Finish complete post on BA commercial

Soho facility Finish has completed postproduction on the latest commercial for British Airways’ website at ba.com.
The commercial, which first aired on May 14, begins outside the window of a flat. The camera then swings round and through the wall into a living room where a man is sitting on a sofa using a laptop. The camera pans round the room, passing through a fish tank which was created in CG.
The camera then follows the man as he gets up, walks through a door and into an aeroplane. He takes a seat as the camera continues tracking backwards through the cabin - through an air stewardess, a drinks trolley and out through the fuselage and tail of the plane. The plane is then seen taking off into the distance turning into a computer cursor while the sky becomes a computer screen. The cursor then clicks on ba.com to reveal a dropdown menu which fades as the tag line ‘have you clicked yet?’ appears.
Before embarking on the project, Finish collaborated closely with the set designers, motion control operators and CG artist Andrew Daffy. Effects supervisor Jason Watts was on set everyday during the shoot to advise. Their brief was to follow director, Daniel Barber’s storyboard and combine the real aircraft which was shot in a studio with all the CG elements.
Jason and fellow Flame artist, Steve Murgatroyd had their work cut out compositing all the motion control shots and CG elements and replacing the view outside the window on a 180 degree camera move. They adjusted the lighting of a number of plates and retimed the footage using the time warper in Flame and the Sparks plug-in, Kronos. They also had to paint, regrain and colour grade the ad.
Daniel Barber approached Finish after collaborating with Jason on a number of commercials for the likes of BMW, Ford Fiesta and Norwich Union.
The commercial was produced by Matthew Brown at Knucklehead for M&C Saatchi.
M&C Saatchi have since commissioned Finish to post-produce a second commercial for British Airways’ new softest ever Club World bed.
(GB)