Money Supermarket 'Clouds'
Changes are we all recognise the feeling of endless bills, we helped create this journey.
Mar 10, 2019
3 min read
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen
Agency: Engine/WCRS
Production: MJZ
Client: Money Supermarket
What a terrifying fall and what a difficult execution this one was! Beautifully executed by the lovely team at Framestore, this is a total rebuild of a fall and objects, earth, clouds, sky and everything else in CGI.
Previsualization
The whole journey was previsualised by the nice guys at The Third Floor and approved before we went to film it.
On Set
The main point is that Matthijs' vision required building a pivoting set that we could tilt 75 degrees so everything would fall, and this particular construction was very complex and required hug amount of man power plus good weather (in London we were on full winter then), hence the shoot was done in Thailand where crews are big and the work ethic is extraordinary.
We shot the interior in 3 passes that were composited together, and once we were out of the room, it was pretty much a full takeover in CGI that, as one single POV, took us from one lighting environment populated by a myriad of objects to a calm environment full of fluffy CGI clouds lit by a beautiful sunset.
Journey
During the journey, our aim was to build a relatively realistic layout of various types of clouds that, as you encounter them, give you a sense of speed but also geography, as otherwise we could be relying only on the horizon line for reference.
Models
We created a large number of props based on the shoot prop selection that were needed to do the takeover and transition from live action with VFX to a fully CGI takeover.
As you can see here, the height required to sell the takeover was considerable and ultimately proved to be the correct solution. We needed a few meters of free-falling objects to transition to CGI objects.
Furthermore, the animation of the objects was also kept within the realm of possible in the sense that we used their mass and relative drag to inform their speeds.
Fall
Obviously, the footage of the hands and legs was filmed against a bluescreen so in order to decide when to enter or exit frame, we built a 3D model moving that, when seen from the side, informed the body position and relative speeds required on the editorial part.
Finally, the team invested hugely in the choreography and takeover of the room objects, so that when the actress exits the room, have to be full CGI.
Clouds
And lots of volumetric clouds to populate the very large cloudscape.
Cat
With the cat, we had lots of fun and shot a real cat against a bluescreen, so it was a delicate compositing vs 3D animation exercise that led to the final picture you see.
A really outstanding experience on a very complex project that drove the team to create some amazing work.