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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 | Levent OZLER
Buck Helps Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota Create a Corolla in Control
 Corolla.mov ( 16MB ) - Viewed 199 times
Buck, the bi-coastal design-driven creative company specializing in animation, visual effects and live action, recently completed an ambitious campaign for the fully-loaded latest edition of the world's best-selling car. Working closely with ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA and Toyota, Buck designed and directed a whimsical campaign using a unique combination of a real-life miniature set and CG elements. Airing in regional markets all over the U.S., the campaign offers multiple customized spots, each highlighting different features of the new car.
"Saatchi had the idea of the car absorbing these features with an irresistible attractive force emanating from its sunroof," said Ryan Honey, Creative Director, Buck/LA. "It was up to us to figure how that would look. Our main concern, as always, was telling a good story. After a great deal of deliberation, we came up with the idea of creating a real-life miniature model of a city, and then tracking CG elements into it. Everybody involved became positively giddy at the prospect. There's something inherently charming and fun about working with miniature, and this combination of techniques was perfect for the Corolla brand."
The new Corolla has available features typically found in luxury cars: satellite radio, leather trimmed seats, an MP3 jack, Bluetooth capability, traffic control and navigation, and more. The spots make it plain that the newly styled, but still economical Corolla is not to be outdone. To a peppy, percussive beat, a Corolla navigates its way through a typical town. Periodically, the car's sunroof opens and emits a powerful magnetic force that literally integrates selected items into the car. Depending on the version of the spot, the Corolla's magnetism absorbs the contents of a music store, a traffic helicopter, some leather upholstery, a roaming satellite, and other large items, before zooming back out of town.
"A big challenge on this campaign was creating a car that was clearly intelligent," said Orion Tait, Co-Creative Director, Buck/NY. "We didn't want it to seem cartoon-like. This is a real car, and we wanted to celebrate the fact that most of what we were shooting was physical. We had to figure out which objects would appropriately represent the car's features, as well as revealing the Corolla's character and personality through smart, witty framings and concepts. The car appears to have an intelligent intention to all of its actions, and even finds exactly the right way to accomplish its task. Creating and directing that character was a great thrill for us."
Working with miniature specialists from Merritt Productions and New Deal Studios, Buck reproduced a full miniature cityscape in just three weeks, only seeing the complete, finished product when it was time to shoot.
"The combination of techniques was a first for all of us," said Honey. "We've worked with miniatures and with CG, but never tracking 3D objects into miniature scenes. It ended up being a complex and intense process. There wasn't enough time to shoot motion control, so we used a jib arm for the more complex moves. In order to take all the shots properly, everything had to be precisely in focus and, when you're working at this smaller scale, focus can easily fall off. To maintain the focus, we shot everything between 4 and 6 frames per second. That required some extremely slow camera moves, which we'd then watch in real time, to ensure that there were no bumps or moves that would ruin the shot."
In order to maintain a realistic quality within the decidedly unrealistic scenario, the Buck team came up with a variety of techniques:
"In order to get camera movement that felt dynamic, we used something called 'nodal pans,'" explained Honey. "Essentially, you create your shot by pivoting the camera on the center of the lens. You can then take your backplate and 'unwrap' it to add a digital matte painting and element to the scene. It's like unfolding your shot and putting it back together with more elements. On other shots, we were using a snorkel lens, which is something like a very small periscope that we could insert into the miniature city and capture certain angles and viewpoints. In some areas, we realized it wouldn't work properly, and had to carve out a part of our set to insert the lens. It was very intricate work."
Throughout the scenes, Buck's trademark attention to detail is always on display.
"As we were shooting scenes, we kept coming up with details," said Tait. "In one scene, for instance, we planned to add some CG water. As we got into it, however, we ended up creating all kinds of little touches: a freighter on the water, cars on the bridge, birds flying through the scene, all these little touches that were fun to create and really jazzed the client up."
And the Buck team didn't - perhaps couldn't -- stop there. The music store boasts unique, intricately designed posters and album covers lovingly and individually created by the Buck artists. Signs and banners hang outside tiny apartments; the gas station pump has a detailed 2 for 1 hot dog sign; tiny animals dot the roadsides. It is truly such tiny details that make the campaign sublime.
"We paid super close attention to the details," admitted Honey. "When we were actually building the miniature sets, we had very little time to direct colors and elements. It was only after everything had been shot that we could look at it and decide what needed to stay and what needed to be rotoscoped out. We spent about 10 days rotoscoping every frame, then another week in Flame with a pair of artists correcting every tiny detail. It was intense, but it was also a lot of fun."
For this particular project, Buck partnered with Sway Studio, who brought some vital knowledge of both 3D and automotive technology to the table.
"We worked with Sway on the 3d aspects of these spots," said Honey. "This was not your typical 3d job though. Normally you would have a locked edit that you were creating the shots for, but for this campaign, we approached the overall project more like a live-action shoot. We supplied a lot of shots and different coverage of the city that could then be mixed and matched in an edit session."
"This is the kind of design-driven creative at which Buck really excels," said Tait. "For short form commercials, you only have a short time to convey a message, and we do that through meticulous art direction. In the end, our extreme attention to detail put our clients at ease. They know we're all about making a better project and were very pleased with the finished look."
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