Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/22819
Agencies and Post sleeve and did hand and arm re- placement for the dealers on the two spots. It looks like a simple in- camera effect but was actually a very complicated effects job.” Palumbo’s job is also to see be- yond broadcast to interactive, ex- periential, event-based and print media, and “figure out the best way to share assets across the entire campaign.We’re starting to see the level and quality of execution get higher and higher as we determine the best way to share assets when there isn’t the same level of fund- ing across the board.” Deutsch/LA’s campaign promoting the new Volkswagen Jetta features effects by The Mill. reflected in our work. It comes from bring- ing them in early and having faith in what we can deliver as a group.” Producers may reach out to a handful of trusted vendors at the scripting stage to ask if they can pull off the concept with the timeframe and budget allotted.That kind of early consultation enables producers “to say with a high degree of certainty what we can achieve — we won’t be spinning our wheels after the client and creative director have approved something,” he explains. Palumbo can’t recall a job during the past year where a visual effects supervisor has not been on set during the shoot.“Nothing is worse that finding out after the fact that should have shot something in a different way,” he says.“Having the VFX supervisor on the set makes everyone’s life easier.” Depending on the size of the job and the turnaround time, an editor may be on set, too, “blocking or roughing out a cut so everyone’s in line with what we’re thinking.” For a pair of spots for Volkswagen’s new Jetta, Moonlighting and Dream Team, repre- sentatives from VFX company The Mill and edit house Cut + Run “were on set with us the entire time we were shooting both commercials,” Palumbo recalls.“It was a fan- tastic experience and expedited the process.There’s a comfort level that you’re getting everything you need on set. It makes a difference to the final outcome, and you spend less time in the edit bay.” Volkswagen’s recent “Sign and Drive” retail event brought The Mill back on set.“The con- cept is that a dealer has a pen in his fingers that he spins like a drum stick,” says Palumbo. “The punch line is that the customer wants to sign for the car but the dealer doesn’t want to give up that particular pen.We cast for dealers and hero customers then we also cast for pen spinners — we found a world- renowned pen spinner! There was some greenscreen and some location shooting; in post The Mill cut around the actor’s shirt- 36 Post • January 2011 HILL HOLLIDAY/BOSTON Hill Holliday/Boston (www.hhcc.com) fol- lows the accepted practice of evaluating each project and “aligning the most appro- priate post facilities” to execute, says Bryan Sweeney, senior VP and director of broad- cast. Certain companies may be more top of mind than others, he admits, companies “we have great relationships with, we tend to lean on because we know the editors or the facilities a little bit better and have had proven results with them.” The agency’s location offers a ready pool of leading post vendors.“Boston has a very strong production community with some tremendous offline, finishing facilities and VFX companies,” Sweeney points out.“I’d put bi- coastal Brickyard VFX up against anybody — they have some of the top artists in the country. And Zero, which has recently opened, is very good as well.” Sweeney likes to give an offline editor “a couple of days to inter- pret the film, this allows them some time to let the film speak to them a bit.There is an expectation to see a cut that is based on the boards we supplied, but we are always open to seeing a fresh take on the con- cept or a different structure that the film or direction might suggest. Then we work with the editor for a day or two to fine tune a cut be- fore presenting it internally and then ultimately to the client.” When a spot requires a very quick turn- around the agency may bring editors on set to cut off of playback. “That’s a really inter- esting process; we’ve worked on several oc- casions with Marc Langley and Adam Robin- son at The White House with great success,” Sweeney recalls. For effects-intensive projects it’s “impera- ture all the elements needed to make the effects seamless,” he adds. An effects-driven campaign for Liberty Mutual Insurance spotlights the company’s car replacement, guaranteed repairs and ac- cident forgiveness. Hill Holliday teamed with LA’s Smuggler production company, director Stylewar and The Mill/LA to craft the spots that called for “close collaboration early on,” Sweeney says. In Trunk, viewers see the aftermath of a car-deer collision:A deer walks slowly away as a couple surveys their wrecked car.The man reaches into the trunk and appears to grab the spare tire but instead pulls out an entirely new car that lands gracefully on the road. In Wave, a car stopped at a light is rear- ended in slow motion. The slammed car crumples then begins to repair itself with the sheet metal straightening out and the shattered windows clearing. “This was a group effort from the begin- ning,” notes Alex Vainstein, an executive producer on the Liberty Mutual account. “We worked on everything together as one team, figuring out what needed to be shot in-camera and what elements could be created in CG.We had several meetings and many brainstorming sessions to come up with the perfect plan. “The Mill participated in all the early stages and testing prior to the shoot, includ- ing the rigging and stunts,” continues Vain- stein.“They were on set supervising and giv- ing advice to production every step of the way. At the end of the day, it was up to The Mill to combine live action and CG to make these spots look real.” Andre Betz at NYC’s Trunkfrom Hill Holliday’s Liberty Mutual campaign. tive” that the VFX supervisor be on hand during production “to ensure that we cap- www.postmagazine.com Bug Editorial cut the commercials. When projects go cross-platform, pro- duction doesn’t vary that much, but “clear communication of digital’s expectations dur- ing the shoot and around each deliverable is imperative,” says Sweeney.That means care- ful planning for all the shared assets.“We get the different disciplines at the agency to- gether, early in the process, to talk through the deliverables and get a good understand- ing of how each will be used.”