job that fulfills lives. Thereโs a shared, reciprocal energy that emerges from working together in this way.
Capturing this dynamic and doing justice to this human story grew out of the creatives and filmmaker spending an extended amount of time in this world--long before any scheduled lensing. At this juncture, there were no cameras, just getting to know those involved--sharing tea and chatting, driven by a curiosity about life.
And this facilitated down the line the capturing of real human stories--trying not to get in the way of the natural rhythms of these special relationships as they unfolded. The mission was to recognize and capture all this--and in some cases uncover the significant moments and feelings inside of an apparently normal day. At the same time, the role of adult special care providers isnโt sugarcoated. There are challenges on both sides of the relationship. Yet there is a magic to the seemingly mundane, practical beats in a life--getting from point A to point B, answering emails, shopping, the daily tasks where the connection felt the most vivid and inspiring. One such task was seeing a man in a kitchen, cutting an onion for the first time, experiencing the joy of cooking.
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