Clio Award-winning A52 recently completed VFX work on Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/San Francisco's Goodyear broadcast campaign. The campaign's first :30 spots - one entitled BALLS and a second entitled SCREW continue airing nationwide, and a third spot will debut soon.
This campaign for Biscuit Filmworks and director Noam Murro features dramatic scenarios in which harmless, mundane objects become threatening... thereby revealing the advanced safety features of Goodyear's products.
In SCREW, a two-inch steel screw takes on a life of its own to plummet from the top of a city skyscraper, work its way into a busy street and then align itself with the front tire of a speeding BMW and stand upright. Fortunately for the driver and everyone else on the street, this is no ordinary tire; the vehicle continues racing along, as announcer Marcus McCollum says, "Sharp steel is no match for smart rubber. Tires with run-flat technology... On the Wings of Goodyear."
According to art director Paul Foulkes, A52 was approached "because we wanted special effects that you don't really see." For SCREW, A52's CGI team used Side Effects Software's Houdini to create the steel menace in every single shot.
A52's creative director Simon Brewster served as visual effects supervisor and inferno artist on the campaign, and was particularly pleased with the work on SCREW. "The spot has an understated and fun story," Brewster says. "We set out to make the animated screw fit in seamlessly with the live-action plates for a photo-real look. The CGI team created the animated screw and the shots were integrated in Inferno." RenderMan was used to render the animated elements.
Foulkes adds, "The screw is created in every single shot -- and it's totally seamless and looks perfectly natural."
In addition to Foulkes, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' team included creative director Harry Cocciolo, copywriter Tyler Hampton and producer Diane Hill. Todd Grantham handles the Goodyear account for GS&P.
A52's managing director is Rick Hassen, its executive producer is Darcy Leslie Parsons and the producer for this project was Ron Cosentino. Along with Simon Brewster, the project team also included 3D animators Denis Gauthier, Westley Sarokin, Jeff Willette and David Burton. Sarokin and Cosentino also served as on-set visual effects supervisors.
Production was overseen by Biscuit Filmworks' executive producer Shawn Lacy-Tessaro and producer Jay Veal; Stefan Czapsky served as director of photography and John Reinhart as production designer. The editorial team from New York's Bikini Edit was led by editor Avi Oron and executive producer Gina Pagano. The sound design and final mix were handled by Reinhard Denke at Stimmüng, where Ceinwyn Clark executive produced; Jason Johnson composed the original music tag for Stimmüng.
Recently honored with a Silver Clio Award for their work on the Adidas SLUGS, A52's team also contributed CG work and effects to the Silver Clio Award-winning Playstation2 SIGNS spot, and handled effects for the VW Beetle BUBBLE BOY spot, which earned a Bronze Clio.
Established in 1997, West Hollywood-based A52 creates design and VFX work for commercials and music videos. For more information call Parsons at (310) 385-0851.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
