Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/57245
Bits & Pieces M Pixel Farm creates world for Barbie INNEAPOLIS — Agency PMH has teamed up with Pixel Farm (www.pixelfarm.com) to produce a Mattel's Barbie spot. The piece shows how this famous doll sparks creativity and spirit, and what Barbie means to little girls. young girls appear to fly and swim through the beau- tiful environments. According to Pixel Farm co-founder/VFX supervi- sor Kurt Angell, the biggest challenge was establishing the aesthetic for each vignette. "The beautiful pho- UPS Web spot offers stop motion B ROOKLYN — Ogilvy/NY called on Charged Studios (http://charged.com) and director Adam Pierce to create a new Web spot for UPS that combines live action and stop motion animation techniques to promote the delivery company's new My Choice service, which provides customers with package information electronically, turning the old practice of using paper notices into a "dinosaur." UPS My Choice opens in a kitchen, where In the spot, a girl's bedroom closet turns into a magic gateway that takes her and her friends to colorful new worlds. Not only is the classic doll highlighted in the spot, but Barbie accessories and a newly revamped girls clothing line are featured as well. Floria Sigismondi directed the piece, which was shot by Believe Media at Red Studios in Hollywood. Minne- apolis's Channel Z edited, with Hest & Kramer adding original music and Egg contributing sound mixing and design. Color correction, animation and digital composit- ing were done at Pixel Farm. The studio took PMH's large on-set props and gave them a dreamlike look. Bluescreen and digital compositing techniques were used to make the Maya, After Effects, Smoke and Inferno were used to create the "magical" environments. tography, art direction and the hundreds of elements shot practically clearly steered the look of the spot," he notes, "but we still had to figure out how to gracefully blend those elements together in a way that felt real and magical. Extensive time was spent creating the cloud and underwater worlds, making sure there was a definite balance between reality and fantasy. A great marriage between practical photog- raphy and computer generated imagery." Pixel Farm relied on Smoke, Inferno, After Effects, Baselight, and Maya to pull off the effects. Union shows Barkside and more for XLVI L a breeze from a window scatters a stack of UPS info notices, which transform into a tiny origami T-Rex, who explores this mod- ern environment. The spot was cut in Final Cut. OS ANGELES — Union Editorial (www.unioneditorial.com) worked on four commercials that aired during Super Bowl XLVI last month, as well as on two spots that teased commercials that aired during the game. Last year, Union's Jim Haygood cut the popular Darth Vader-themed spot for Volkswa- gen, out of agency Deutsch LA. This year, the studio's Nicholas Wayman-Harris cut The Bark Side, which is considered the teaser to VW's The Dog Strikes Back. Haygood, cut the latter, which aired on game day. The Barkside was shot on Arri's Alexa and cut The Barkside was edited by Nicholas Wayman-Harris on an Avid Media Composer. on an Avid. Much of the finishing took place at Resolution LA, where over 80 hours were spent in Flame performing compositing and rotoscop- ing. The Dog Strikes Back was shot using Alexa and 35mm film. The spot was cut on an Avid; finishing was done at A52. Union had three other commercials air during the Super Bowl: Kia's A Dream Car. For Real Life, featuring Motley Crue and model Adriana Lima; Honda's Matthew's Day Off with Matthew Broderick, who reprised his Ferris Bueller role; and Teleflora Flowers' Give, which also stars Adriana Lima). Haygood edited the Kia and Honda spots, while Marco Perez cut the Teleflora project. 4 Post • March 2012 www.postmagazine.com Charged producer Mike Landry guided the project from concept to completion, initially tapping storyboard artist Tom Con- nor to help put director Adam Pierce's vision into pitch form for Ogilvy. Adam Miller was brought on to lead the team of fabricators in armature and puppet design. Lead animator Pete Levin, along with assis- tants Peter Blank and Esther Casas Roura, completed the animation team. Richard Coppola used his motion-con- trol rig to capture the counter-top activity at close range. Director of photography Mike Eder worked along side Coppola. The spot was shot on three separate stages at Charged using Canon 7Ds with Nikon lenses. The 7D's ability to shoot both 1080p live action and high-res digital stills made it well suited for the job. The blending of live-action plates with the stop-motion puppet was achieved in Adobe After Effects. Editor Andy Harmon used Final Cut Pro for all final comps. Massive Music created the spot's original music, and Charged Studio's Daron Murphy handled sound design