ATLANTIS - Transformed
Anyone for crab?
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ATLANTIS blogged by Andrew Daffy
I’ve recently had the opportunity to work on a commercial for the hotel Atlantis situated in the Bahamas for HSI’s Brett Ratner (X Men 3 and Rush Hour). It involved me flying out to the Bahamas for a few weeks and then onto LA for the post.
A youtube making of can be found here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCW2C7pv648
I hope you enjoy both the VFX edit of the spot as well as the name-droppy blurb below.
The idea behind the commercial called for the guests of the Atlantis to transform into various forms of sea life. Manta Rays, dolphins and other fish. It was decided early on to avoid the classic ‘morph’ look adopted in 90’s pop video’s and we explored the idea of hiding transformation within editing, camera moves and lots of bubbles. Whilst in the Bahamas before the shoot, I spent lots of time upfront reworking some the ideas in the boards and previsualising shots.
I think the most successful shot features the family of dolphins turning into a human family. The original boards had it morphing in camera, but I found it punchier having them go overhead during the transformation.
The commercial was shot by Darius Khondji, a movie legend. He was the cinematographer on some incredible projects such as Delicatesson, Se7en and Evita. All anxiety about meeting him was immediately quashed in seconds when his infectious, beautiful warm personality shone through.
This is our underwater cameraman Pete Zuccarini (Pirates of the Caribbean) who shot within the ocean, quays and enormous tanks surrounding the Atlantis Hotel. The Canon 5D with waterproof casing, and corrective spherical glass proved invaluable to achieve the amazing fluid and dynamic shots. The sequence of shots below show his favourite party trick, blowing a series of bubble rings, and then swimming through them!
The end sequence with the swimmers in the pool was choreographed by Frank Gatson (Beyonce - Single Ladies).
It was a real pleasure to work with the team at Mill LA on the job. They looked after me very graciously and did a lovely job on the ad
Dan Prince, our intern at tHoC flew out to LA to lend a hand, he did a really nice job texturing the crab for the restaurant scene. The shot was composited by Mill London’s Peter Hodsman aka Shakey Pete (but soon to be rename nukey Pete?)
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The Manta Rays were textured, lit and rendered by Senior Artist Jamie O’Hara, but the model came from The House of Curves’ own Loretta Okoh. She’s currently studying with us, and we’d fortuitously been working on a Manta Ray model before the Atlantis job came along! She did a beautiful job of the model and has since done some texturing of her own which can be seen in this quicktime.
I should also extend my thanks to Wael Binali www.waelbinali.com who allowed me to use his beautiful music for the VFX edit of the spot. I hope I can work with him on something soon. I think I’m a fan.
