Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/51295
vfx FOR SPOTS Goodpenny turned New York in July into New York in December for this Tiffany & Co. Holiday spot. Their main tool was Flame. but need the expertise of post house like us to do quality work and also to finish. Flame is a huge part of the business." The current Tiffany & Most of the live action was shot in front of a greenscreen, but in some cases, Lavigne was shot with a pink background. In addition to using After Effects and Trapcode Form, running on a MacBook Pro, Newman used Flame to complete the spot, which included adding film grain. At press time, Newman was taking a break from commercial work to focus on a massive personal project, titled the Rebirth of Gaea. The print piece recreates and re-imagines subjects from Greek mythology. He is using After Effects to complete the job and expects to be finished in March. CHRISTMAS AT TIFFANY'S Goodpenny (www.goodpenny.tv) in New York City opened in 2011, offering editorial via its five Avid and Final Cut Pro suites, as well as Autodesk Flame and visual effects services. They also offer music composition and licensing, as well recording and mixing services. The studio was set up by Bruce Ashley and Andy Hollander, and resides in the former space of Company X. Executive producer John Cline says com- mercials are the core of Goodpenny's work, but the studio has managed to expand into documentaries, projects as well. features and special venue Recently, Goodpenny worked directly with client Tiffany & Co. on a holiday campaign that promotes the store's jewelry collections. Cline says both the client and the post house benefit by working directly together. "There is a benefit for the client in that they don't have to go through a dozen account execs, and the reverse is true for us not hav- ing to go through those channels. We are working directly with the people who are making the decisions. A lot of clients, like Tif- fany's, have in-house marketing departments, 28 Post • January 2012 Co. campaign was shot by Darius Khondji. "It's a very elegant commercial," says Cline. Tiffany Holiday was shot in July at various New York City locations, including Central Park. Fake snow was used on set, so part of Goodpenny's task for the project was to beautify the fake snow, remove leaves from trees, airbrush elements and perform com- positing to bring it all together. "We did this through a variety of different techniques," Cline notes. "We did a did a lot of clean up, added the snow falling, and took a number of photos and airbrushed what was there and composited it to make it win- ter. It looks simple but a lot went into it. And it's an example of things we do all the time." The studio cut :60 and :30 versions of the piece, which is being shown theatrically throughout the world. They also cut a televi- sion version and created a package of Web media. A version of the spot appears on the Tiffany & Co. homepage (www.tiffany.com). Bruce Ashley cut the videos with Lindsey Nadolski assisting. Joanne Unger served as lead Flame artist. Cline was the EP and Rasha Clark was producer on the project. JEEP'S CALL OF DUTY LA's Zoic Studios (www.zoicstudios.com) recently completed work on a commercial that promotes the 2012 Jeep Wrangler "Call of Duty — Modern Warfare 3 Edition," a spe- cial version of the 4-wheel-drive vehicle that's based on the Jeeps featured in the newly- released Activision game. The spot draws inspiration from the war-themed shooter genre videogame with a look and feel that puts viewers in the middle of a modern-day battle on the streets of Paris. The Jeep Wrangler spot opens with ani- mated scenes of cities — London, Paris — that have come under a surprise under www.postmagazine.com attack. The cities' civilians watch the devasta- tion unfold on televisions and mobile devic- es, though much of it is happening right outside their very own windows. The new Wrangler — conceived by agency Global Hue and shot live action in Budapest using a combination of Arri, Phan- tom and Canon 5D cameras — races through the streets of Paris, avoiding tank artillery, climbing steep outdoor stairways and finally coming face to face with a hover- ing helicopter. Zoic's executive creative director Loni Peristere directed the project, working closely with Jeff Armstrong and Holmes Defender of the Faith on the production. Zoic executive producer Eric Press says part of the challenge in creating the tie-in spot was understanding the expectations, and meeting the need for authenticity of the game. "That was a large and important com- ponent," he notes, "blurring the line between what's real and what's game. We're fortunate that we have a lot of experience in keeping things authentic." Dariush Derakhshani was lead CG artist and VFX supervisor on the project, initially pouring through game assets and designs to help establish looks, textures and matte paintings that would best reflect the true spirit of the game. The spot uses some game footage, though many scenes were recreated via studio Ant Farm, which was able to direct specific game footage to match the needs of the on-screen action. Zoic had been talking with Activision and Chrysler since early last year about the spot, but once the go-ahead was given in late sum- mer of 2011, they had a little over three weeks before production began in Budapest. "More and more, clients are coming to us to be a one-stop shop," says Press. "We've really built amazing resources — a soup to nuts experience." In addition to coordinating the live-action shoot, Zoic handled editorial, VFX and finish- ing. The studio delivered the main commer-