Summary
DDB Chicago has done it again. The agency, enlisting White Label’s Gold Lion-winning director Paul Middleditch and our top-notch team of FX artists at The Mill NY, created another quintessentially crowd-pleasing Super Bowl spot for Budweiser. “Bridge” aired on the Big Game Feb. 7th.
"Leading every step of the way, we kept in mind that this had to
feel like a Bud Super Bowl spot," say our Shoot Supervisors Yann
Mabille and Westley Sarokin. Mabille led the 3D team, while Sarokin
was Lead Flame. "'Bridge' has universal appeal and depicts that
entertaining Americana aesthetic the Budweiser brand is famous
for."
"Bridge" is set in Anytown, U.S.A., where panic ensues when the
bridge goes out with a Bud delivery truck stuck on the other side.
The whole town rallies and runs to the ravine, improvising trestle
and bridge with their own bodies.
"Visual FX with people doing fantastic things is always
challenging," Sarokin laughs. "Paul is a great action director
who's very in tune with the FX process. He captured a lot
in-camera and showed faith in us to set up a second unit to shoot
additional elements such as plates of the truck and people in
various positions and groupings that we could use to assemble the
various components of the bridge. When we got all the footage
together, we immediately did rough comps of all the main shots
using the various elements to rough out what the bridge would
actually look like.
"At the same time, the 3D team was building a town's worth of
virtual people for the wide shots in the spot where we planned on
using both 2D and 3D people elements to make the bridge. From
there, we advanced the job in stages, matching lighting,
perspective and adding layers of detail to the animation of the
truck driving over the people bridge. The agency and the
director were involved step by step as we collaborated on the
spot's evolution.
"Ultimately," Sarokin says, "we hope the final effect gives the
viewer a glimpse of something completely fantastic, and yet looks
as if somehow it could have actually happened."
Bud's "Bridge" made the Top 10 of USA Today's prestigious AdMeter
of the Game's favorite spots.
And in case you're wondering, Saints 31, Colts 17!
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