Framestore's trailer of Bond film released

Framestore CFC's trailer for the new James Bond film 'Die Another Day' has received its first UK screenings accompanying 'Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones'.
The 60-second spot begins with a pan across a landscape of moonlit snow-dunes. A manicured hand snakes round one of the 'hills' and other hills begin to shift and rise, showing themselves to be formed entirely from reclining women. There is a focus-shift, and the women are now seen through a refractive lens of ice.
This ice is part of the barrel of an ice-sculpted pistol. The pistol's trigger moves back and an orange-white fireball appears inside the back of the barrel and shoots forward. As the fireball reaches the end of the barrel, it emerges as a silver bullet, shattering the gun. The camera pans to the right, following the bullet, which is already transforming into Bond's silver Aston Martin as it spins crazily across an expanse of frozen water. This shot is the first from a 15-second montage that forms the climax of the trailer.
Director Tim Webber, who previously served as Visual Effects Supervisor on the title sequences for two earlier Bond outings, 'GoldenEye' and 'Tomorrow Never Dies', created the trailer's visuals in less than six weeks.
The field of girls is just one model which was shot at Shepperton using motion control against a green screen. The team used Photoshop to create a design, a static image of the bodies, and then Ben Cronin's Inferno work brought it to life. It was Webber's own library footage that completed the shot.
The gun was loosely based on - the Walther PPK - and was modelled in both perspex and ice for the shoot by Asylum. The glowing bullet was created largely through lighting effects done on the perspex gun on the shoot, enhanced in post production.
The final ice block, with the 007 'carved' into it, had textures derived from a block of ice that Stephane Allender had created in his freezer at home. He took these and a rough draft of the logo and manipulated them in Photoshop. The shatter effect of the ice was achieved using Maya.
The release date - November 2002 - appears in icy lettering as the spot concludes.
Framestore CFC, www.framestore-cfc.co.uk
(GMcG)