FRAMESTORE CFC commercials

chrysler: “golden gate”

Daniel Kleinman (Spectre - Ritts Hayden), veteran of three James Bond title sequences, travelled to San Francisco to shoot the spectacular new Chrysler spot 'Golden Gate' for FCB Detroit. The commercial features the famous bridge being transformed into a series of s-bends. Kleinman posted at Framestore CFC, continuing his award winning association with the company, working on over 45 shots for the 60 second commercial which was completed in a gruelling 9 week schedule - 4 weeks of preparation, 5 weeks 3d and inferno. The location visual effects were supervised by Frametore CFC's William Bartlett and Andrew Daffy following Kleinman's meticulously planned shots.

In the ad the bridge was winched into its new serpentine layout by one hundred and one tug boats - three live action tugs were replicated and composited onto background plates with a fleet of 3d tugs. The bridge and boats were shackled together by a combination of 3d and model heavy duty ropes which strain against the weight of the bridge as it is towed into shape. The 3d suspension cabling dramatically snaps under the pressure as the bridge is distorted (these dynamics were created using Maya). To make the 3d bridge convincing Kleinman shot live action bridge footage from helicopters and boats, the shots were taken into Inferno where parts of the bridge were digitally removed, it was then recreated using 3d models. The attention to detail was so great that even sign posts were tracked back onto the bridge.

The three Chrysler cars were shot on an airstrip in the Nevada desert and then composited onto the 3d bridge at Framestore CFC. The camera moves for the live action shots were meticulously tracked in 3d so that the cars would sit seamlessly on the bridge with live action background plates from San Francisco Bay. For added realism, the cars were scanned into 3d. They were then tracked onto the live action footage of the Chryslers enabling accurate reflections and shadows of Golden Gate cabling to be generated.

Framestore CFC developed innovative new software allowing both Maya and Softimage to be used on the same project, this enabled the best features of both packages to be implemented.