Framestore CFC Go Wild For Redline

It is just over a year since the Rexona/Sure commercial Go Wild first aired and now the brand is giving Framestore CFC's digital menagerie another workout.
Redline, which features bears and wolves (both CG and real) and a purely CG rhinoceros, is a new 60 second spot, created by John Szalay and Tom Carter at Lowe NY, and directed by Daniel Kleinman.
Supervised by Stephane Allender and Andy Boyd from Framestore CFC, shooting for the spot took place in three locations: Barcelona and Tarragona, Spain for the interiors, exteriors and background plates, and Vancouver, Canada for the blue screen live animal studio shoot. "Although there are fewer species of animals involved in Redline," said Allender, "The ratio of real creatures to CG remains around the same, at 50/50." In addition to the creatures, Framestore CFC's contributions include several CG props, including a knife hurled at our hero in some versions of the spot, and crowd replication that bumped the 200-odd extras up to a more respectable number for a couple of shots.
"All of the R&D that went into Go Wild really paid off in Redline," said Head of 3D Commercials, Dan Seddon, "It was a great opportunity to put our CG ideas through their paces."
It was just as well that the R&D was already in place, as Redline had a much tighter schedule than Go Wild. In addition, the action required of the creatures in Redline differed from its predecessor. "The new spot is essentially one long chase sequence," says Animator Nicklas Andersson, "So the animals are seen almost entirely in full pursuit mode, rather than standing their ground as they did in many of Go Wild's shots, so there was more animation involved. That said, one of the creatures – the rhino – was a lot easier for us: no fur and relatively immobile flesh, so there weren't the sort of deformations which can cause us headaches."
Telecine for the spot was handled at Framestore CFC by Colourist Matt Turner. "The director wanted a warm feel," he says, "Which we created whilst keeping the whites neutral, to avoid any suggestion of sepia. The entire job was done at HD, which gives us better isolation and so more control over the look."
(DS)