Framestore CFC posts Johnnie Walker 'Fish' spot

Framestore CFC has helped create some memorable TV spots, but 'Fish', for Johnnie Walker whisky, is a prime contender for the 'spot-you-most-hope-to-see-again'.
Directed by Daniel Kleinman and produced by Spectre for BBH, Fish starts with the camera moving over the surface of a blue-green ocean. The camera submerges and the first glimpses of what appear to be multitudes of shoaling fish darting in all directions are viewed. As the camera closes in on the shoal, it becomes apparent that the creatures are not fish but people - arms by their sides, legs together - driving themselves through the water with great speed and grace. As the pace picks up further near the surface, they start to leap out of the water like dolphins playfully racing each other. Finally in the shallows, one of the men touches his foot down onto the white sand and stands up. The others emerge to follow him as he moves purposefully inland to the catch line 'Keep Walking'.
Several weeks of planning followed, the arrival of the script at Framestore CFC in August 2002, with Inferno artists William Bartlett and Murray Butler on board as Co-Supervisors.
Animation Supervisor on the project Andrew Daffy had worked with Kleinman on numerous previous projects and long with Alex Parkinson, Head of 3D R&D, he devised the tools that would enable the team to create the CG elements of the shoals.
Parkinson and the team worked in Maya, using the Mel scripting language, to generate the CG people. The character sheet gave different swimmers different swimming styles - 'travellers', 'powerkicks', 'generics', 'gliders' and 'coastdwellers'."
By mid-October, as the 3D development continued, the live action shoot commenced off the coast of South Australia. Various methods were deployed to provide an extra dimension of speed and power to the swimmers movements. A winch was used to drag them past camera in one shot; and specially made perspex flippers helped propel them while being easy to remove in post.
Another challenge was the 'dolphin leap' shots. Co-Supervisor on the shoot was Inferno artist Murray Butler was impressed by the 10 local Australian stunt performers who endured being strapped in to a rig that then hauled them out of the water at high speed.
With all the ingredients prepared, the final mix demanded the synthesis of CG and practical elements produced by Butler and Bartlett on the Inferno. They expertly used the elements created for them by the CG team, while simultaneously pulling the eye's focus and attention toward the human beings filmed in Australia. An evocative and dynamic music score accompanies the overall seamless sequence of shots for ‘Fish’.
(SP)