SMOKE AND MIRRORS COMPLETE TANGO COMMERCIALS

SMOKE And Mirrors’ Inferno artist Judy Roberts has completed post production on the first of a pair of new commercials for Tango.
Entitled ‘Easy Way Out’, the new advertisement was directed by Daniel Kleinman of Spectre, through agency HHCL.
Both new commercials were shot back-to-back at Mr Lighting studios. Extensive pre-production design meetings were held Kleinman, Roberts, Bob Hinks from Asylum, model makers and practical effects, and the Spectre crew to devise the most satisfactory route to take for all concerned, namely the building of a large-scale stomach model, into which Tango could be poured over and over again.
Asylum created a large-scale model of the stomach environment with a lake of liquid and a hole in the top for the Tango drink to pour through, as if coming from the throat.
The environment was designed to have a scale of epic proportions, in a traditional ‘B’ movie sense – hence the wave of liquid splashing up the stomach wall to awaken the Tango Inside creature, and bring it out into the open, plus the glowing shaft of light when the torrent of Tango drink appears.
The model was approximately 10ft high and supported within a frame. The walls were flexed by the crew to create a pulsating effect while filming.
The Tango creature was a 4ft tall animatronic model with a larger than human sized head and mounted on a matched section of the stomach wall. Two puppeteers used rods to control the arms and hands of the creature, which was supported in an upright position by a metal pole fixed behind its head.
Roberts was the VFX Supervisor and attended the shoot to ensure all technical issues were covered. She was also the lead Inferno compositor on the project and supervised a team of operators who worked between the daytime sessions to clean up the puppet model by the removal of a multitude of rigs, puppeteers and attachment points.
(CD)