MINNEAPOLIS — Pixel Farm (www.pixelfarm.com) created a new Terminix video that plays like a Hollywood film trailer. The 2:15 Mosquitonado “trailer” features actress Tara Reid, who starred in the made-for-TV disaster film,
Sharknado, which served as inspiration for the video. In the
Mosquitonado video, large cities are being swarmed by a tornado of mosquitos, which leave pain and destruction in their path. Only at the end of the piece does the viewer see that it’s a spoof, sponsored by pest control company Terminix.
Ryan O’Hara Theisen wrote and directed the video, which was conceived by agency Olson. Pixel Farm, lead by VFX supervisor Tony Mills, created the swarming insects, which form funnels - like a tornado - as well as other playful shapes.
The video was shot in Minneapolis and Los Angeles using a Canon C500 and Zeiss lenses. It was primarily shot with controlled, natural light in order to maximize shoot days, and direct to HD ProRes to help facilitate a quick editorial turnaround. Additional footage was captured with the DGI Inspire Drone and Canon 5D camera.
Michael Tabor served as live action producer, and Tammy Kimbler was executive producer. Thomas “TJ" Schwingle was DP on the project. Mills served as lead FX/Flame artist/creative editor, with support from Aaron Nelson. The film was offlined in Final Cut Pro and color correction was performed by Dave Sweet using DaVinci Resolve. The conform was performed in Flame.
Particle simulations and most of the compositing was achieved using Flame, with sprites generated in-context from 3D Alembic files supplied by the 3D team, which was led by Tom Doeden. The large Mosquitonado vortices were created from hijacked Flame presets.
Maya and Nuke were employed for the final overhead drone shot by Eric Schulist, which incorporated hundreds of additional torches and the final swarm attack. Additive particles and simulations were created with Particle Illusion. VFX and 3D artists included Tom Doeden, Riley Eastman, Luke Braith, Josh Allard, Kurt Angell, Jay Holgate and Shannon Kraemer.
Pixel Farm’s audio team worked hand-in-hand with the edit and VFX teams for sound effects and music, with the final mix performed in Pro Tools. The audio team included Jesse Marks, Zac Bates, and Ken Chastain, with Joe Mechtenberg producing.