01/01/09 – Gasket Studios partnered with Best Buy in-house advertising and editorial company Butcher Edit to help create a co-branded Best Buy and Samsung spot that lands buyers in the middle of HD television football action. For this immersive experience Gasket designed and executed visual effects and huge crowd populations in Chicago Bears Soldier Field where the Best Buy game unfolds.
“The ultimate goal was real game feel and authenticity, with the precision and detail you expect from HD,” says Gasket Studios Creative Director Greg Shultz. “Without a motion control camera and only a five hour shooting window with the talent, we knew that using a single, live action plate replication was not going to work for the stadium crowd. We had to develop a multiple effect strategy that could stand up to the most discerning eye.”
This meant extensive preproduction discussions with all parties involved do develop the best approach for the spot. Teaming with Director David Ramser and DP N. Thomas Sigel, our plan was to use a mixture of live action crowd plates on location, individual green screen fans shots and digital 3D animated crowds. With strategy in hand, the Gasket team then went to Soldier Field to supervise the visual effects. Over 65 plates were shot, with Gasket tracking the material multiple ways to ensure a seamless process in post.
Above, you can see the the visual effects breakdown for each shot. We have the starting plate that is just the live action footage of Devon Hester from the Chicago Bears in an empty stadium, followed by a hand rotoscoped alpha of Hester, then the Gasket crowd animations, which are then tracked into the scene. Finally the alpha is applied, final matching, color correction to the crowd, blur and other atmospheric effects are added in the final composite.
We shot crowd and sideline footage both at the live action shoot with our HD camera as well as a shoot back at Gasket Studios. These plates were used in the foreground where 3D characters might have looked less than real. The crowd animations were added behind the live action to fill out the background empty seats.
We were lucky enough to work with N. Thomas Sigel, the Director of Photography, who has vast experience with visual effects on some of our favorite movies, including the recent Superman and X-men blockbusters. So while some people were flocking to see the star of the spot Devon Hester, we were more interested in the fellow looking through the camera lens. However Devon did give us an autographed t-shirt. Go Bears!
Original shot is on the left above. Final shot is on the right above with a brand new jumbotron and a stadium filled with people all the way up through the box seats.
Behind the scenes of Team Gasket on the shoot.