Collaborating with the team at BBDO New York and Director Garth Davis (Lion), our team pulled out all the stops to create the world-bending ‘Moving You Moves The World’ for Enterprise Mobility.
The campaign harnesses VFX-driven storytelling in combination with real Enterprise Mobility team members to highlight that ’the road to opportunity is often the road overlooked.'
Roads bend upward, entire cities rotate and cars drive at gravity defying perspectives in 5 scenarios, each of which required a different approach and set-up, and of course, some inventive VFX solutions from our on set team in LA and our studio team in London.
Throughout the film a combination of rigs, Steadicam, drone and a helicopter were used to capture all the shots. in time for the shoot, the expected LA sun gave way to some ‘less than ideal’ weather which, combined with the usual schedule constraints, pushed us to find ever more inventive solutions, no bad thing, ultimately!
Our efforts didn’t stop there as we sent our drone soaring through a tunnel at a brisk 25 mph. This speed was crucial, as it gave our camera operator an accurate reference point to expertly pan across the ceiling, setting the stage for the convincing integration of the CG car in post-production. Using detailed rotoscope, paint and 3d projection techniques we tidied up the architecture of the tunnel and created an inverted roadway for our CG car to drive along.
The drone was also used to capture the overhead city plate including various images of other buildings from different angles. In 2D we reprojected detailed digital matte paintings on to 3D geometry and created the shaft of light that opens up across our main protagonist that we see in the road.
For our helicopter wide scenes of the spaghetti junction highway the live action cars were all painstakingly removed. Our hero lane was built and animated in 3D along with all the cars we now see that are full cgi and seamlessly composited together in Nuke.
Unlucky with the weather, we adjusted the schedule as needed in real time and communicated between three units working simultaneously, enabling us to capture everything correctly for the next phase, despite the challenges.
Overall we used AI tools and digital matte painting to turn LA into somewhere less instantly recognisable. The last cityscape for example, which is shot out over L.A 500 feet in the air from inside a building, now features Tuscan style red tiled roofs, churches and spires, lending it an ‘anywhere’ feel. A CG highway and vehicles combined in Nuke with helicopter plates of the ocean and detailed DMP finish off the epic inverted horizon.
Finally, Senior Colourist Lewis Crossfield stepped in with a grade that further pushed the epic look and feel of the campaign, unifying the tone of the scenarios despite the different nature (and weather) of each.
We’re all very proud of the result. Bold storytelling and beautiful shots from Garth combined with our team’s technical, creative and logistical know-how both on the ground and in-studio resulted in a cinematic and otherworldly campaign that communicates the power of thinking differently.
