The Mill keeps Barclaycard on track with Rollercoaster
Barclaycard’s "Rollercoaster", our latest collaboration with MJZ’s highly decorated director, Nicolai Fuglsig, and similarly renowned agency BBH London, features a happy commuter riding to work alongside the Manhattan Bridge into New York City. But our man is no typical commuter. He forgoes the subway and travels by rollercoaster instead. Yes, rollercoaster!
Enter our team from The Mill NY whose leaders include Creative Director Angus Kneale, Joint Head of CG Ben Smith, and Lead Flame Artists, Alex Lovejoy and Dan Williams. Pre-vis began last Fall on “Rollercoaster”, and involved creating animation of the rollercoaster and tracks for a rough edit working with Final Cut’s editor, Rick Russell. Our Mill team explains, “We learned about the speed of the rollercoaster, the types of angles it travels along and where the support beams should go. We saw that we couldn’t repeat the same movements of the rollercoaster or it became boring.” Combing through dozens of DVD movies and video games featuring rollercoasters provided tips as well.
Nicolai and the Mill team shot on location in New York for five days with a one day motion control shoot in L.A. VFX took six weeks, yielding action like the Barclaycard “Rollercoaster” rider whizzing between skyscrapers through an awe-inspiring metropolis of exhilarating twists and turns and even slowing down for take away at a drive-through near his office.
The end result was a culmination of many different live action and digital elements. Ambitious camera moves were achieved during live-action photography using the Spydercam cable-camera system, aerobatic helicopter footage was also shot in and around Manhattan. Motion-control was extensively used to film the actor on green screen. These live action elements were blended seamlessly with fully digital shots that all included CGI track and carts.
Our team explains, “We shot the background plates, analyzed that footage, then did pre-vis of our rollercoaster moving through the shot. We exported the data to a motion control rig that precisely recreated the camera movement to capture our live action hero. Careful attention was paid to matching the lighting in each shot.”
A full digital double of the hero was also created. “We scanned the actor including a number of facial expressions so we also had a fully rigged digital actor,” the team continues. “There were even a couple of shots created entirely in CG. For these we used digital stills and added our own camera moves, creating shots like the high-angle where the rollercoaster dives between skyscrapers.”
Barclaycard's "Rollercoaster" is a playful hint of the breadth of experiences cardholders can tap into with merely a swipe of their cards, contactless or without the fuss of an extended transaction. It’s one of the biggest scope FX jobs we’ve done out of The Mill NY, and will leave you pining for your own rollercoaster ride to work.
Agency: - BBH London / Creative Director: - Adam Tucker / Art Director: - Szymon Rose / Copywriter: - Daniel Schaefer / TV Producer: - Olly Chapman / Asst Producer: - Matthew Towell / Production Co.: - MJZ / Director: - Nicolai Fuglsig / Executive Producer: - Debbie Turner / Producer: - Suza Horvat / 1st Asst. Director: - John Lowe / Director of Photography: - Alwyn Kushner / Production Designer: - Jeremy Hindle / SFX Supervisor: - Kelly Kerby / Editorial: - Final Cut / Editor: - Rick Russell / Assistant Editors: - Edward Line, Stacy Peterson / Final Cut Producer: - Laura Patterson / VFX: - The Mill / VFX Producer: - Dan Roberts / Shoot Supervisor: - Angus Kneale, Ben Smith, Ruben Vandebroek, Wyatt Savarese / Colorist: - Fergus McCall, Seamus O’Kane / Lead Flame Artists: - Alex Lovejoy & Dan Williams / Flare Artist: - Melissa Graff / Nuke: - Nitant Karnik / Flame Artists: - Cole Schreiber, Naomi Anderlini, Corey Brown, Stefan Coory, Ian Richardson / Smoke Artist: - Jeff Robins / Combustion: - Keith Sullivan, Rosalind Paradis, Robert Bruce, Suzanne Dyer, Bruce Chen / CG Supervisor: - Ben Smith / Lighting Lead: - Andrew Proctor / Animation Lead: - Joshua Merck / CG Artists: - Ruben Vandebroek, Kevin Ives, Michael Panov, Wyatt Savarese, Gregory Gangemi, Yorie Kumalasari, Rob Petrie, Emily Meger, Naotaka Minami, Jeff Lopez, Pete Devlin
Site by Engage.
