Framestore CFC designs new Renault Scenic spot

Framestore CFC have provided the impressive video FX and other postproduction touches for the new Renault Scenic spot.
Entitled ‘Drivies’, the new spot was directed by Daniel Kleinman for Large, with art direction by Alex Taylor. The delightful spot, which was written by Adam Keane at Publicis, features a playful and amusing take on the idea of a car as a family pet. Framestore CFC’s Head of Inferno, William Bartlett, supervised the VFX and other post-production touches.
With the tagline, ‘The New Renault Scenic: The Outdoor Type’, ‘Drivies’ first shows the Scenic behaving just like a playful puppy, racing around like a dog chasing its tail, chasing after a neighbour’s cat, charging forward to greet its owner and ‘wagging’ its windscreen wiper, in imitation of a dog’s wagging tail.
‘Drivies’ also uses superb sound effects – a clever blend of dog and car-type noises throughout the spot.
Bartlett, who supervised the three-day shoot in Cape Town, used a canny mixture of practical and digital effects to turn the car into a winsome pet in just four days of post-production.
An assortment of rigs were used in combination with the stunt driving, including a car with an extra wheel under it, which enabled it to perform the impossible tight turning circle as it chases its tail. In addition, two rigs were used to create the illusion that no driver was operating the vehicle. One involved the use of a camera fixed to the front of the car, giving information to a driver bent over inside. The second rig involved the complete removal of the driving seat, replacing it with a driver dressed in a ‘seat-suit’, making him look (from a distance, anyway) like part of the car.
All of the above practical steps were complemented by Bartlett’s post-production Inferno artistry. The Renault’s tight turning circle was sped up and digital leaves were added being whipped up by the nippy little car. In shots involving the cameraman in his ‘seat-suit’, separate seats were filmed on turntables to replace him on the closer shots. As Bartlett explains: “This is tricky because the seat is behind windscreens and windows which reflect their environment, so the whole thing has to be stripped down and rebuilt layer by layer.”
Unsurprisingly, Health and Safety regulations preclude actually running a car full tilt at a real person, so that sequence had to be shot using several passes which were then blended by Bartlett in the Inferno.
A final digital touch was the speeding up of the rear windscreen wipers.
(KmcA)