Nissan Presents – Thrill Driver

Brief The Mill worked in close collaboration with renowned Director Craig Gillespie (I,Tonya, Cruella) on a star-studded spot for the…
Nissan Presents "Thrill Driver"
Case Study

Brief

The Mill worked in close collaboration with renowned Director Craig Gillespie (I,Tonya, Cruella) on a star-studded spot for the All-New 2023 Nissan Z Coupe Sports Car — The Mill’s team of first class VFX artists built CG helicopters, explosions and crowd duplications for a number of shots in the main action sequence in addition to colour, cleanup and beauty work. Other key VFX work for the high profile campaign included environment augmentation and a fully CG Nissan Z, with fan favorite Eugene Levy at the wheel.

Approach

The spot opens with Levy walking across a studio lot on what seems to be a regular day until he happens upon Brie Larson and the Z.
Intrigued by the car, Levy takes it for a spin — driving modestly at first until he embraces the full “Thrill Driver” persona. The scenario is a fun pastiche on a classic Hollywood action movie. The Mill spent many hours studying explosions and helicopter physics, all in effort to honor those “big action” scenes that have traditionally been portrayed in Hollywood.

Impact

Director Craig Gillespie and the entire production team worked tirelessly to capture as much as possible in camera, but inevitably there are limits to how big a practical gas explosion you can have right next to the stunt performers — The Mill Team’s solve for this was simulating much larger explosions in Houdini, which were then carefully matched to the practical explosions on set. Currently, the spot sits at 34.9 million views, making it one of the most viewed commercials on YouTube for the 2022 Super Bowl.

Credits
Credits

Agency
Agency: TBWA / Chiat Day / NY
Producer: Sumer Friedrichs & Jonny Weiss
Executive Creative Director: Dave Banta, John Parker
Associate Creative Director: Alyssa Fishman, Phil Fattore
Account Director: Barney Baxter

Creative:
Chief Creative Officer: Amy Ferguson
Executive Creative Director: Dave Banta
Executive Creative Director: John Parker
Group Creative Director: Mike Blanch 
Associate Creative Director:  Alyssa Fishman
Associate Creative Director: Phil Fattore

Production:
Head of Integrated Production: John Doris
Group Executive Producer: Sumer Friedrichs
Sr. Integrated Producer: Jonny Weiss
Associate Director, Business Affairs: Felicia Simmons
Business Affairs Manager: Rachel O’Malley 
Director, Product Integration: Andy Galvin

Business Team:
Managing Director: Scott Kavanagh
Brand Business Lead: Val Tyll
Business Director: Barney Baxter
Business Manager: Sarah Hoffmann
Managing Director: Scott Kavanagh
Brand Business Lead: Val Tyll
Business Director: Barney Baxter
Business Manager: Sarah Hoffmann
Production Company
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Craig Gillespie
Executive Producer: Emma Wilcockson
Producer: Suza Horvat
Director of Photography: Phillipe Le Sourd
Editorial
Editorial: Exile Edit
Editor: Ed Line
VFX
Creative Director: Morten Vinther
Senior Executive Producer:Karen Anderson
Colour: The Mill
Co-Head of Nuke / VFX Supervisor: Toya Drechsler
3D Supervisor: Miguel de los Rios Vila
Head of Gaming Content / EP: Mark Driscoll

Previs Animator: Alex Moon
Animator: Bijay Chudal
Animator: Peter Karnik
Co-Head of Nuke / VFX Supervisor: Gustavo Bellon
Compositor Daryl Bruinsma
Compositor Hector Cabrera
Compositor Lily Cunningham
Compositor Kyle Belko
Compositor Navid Sanati
Compositor Pedro Acosta
Compositor Peter Ulukpo
Compositor Piotr Bednarczyk
Compositor Sandra Ross
Compositing Luke Yalva

DMP Artist Nathan Aardvark

Finishing / Beauty: Claus Hansen
Flame Assist: Kathleen Kirkman
Flame Assist: Mandy Sorenson

FX Artist: Josh Harrison
FX Artist: Yang Gao
3D Lighter: Megan White
3D Lighter: Brendon Echsner
3D Lighter: Tanguy Bodivit

BGLR Mid Producer: Chitra Vinod
Production Coordinator Ankita Tare
Production Coordinator Aditi Tiwari
Production Coordinator Neelam Ulhas
Production Coordinator Mohit Bhomia

Roto Supervisor Sivakumar R
Roto Lead Mahendranatha Reddy
Roto Lead Moumita Ganesh Pratihar
Roto Artist Avinash Molawade
Roto Artist Bhavesh Subhash Chaudhari
Roto Artist Dayanand Sinha
Roto Artist Digvijay Patil
Roto Artist Eganathan Kuppan
Roto Artist G Maniraj
Roto Artist Gokulakrishnan M G
Roto Artist Hetal Agarwala
Roto Artist Hrushikesh Tarade
Roto Artist Kamlesh Chauhan
Roto Artist Karan Madhu Sangate
Roto Artist Karan Sharma
Roto Artist Kishan R Katrimal
Roto Artist Nilesh Ravindra Sutar
Roto Artist Nithish Nandaa T
Roto Artist Pawan Singh
Roto Artist Prabhakaran Murugan
Roto Artist Prasad Ghadigaonkar
Roto Artist Pratibha Dubey
Roto Artist Pratik Naiknavare
Roto Artist Raghvendra Singh
Roto Artist Roshan Gawand
Roto Artist Sagar Adivarekar
Roto Artist Sandeep Mishra
Roto Artist Sanket Suresh Mhatre
Roto Artist Shamim Zamir Khan
Roto Artist Suraj Shinde
Roto Artist Tribhuwan Kumar
Roto Artist Tushar Suresh Bhat
Roto Artist Umesh Shivade
Roto Artist Vikas Vikram
Roto Artist Vishal Devkar

Prep Supervisor Sugumar S
Prep Supervisor Manmohan Singh
Prep Supervisor Silambarasan RP
Prep Lead Naresh Kumar Nandaluru
Prep Lead Anand Daunde
Prep Lead Yogesh Powar
Prep Artist Aakansha Yadav
Prep Artist Abdul labeeb K
Prep Artist Abhijeet Gaikwad
Prep Artist Abhishek Deswal
Prep Artist Ajith Raj
Prep Artist Akash Mishra
Prep Artist Alex Johnsundaram
Prep Artist Amit Karnik
Prep Artist Anand Prakash Singh
Prep Artist Anurag Mahantesh Shetty
Prep Artist Asha Parakkal Apputti
Prep Artist Avinash Sangate
Prep Artist Bruno Roosewelt
Prep Artist Clive Donal Narcies
Prep Artist Devappa Hadpad
Prep Artist Dhundappa Kallappa Pattan
Prep Artist Jagadeesh Dasari
Prep Artist Jeet Karanjavkar
Prep Artist Joshi John
Prep Artist Kiran Veeraswarapu
Prep Artist Kudrat Hossain Sk
Prep Artist Mohammad Rabban
Prep Artist Nimgal Joshua Yeshwant
Prep Artist Pitchuka Suresh
Prep Artist Prasanth Palaparthi
Prep Artist Prashant Mohite
Prep Artist Ritesh Patil
Prep Artist S Anand
Prep Artist Sangram Londhe
Prep Artist Shailesh Madhav
Prep Artist Sikandar Shaikh
Prep Artist Uppala Mahesh
Prep Artist Utkarsh Indis

Matchmove Lead Elangovan Ganeshan
Matchmove Lead Smijumon Viswanathan
Matchmove Artist Avikash Kumar
Matchmove Artist Muruganantham T
Matchmove Artist Nishant Ekka
Matchmove Artist Pranav Parag
Matchmove Artist Shakti jadhav
Matchmove Artist Sushant Lavhande
Comp Supervisor Vivekananthan R
Comp Supervisor Rashabh Ramesh Butani
Compositor / Lead Manideep Sanisetty
Compositor Jegathesan T
Compositor Karthik S
Compositor Shaik Abdul Adil
Compositor Stevenson G
Assets Supervisor Vaibhav Gupta
Assets Lead Jaspreet Kaur Dua
Assets Artist Piyush Sharma
Assets Artist Prakhar Kulshreshtha
Assets Artist Utkarsha Singh
FX Lead Umesh Namdev
FX Artist Bhushan Mahadev Pawar
FX Artist Dhaval Shashikant Bhanage
Rigger Garlapati Yeswanth
Colour
Colour: The Mill

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