The Syndicate brought all of its visual effects acumen to bear on BT-ICT NETWORKING, a 60-second spot for BT, the British telecom giant, from St. Luke's, London. H.S.I.'s Joseph Kahn, working through London-based production company, Exposure Films, directed the commercial, which is a metaphor for the agility of BT-networked businesses.
One component in a £26 million advertising campaign, the spot is "part of an enormous BT branding effort," noted Kenny Solomon, exec producer at The Syndicate. "St. Luke's selected Joseph (Kahn) for his visual effects expertise and storytelling ability across a range of media features, music videos and commercials and we've been involved with him on all levels. With our two divisions, The Syndicate in Santa Monica, and CafeFX, in Santa Maria, we had the experience and firepower to take on a project of this magnitude. Any one of the various effects we undertook creating CG people, building a completely CG city, crafting CG animals was enough for a separate commercial."
BT-ICT NETWORKING opens with a fisherman tossing a big fish from his boat into a bin. While air-bound, the fish takes flight and sails over the water and hillsides to a cityscape where it passes through the center of a tire suspended high over the metropolis. As the fish passes a skyscraper a businessman somersaults out of a window and catches it, lands in a chair at a conference table, where food preparation people clad in clean suits are seated, also suspended in mid-air.
"It was very flattering for the agency to have selected The Syndicate for this spot since they have great effects studios in their own backyard in London, Solomon added."
Other Syndicate credits include:* Digital effects producer: Richard Mann* Digital effects supervisor: David Lombardi* Modeling supervisor: Luke McDonald* Character animation supervisor: Domenic Di Giorgio* Animators: David Lombardi, Luke McDonald, Domenic Di Giorgio, Brett Paton, Minory Sasaki, William Ashe, Brian Fisher, Mark Kochinski, Troy Slough, Shannon Wegner, Paul Griffin* Modeling and texturing: Greg Jonkajtys, Josh McGuire, Jan Ebo, Frank De Wulf, The Grid, Brandon MacDougall, Trevor Harder, Nic Spier* Compositors: Kevin Prendiville, Brian Fisher, Minory Sasaki, Christine Goldby, Danny Braet* flame effects/artist: Kevin Prendiville, Christine Goldby* Roto: Joaquin Pecheur, David Hochstadter* flame assistants: Lee Robinson, David Hochstadter* High resolution plate photography: Scott de Freitas-Draper* Chief engineer: Albert Soto* IT support/data management: Lu Kondor* Colorist: Beau Leon
The Syndicate (www.Syndicate.tv), a division of the ComputerCafe Group, is a 25-person vfx and telecine studio in Santa Monica, California, specializing in all aspects of final picture delivery, compositing and CGI for commercials and music videos.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
