Press Release from Blind

When Ancestry.com wanted to commission a project commemorating the 150-year anniversary of the Civil War's start, they identified Blind as the ideal company to design and execute the animation/vfx-intensive job. The result is a lyrical, moving and informative piece (presented alternately as a 4:00 long-form Web documentary, a :30, and a :15 spot) about the bloody conflict using the true stories of three soldiers, set against a backdrop of sepia-tinted stills, historical footage and documents culled from millions of records.

"The Civil War's anniversary is a very important event, and Ancestry.com wanted to use it as a backdrop to encourage people to go to their site and explore it," reports Blind CD Tom Koh. "They'd scripted the stories from records available on the Ancestry.com site, and the film became an engaging way of illustrating the real events that lie behind these historical documents."

Blind EP Dave Kleinman added, "This was a very interesting project across the board. Aside from offering Blind an opportunity to work outside the typical spot format, there is an interesting focus on the Civil War and its legacy, and we set out to create a dynamic, compelling piece that does justice to these real-life events."

Although Koh and his team were given complete access to the extensive Ancestry.com archive of documents and photographs, pulling the film together presented a significant challenge as the records didn't include an abundance of artifacts specific to the three featured soldiers. Consequently, the team spent much of the initial time figuring out creative techniques to use animation and visual effects to tell these stories through any images and photographs they could find, even if those images were not specific to those three soldiers.

In the end, the team used a mixture of public domain material from the U.S. Library of Congress and other images to supplement the site material from Ancestry.com. "They came to us with a wide range of material, which we used to help direct them on how it could all be used to captivate the viewer," said Koh.

"This was a pretty ambitious project," summed up Koh. "Normally when we do a job, there's a lot of very careful planning involved, and it's easier when we can create our own shots with autonomy. But this was quite demanding because we had to deal with pre-existing assets, and it's unusual to plan a job in which we're not quite sure what we're going to arrive at with the edit. So for two weeks we dedicated all our time on getting that edit right. It was a rewarding process and we were all really proud of what we were able to create."

Even more rewarding are the comments and feedback we've received from Ancestry.com as well as others who attended it's initial screening at an event in Washington D.C.

Credits:
Spots Title: Civil War
Air Date: April 2011

Client: Ancestry.com
CD: Shawn Perkins
ACD/Art Director: Joe Marciniak
ACD/Copywriter: Elizabeth Asdoria
Producer: Lisa Stewart

Prod Company: Blind
CD: Tom Koh
EP: David Kleinman
Producer: Shannon Kors
Art Director: Lawrence Wyatt
Editor: Sean U'Ren, Carsten Becker
Assistant Editor: Lin Wilde

Post/Effects: Blind
Lead Animator: Jason Kim
3D Animators: Lawrence Wyatt, Christian Argueta, Aekachai Kietchalermporn
2D Animators: Joe Todoran, Daniel Chang, Kate Mrozowski, Sora Park
Matte Painter(s): Eric Urquhart, Kevin Shin
Designer(s): Tom Koh, Steve Pacheco
Rotoscope: Sora Park, Kate Mrozowski, Kevin Shin


Music/Sound Design: Glue Audio
Composer(s): Sean Holt, Hugh Barton

Audio Post: Eleven
Engineer: Scott Burns

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