Soho 601 complete post on Cosmos promo

Soho 601 have completed the postproduction work on a promo fro the new Tom Middleton single 'Cosmos'.
Directed by talented directorial duo Simon + Jon (Directors of 'Chicken and Egg' Nike Run-London) 'Cosmos' features the first dog on the moon's epic space journey.
Jon (Director) says: "Everyone knows the name of the first man on the moon but in order to get him there we blasted all sorts of animals into space, many of which perished in the process. So this video was our tribute to them I guess. It was fun working with a dog because you never know what it's going to do, but at least it always gives a very natural performance."
Simon (Director) says: "Jon and I started researching space travel by contacting archive specialists holding NASA footage and sitting through hours of material. We wanted to get away from the crisp modern US idea of space to produce a grittier, rough 'Russian' look. We had a one-day studio shoot to film all the live action sequences with the dog and rocket capsule, working closely with Elemental Design art director Colin Taylor and his team. Elemental also designed the dog's space suit, a full size interior of a space capsule and replica model for the external shots. We wanted the capsule to feel like the Russians had made it from ageing equipment, to enhance the image of the poor dog alone in space, in just a flimsy capsule.
In the grade, we wanted the live action sequences and the archive footage that we used to feel as matched as possible. Though we didn't want to make it a photo realistic film, we didn't want the archive footage to look obvious. Working closely with 601's Mac team and Chrys Aldred, we developed animated elements including flares, rocket boosters and TV screen graphics and then with the help of Chrys, carefully animated all the different layers in Infinity."
Chrys Aldred, Infinity Operator says: "The brief was to create an archive looking piece using animation , archive stock footage and newly shot footage. It was my job to try and match all these elements to the archive material, degrading the new shots and animation using grain scratches and general 'messing up' of the footage. I also had to animate the space ship in its various flight forms, combining backgrounds and space scenes that I generated myself. I was also asked to composite new footage into the archive stock footage (shots of the dog and the artist Tom Middleton) onto the monitors or in the singer's case, at times make him the main subject in a scene. Ultimately, our goal was to make the piece have a general feel of a 1970s/80 sci-fi film."
Rob Pizzey, Telecine Colourist says: "I had to match the film to look like the archive footage which was fun. There was quite a few blue screen shots so several passes were needed in the TK for compositing. During the online the film footage was degraded even more and was finished off with a DCP grade."
(SP)