Honda CR-V "Forecast" from
Brand New School on
Vimeo.
LOS ANGELES — Production company/design studio Brand New School (www.BrandNewSchool.com) recently completed work on a new spot promoting the 2011 Honda CR-V. Conceived by agency RPA,
Forecast will debut in select regions just prior to kickoff of Super Bowl XLV.
Forecast highlights the versatility of the new CR-V through the use of visual effects, placing the vehicle into a familiar 5-day weather forecast graphic through which the Honda traverses. Each day presents a different set of road conditions and extremes in weather.
The :30 spot was directed by Brand New School’s Ben Go, who says the challenge was not only to create the 5-day scenario, but to also tease viewers with mysterious, giant type, that's only partially visible.
"In the end, we reveal that the type is part of the weather forecast graphics,” Go explains.
The team planned out an ambitious single-day, live-action shoot in and around California's Santa Ynez Airport. "We really wanted to grab the audience's attention instantly with the beauty and sophistication of the spot," Go notes. "To achieve that, we opted for a look that's both real and graphic, both stylized and photoreal... a good mixture of fact and fantasy. On location, we wet down the road, and had practical snow on it as well... then we composited partly realistic and partly graphic rain and snow in the finished shots. The sunny environment in the original plate we shot was also replaced with different CG environments to match the different weather conditions."
The BNS team used the Arri Alexa camera to capture HD footage. A crane car, called The Edge System from Performance Filmworks, allowed the crew to capture the moving vehicle from various angles.
BNS Vadim Turchin supervised the visual effects. The team’s first step was to track the live-action scenes and rotoscope the background and the CR-V. A matte painting was created for the background, which was projected onto 3D geometry in Autodesk Maya. All the elements were then put together in After Effects, along with additional plates, particle effects, and initial color correction. Final color was handled in Autodesk Flame.
Along with Go and Turchin, the BNS team included West Coast EP Jason Cohon, line producer Jane Van Dyke, production supervisor Kenia Gutierrez, VFX producers Amy Russo and Josh Wakefield, production designer Jeff Higinbotham and matte painters Andrew Park and Eric Urquhart. Designers Tiffany Dantin, Kris Wong, Ken Quemel, Patrick Hruby, Sakona Kong, Wakako Ichinose and Ugo Nonis all contributed to the project.
3D/VFX artists included John Sadler, Emil Nilsson and Ryan Kirkwood. Ergin Kuke served as lead compositor and Matt Lydecker was Flame artist.
The spot features "Rescue Song (RAC Remix)" from Mr. Little Jeans.