Amazing Film Sequence

[EddieLeon]

Does anyone have an idea of how this was created? It's looks very cool:

 

http://www.cinema.philips.com/?ls=gb_en

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

It reminds me of the effect that was popular a couple of years ago. I think it started with the Matrix, but quickly worked its way into GAP commercials, then a few other commercials after that. It involved a chain of cameras that took a picture along a path all at the same time, then you simply flipped though the images to move around an action scene that was frozen in time.

 

I am guessing they did this about 40 or 50 times, then skillfully composited them together into an entire scene. They must have created a 3d model to construct the scene, and animate the camera through it, then matched it on green screen with the bullet time effect, then composited them together.

 

Explanation of "bullet time."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYOdkWLfypU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.spout.com%2F2008%2F06%2F23%2F5-awful-matrix-bullet-time-spoofs%2F&feature=player_embedded

 

A couple of commercials...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCxBLAvTT-I&feature=player_embedded

Edited April 17, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[moshenko]

That was phenomenal!

 

I don't think anything is actually moving in the scene and a single camera was used for the whole shot. Did you watch the little sub-movies (at the blue markers in the timeline)? It looks like it was all done as lit, live-action and all of the actors and main pieces were rigged in place. Then, an fx pass was done for all of the explosions, flames, etc. One of the sub-movies shows that the guns all have little lights on the ends of them, presumably to allow the effects to be composited afterwards.

[ShaunDon]

I'm inclined to agree. At the start of the DP's lighting talk, they reset the frame and you can see the camera track laid out. Must have been a meticulously programmed computer control camera rig, done in sequences that seemed perfectly as they went room by room. My guess would be that they shot the same track over again without the actors and props to use as a background plate to remove wires and equipment propping up or suspending characters in an action pose.

 

They then would have transposed the camera's movement data into a 3D package and composited all the static objects -- the shattered glass pane, suspended guns and bills, etc. -- as well as all the pyro effects as Nicholas said.

 

But they must have had another trick to keep the actors from moving at all, especially the girl ducking the explosion. I've scrubbed it a few times and her hair is immaculately still.

 

Thanks for sharing, that was awesome!

Shaun

[Claudio Branch]

Insanely cool...thanks Eddie!

[EddieLeon]

You're welcome Claudio! Glad you all liked the find.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

But they must have had another trick to keep the actors from moving at all, especially the girl ducking the explosion. I've scrubbed it a few times and her hair is immaculately still.

 

I think they had a series of cameras set up on the track. For example, ...the girl ducks, and all of the cameras are fired at the same time. Then you can simply flip through the images one at at time, and it will look as though she is frozen in time, and you are moving through time. Similar to the "bullet time" as used in the Matrix, though when the technique was used in the Matrix, it was used to make time look like it was simply going slow. In this sequence it is used to make time look like it is standing still.

[Spooner04]

This reminds me of the show called dead zone that was on USA a while back. I know in those shots they would have everyone freeze and then navigate the camera through the scene and then comp in the bullets and smoke and such. This also kind of reminds me of the miniature panorama they did for halo 3. They built the whole thing and then moved the camera through it. here's a link for the halo 3 thing http://halo.xbox.com/halo3/believe/shell.html

[Chad Warner]

The Halo 3 thing is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

[Spooner04]

It's interesting that so many of these suggestions are viable techniques. so many ways to skin a cat. starting to get a bit OT but the group that did the miniatures for the halo thing is http://www.newdealstudios.com. they've got a really impressive portfolio ranging from architectural models to miniatures for dark knight.

[derek82]

this is the most extraordinary scene since the matrix then swordfish...

[John Dollus]

http://beta.stinkdigital.tv/work/view/selected/carousel-(directors-cut)

 

created by Stink!

[EddieLeon]

Lol....it definitely doesn't "stink"

[signet]

I don't know how it was done and its AMAZING!

 

but if someone came to me and said can you do this I would turn to these guys.

http://www.digitalair.com/

 

 

it was probably done differently but you could get this sequence in one press of the shutter using digital air...or use their rig to get subtle motion into the sequences'

 

 

Edited April 22, 2009 by signet

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Guess I was wrong... They actually used people that had great body control, hanging from wire, and a motion control camera. As far as I can tell, a motion control camera is just a camera on a heavy duty track to make sure it doesn't wobble or move. Oh ya, it looks like they ran the camera throught the entire scene, and did not stitch camera together.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoSDTJDjF4&fmt=18

 

.

[illegalalieninbeijing]

That film was awesome! I thought it was some sort of "bullet time" effect wherein stationary objects was exposed simultaneously to an array of still cameras. But people standing still with good body control hanging on wires for 5 hours and the camera is the only thing moving - like the director said.

 

Makes me wanna get that Phillips Cinema 21:9 54" LCD TV.

Edited May 19, 2009 by illegalalieninbeijing

[moshenko]

As far as I can tell, a motion control camera is just a camera on a heavy duty track to make sure it doesn't wobble or move.

 

More than that, the camera is (I assume) computer controlled so that each time it does a "pass" the movement and timing is exactly the same. This means that one could produce 20 "passes" (i.e. takes) and seamlessly edit them together. When you think about it this way, the actors really only have to be still for a few seconds, and they don't all have to nail their scenes on the same take (at least, that's the theory).

 

This is not to say that the whole thing is "easy"

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

More than that, the camera is (I assume) computer controlled so that each time it does a "pass" the movement and timing is exactly the same. This means that one could produce 20 "passes" (i.e. takes) and seamlessly edit them together. When you think about it this way, the actors really only have to be still for a few seconds, and they don't all have to nail their scenes on the same take (at least, that's the theory).

 

This is not to say that the whole thing is "easy"

 

I see. Now it makes sense. Much more like working in a controlled 3d environment, where the frames are exactly the same.

[alias_marks]

I've been checking scouting this commercial for a while too. phenomenal stuff. Thought some of us might find this article interesting about the future of online video and the success that this has had for Philips.

 

http://cgenie.com/articles/322-new-opportunities-for-the-cg-industry.html

 

And also a great interview with the Lead vfx director at Stink vfx and Mike Seymour going into great depth about how the shots were created/filmed etc. It's a good 15 min about everything. Maybe one of the best behind the sceens clips I've seen to date

 

I'm just looking now and it looks like it was taken down unfortunately, I'm guessing fxguide ran into bandwidth issues, but definitely worth a check back later on to see if they're able to get it back up, it was episode 57 - http://www.fxguide.com/fxguidetv.html

 

 

edit:

Looking at the vid Travis posted, that's the vid I was referring to Cool! Hopefully they get the fxphd vid up again, it's got some more detail...

Edited May 19, 2009 by alias_marks