Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/256240
www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2014 41 Hear WHat You Want L OS ANGELES — Eddie Kim of Therapy Studios (www.youneedtherapy.tv) created the sound design featured in Hear What You Want, a new spot for Beats by Dre that features San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. Paul Hunter directed the 2:45 short, which gives viewers the QB's perspective as he arrives at the home field of the rival Seattle Seahawks. Unruly fans show their displeasure with the team's arrival, but the play-caller is able to stayed focused by putting on his noise-canceling Beats by Dre wireless headphones. Aloe Blacc's soulful "The Man" track plays, and Kaepernick gracefully exits the bus. Kim worked on the spot over the course of two weeks, using Avid Pro Tools as his DAW. The biggest challenge, he notes, was to make the hostile fans sound authentic and to have their energy escalate as the spot plays out. Agency R/GA conceived the spot, which was produced by Pretty Bird. Therapy's Eric Ryan mixed the project, with Eric Shin assisting. postings tHe CroWd W EST LOS ANGELES — Visual Creatures (http://visualcreatures.com) worked with the non-profit orga- nization Samahope recently to create an animated spot that showcases the outreach of the company, which crowd-funds resources. Money is then given directly to doctors, who provide medical treatment to women and children unable to afford them in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Visual Creatures incorporated their playful vision into the :30 spot, which appears as bright and uplift- ing while still conveying the message of need. The commercial uses the example of one person, pedaling their bicycle to light a light bulb. A team of bikers could, in theory, light a city. The animation in The Crowd has a simple, blocky and cut-out style. Music for the project was created by Virginia-based Black Iris, which used untraditional sounds to delivered the right emotional tone. Visual Creatures' credits include creative directors Ryan McNeely and John Cranston. McNeely, Crans- ton, Tony Banik and Shawn Lee served as designers. Animators included Banik, Lee and Frank Shi, with Rachel Yonda handling character animation. SleepY HolloW's VFX B URBANK — Synaptic VFX (www.synapticvfx.com) recently con- tributed visual effects to the first season of Fox's Sleepy Hollow. The series uses VFX to help illustrate the re-telling of the legendary story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Synaptic VFX worked with the show's overall VFX supervisor Jason Zimmerman, who, in tandem with the show's VFX producer, Eddie Bonin, breaks down each episode to develop a shot list. Mark Miller serves as Synaptic's in-house VFX EP for the series. The studios work included set extensions, fluid simulations, head removals for the Headless Horseman, and CG prosthetics. Each episode can contain up to 300 digital VFX shots. The studio relied on PCs and Isolon servers, along with The Foundry's Nuke and Adobe After Effects for compositing. CG tools included LightWave, 3DS Max, Maya, Fume and Krakatoa. X-trail C ULVER CITY, CA — Zoic Studios recently created visual effects for a new Nissan spot aimed at the Japanese market. X-Trail was con- ceived by TBWA, Japan, and produced by Ban- dito Brothers. The :30 spot features a Nissan SUV towing a snowboarder across a high-alti- tude mountain range. As the vehicle approaches a cliff, it turns sharply, sending the snowboarder off the mountain. The athlete deploys a para- chute, and when he lands below, the Nissan is there to give him a lift. Zoic handled comprehensive post, including on-set supervision for the five-day shoot in Chile. The studio also provided visual effects, color grading, editorial and finishing for the spot. The shoot involved stacking two high- speed cameras, which allowed Zoic to create slow-motion effects by moving both sets of footage through compositing, morphing and quick crash zooms. Additional effects included clean-up work to transform the resort mountain into a more weathered and raw environment. To heighten the VFX, Zoic artists amplified the reflective sections on both the snowboarder's suit and the vehicle itself. Autodesk Flame was used extensively. Credits include editor Dmitri Gueer, assistant editors Alison Veneto-Grady and Tawny Hsin, lead Flame artist Robert Mog- gach, and Flame assistant An Dang.