Press Release from Caviar:
The time to take Earth back is finally here as Draftfcb San Francisco’s massive campaign for EA’s eagerly anticipated launch of the Mass Effect 3 game debuted this Sunday, February 26, during AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead.”
Directed by Reynald Gresset of Caviar, the epic commercial was completed in less than three months, with six days of filming in Prague, and post-production by The Mill taking five weeks. The spot was edited by Russell Icke at Whitehouse Post with music by Human.
"I wanted to create a world that would feel incredibly real to fans of the game," remarked Gresset. "It was an exciting proposition for me to try to bring the same dramatic scope of battle felt in the game to a cinematic shorter form."
To this point, Gresset envisioned a stylized futuristic world set within the context of the game. The Mill was charged with creating VFX and picture post, adding scope and scale beyond what was possible to shoot in-camera on set while staying faithful to the world of Mass Effect.
With many of the The Mill's team fans of the game, the VFX artists were thrilled to work on the spot. The sequence of the Golden Gate Bridge collapsing was a particular challenge as it was the last shot to be completed. The simulation was extensive and the shot was started at the turnover of the cut. It was not seen until days before delivery and the final version on the day of the grade, so that the team was continually discussing the possibilities such as the superheating of the ray and the description of the splashes.
Chris Ford, chief creative officer for Draft's West Coast offices, said of the work: “Mass Effect 3 is about the potential end of humanity and the unnerving threat of losing everything—family, friends, and faith. Our job was pretty straightforward – paint an emotionally charged and appropriately dark portrait of the disparate chaos that ensues when our world is faced with the end. The hope is people will think, if only for a moment, how they might deal, or not deal, with the end of civilization. And because that’s a total downer, we made sure to turn a corner to reveal a ray of hope.”
"Faced with becoming nothing, we fight for everything."