Summary
Aliens Get “Busted” in Goodby Silverstein’s Super Bowl Sunday Ad for Chevy Volt
In "Busted," a Chevy Volt owner in his bathrobe vents to a group
of alien creatures in his garage that it's "the third time this
week." That would be the third time this week their spaceship has
landed in front of his house so they can marvel at the technology
of the Chevy Volt parked in the garage. Full of classic cinematic
charm, this Pre-game spot from Goodby Silverstein & Partners
and directed by O Positive's Jim Jenkins, marries the car's key
attributes to a funny narrative starring CG aliens designed and
created by The Mill L.A.
"It was so fun to bring our unique species to life, with their
own distinctive performances, personalities, look and feel," says
Arielle Davis, our Head of Production. The creatures in "Busted"
mill around the garage excitedly using their own technology to
study Chevy's Volt, simply unable to grasp that it's electric. When
the car's owner explains patiently, "It's electric, but when I need
to go farther it uses gas," they still don't seem to get it. And
when the owner asks them to please not tell anyone else about it,
turns out he's too late. "Who told?" he asks, as a fleet of
spaceships starts to land on the street behind him.
"To make the creatures authentic meant really getting close to
them, asking ourselves how do they move?" Davis explains. "What do
they think? How do they feel? And how do we express that?"
The VFX process began with concept design, modeling and creating
variants-facial/body structure and color patterning/texturing,
photo-real rendering and animation. The creatures were shot with
clean plates using actors in the scene. Those performances that
Jenkins directed on set were the basis for the CG creatures'
performances.
Our Lead 3D Artist/Lead Character Developer Jamie O'Hara says
that nature references were the starting point-anatomy and animal
reference-which evolved into the creatures' amphibious look.
"Working closely with Goody, we developed the creatures-going
through a lot of back-and-forth, adding extra limbs, taking away
the mouths, adding them back, adding tentacles, etc.-all the while
trying to keep them grounded in the 'believable' real world. You
name it, I looked it up and down and added it here and there."
"There was a lot of collaboration with Jim and the agency on
every iteration of concept through to renders," Davis says. "We set
up the job in several phases with Jamie O'Hara as Lead Concept
Designer, Steve Beck as Lead Animator, Andre de Souza as Lead
Lighter and Robert Sethi as overall VFX Supervisor. In 2D, Tim
Davies was Lead Flame Artist and Becky Porter, Lead Nuke Artist. We
tackled Chevy 'Busted' at the highest level with some serious VFX
muscle."
The Mill saw the alien-themed spot through telecine, with Adam
Scott, Head of Telecine, handling the grade. He notes, "I enjoyed
working closely with Felipe [Lima], the art director, before
Christmas. We set a cool nighttime environment against the bright
garage interior. I was amazed to see the aliens and master graded
to give more shape and depth to the finished project."
All the creative synergy pays off, driving home the end tag that
Chevy Volts are the "coolest cars on the block with the smartest
technology in the galaxy."
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