Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX recently completed work on a new five-spot TV campaign for Comcast Xfinity broadband service.
Press Release from Brickyard VFX
Santa Monica, CA - Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX recently completed work on a new five-spot TV campaign for Comcast Xfinity broadband service. Directed by Moxie Pictures' Martin Granger for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the 'Tired Wires' campaign stars a tangled mess of old phone wires voiced by actor Alan Arkin to humorously demonstrate the superiority of Comcast's Xfinity service -- which is powered by a fiber optic network, over competitor U-verse, which is transmitted over phone lines. The campaign started airing in July.
The campaign pokes fun at the life of Tired Wires. In the five spots, Tired Wires -- a robotically controlled character created by the puppeteers at Legacy Effects -- appears to members of a household complaining about being too old, slow and tired to handle the family's exasperated demands for high-speed cable and internet. Because the family has U-verse, he never has enough bandwidth to run two HDTVs, can't output very many on-demand channels and doesn't transmit high quality HD.
Brickyard VFX was responsible for eye and mouth enhancements for the Tired Wires face in addition to the puppeteer rigging clean up, which included at times removing the entire puppeteer from frame -- something Brickyard VFX Executive Producer Kirsten Andersen calls 'puppeteering in post.'
"Occasionally the director Martin Granger and Goodby wanted dialogue changes, so our artists would have to re-choreograph the eye and mouth expressions," explained Andersen. "We had to make Tired Wires a believable character so the audience would buy him as the new Comcast 'mascot' after the slow turtles, The Slowskys, were retired. This meant synching dialogue perfectly with his expressions and making sure he emoted the perfect amount of crankiness."
Brickyard VFX's software toolkit consisted of Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Flint and Autodesk Flare for 2D animation and compositing. The campaign started airing this summer in U.S. markets where Comcast Xfinity is available.
About Brickyard VFXWith offices in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard VFX specializes in the creation of high end Visual Effects, Graphics and CG for Commercials, Film and New Media. Artist owned and operated, the company was founded in 1999 to bring clients a level of customer service, craftsmanship and focus difficult to find at facilities today. Brickyard's creative expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, color correct and render seamless digital effects for Volvo, Budweiser, T-Mobile, NBA, Visa, Sprint and many other accounts. For more information, please call Brickyard VFX Pacific at (310) 453-5722, Brickyard VFX Atlantic at (617) 262-3220, or visit http://www.brickyardvfx.com.
PROJECT CREDITS:
Comcast "Tired Wires"
Air dates:
7/7 Family Discovery :307/7 New TV :307/14 Boat :307/30 Bed :307/30 Teenage Datenight :30
Client: ComcastAgency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Executive Producer: Tod PuckettProducer: Timothy PlainCo-Chairman: Jeff Goodby & Rich SilversteinCreative Director: Jamie BarrettGroup Creative Director: Chris FordAssociate Creative Director: Dan LuceyArt Director: Chris ValenciusCopywriter: Craig ManganAccount Director: Becca LawsonAccount Manager: Mallory FryAccount Coordinator: Victoria PetersenBusiness Affairs Manager: Michael Graves
PRODUCTION COMPANYProduction Company: Moxie PicturesDirector: Martin GrangerDP: Barry ParrellLine Producer: Heidi SolteszExecutive Producer(s): Karol Marrs
EDITORIALEditorial Company: HutchCoEditor(s): Jim HutchinsAsst. Editor: Steve Miller and Joaquin MachadoProducer: Jane HutchinsExecutive Producer: Jane Hutchins
Telecine: CO3Mix: Lime StudiosFinal Online: Brickyard VFX
VISUAL EFFECTSVisual Effects Company: Brickyard VFXVFX Supervisor: Kathy Siegel and Mandy SorensonVFX Executive Producer: Kirsten AndersenVFX Producer: Diana Young2D Artists: Jimi Simmons, Sean McLean, Peter Bullis, Geoff McAuliffe, Robin Hobart, Mandy Sorenson, Patrick Poulatian, Narbeh Mardirossian, Matt Trivan2D support Artists: Nick Zagami, Gina Downing, Chris Sonia, Joe Morrison
MUSICMusic Company: Beacon StreetMusic Producer: Faye Armstrong
SOUND DESIGNSound Design Company: Lime StudiosSound Designer: Rohan Young
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