7up Shoot in Beirut

Now I normally would not use the word shoot and Beirut in the same sentence but on this occasion it was quite safe and this was also last year December, so no kak yet...

Bakers - the making of...

Today I have some photos from the shoot of Bakers "Precious Biscuits"
As well as "the making of" that Shy the Sun put together for us. Be warned the video is 12 minutes and 112MB...

Making of -->download
Lo Res 49MB
Hi Res 112MB


Kids on location at Vergelegen wine estate. There were three locations within the forest where we shot the three parts, the beginning live action, animation plates and ending live action.




Shoot Day 1


Shoot Day 1 - CAB Films', Bruce and Charles direct the children


Location 1, day 1 - Steady cam, cast and Bruce Paynter (director) crouching


Location 2, day 1 - the set where all the animation will take place.
Darrin, Ree and Nina


The full set on the 1st shoot day - before the rains came


Detail of Polly's Kettle and the tiny door.


Humpty's house and the mice door. Bottom left is Peter's nook.


And the rains came down... the shoot was called off at this stage.
Jannes, Ree and Nina


Nina and Darrin talk on the left, Jannes and Bruce discuss matters.


Nina and Jannes listen in as Bruce discusses the next shot.


The trio of Shy the Sun looking jubilant as Day 2 (weather day) draws to a close.


The end... for now!

Bakers "Precious Biscuits"

This is what has kept me busy for the last twelve weeks, supervising this commercial for Bakers' Biscuits. The characters were designed by Ree Treweek and directed by Jannes Hendrikz of Shy the Sun for Ogilvy, Johannesburg. There was a total of eighteen people from Blackginger that worked on this with an average of five people on it at any one time over the twelve weeks.
The twenty odd characters, many with cloth and fur were a huge challenge for a very young team but the dedication of each animator, modeler, rigger and texture artist shows in the final product.




Bakers "Precious Biscuits" from Darrin Hofmeyr on Vimeo.

Precious Biscuits -->download
Lo Res 8MB
Hi Res 27MB

CREDITS

Client: Bakers
Agency: Ogilvy, Johannesburg
Creative Director: Bridget Johnson
Art Director: Monique Kaplan
Copywriter: Amy Auret
Producer: Lisa Jaffee

Creative: Shy the Sun
Animation Direction: Ree Treweek and Jannes Hendrikz
Designs: Ree Treweek
Compositing: Jannes Hendrikz
Producer: Nina Pfeiffer

Production House: Blackginger
Producer: Tracy-lee Portnoi
Animation Supervisor: Darrin Hofmeyr
VFX Supervisor: Marc Horsfield
Modeling: Francois Conradie, Hayden Barnett,
Rigging: Sandy Sutherland
Animation: Richard Clarke, Andre de Villiers, JC Phillips
Textures: Sasha Perdigao, Lani Greenhill, Kirsten Beets
Fur: Suzanne van Niekerk, Jason Slabber
Lighting and look dev: William Harley
s.ystems developer: Neilan Naicker
Matte Painting and Flint: Rob Muir
Assistant compositor: Monika Vermuelen

Live Action: CAB films
Director: Bruce Paynter
Producer: Charles Galagher

Sound Design/Mix: Alun Richards

5FM - "Clubbing"

We've just finished another spot for the 5FM - Power of 5 campaign. Darren McPherson and myself, with the help of Rob Muir on flame, completed this job over six weeks.

(Clubbing)5
Lo Res 6MB
Hi Res 12MB

5FM - Power of 5

Blackginger has just finished two spots for 5fm's Brand launch "the Power of Five"
I was down in Cape Town to oversea the "Walk the dog" spot, as well as rig, animate and texture the spider for the reveal shot at the end. Everything except the two girls in the spots are CG. An excellent effort by everybody involved.

DJ
Lo Res 6MB
Hi Res 12MB

Walk the Dog
Lo Res 6MB
Hi Res 12MB

Vodacom "Mo-Watch!"

The latest Vodacom Meerkat spot, flighted on tv last week.
Here for your repeated viewing pleasure.



Shot in Cape Town over two days, the first day was brilliant sunshine and the second was absolutely awful weather. Trying to make the two days footage seamless was quite a task.

Right click - Save Target as:
Lo Res 5MB

Hi Res 13MB

SHOWREEL 2007

I have finally cut a new showreel - download the 28MB QT here or go here to check out the other size options to download.



Here is a quick shot breakdown. The full breakdown can be downloaded here

01 - Fido and straw - Animation, Lighting, Rendering
Titles
02 - Meerkat with balls - Model, Rig, Animation, Lighting, Rendering
03 - Speakers - Animation Supervisor
04 - Meerkat guy and girl on skates - Animation Supe, Animation, Modelling, Tracking
05 - Meerkat on car - Animation Supervisor, Animation, Rigging, Modelling, tracking
06 - Blobby characters - Animation, lighting, compositing
07 - Fido on beach, in fountain and at table - Tracking, Animation,
08 - M&Ms - Animation
09 - Aliens - Animation of green lizard character
10 - Kitchen appliances - Animation, modelling, rigging
11 - Meerkat on the dance floor - Modelling, rigging, Animation

Vodacom "Durban July"

Here's a spot we (Blackginger) did for Vodacom's sponsorship of the Durban July (07/07/07)
The horses mouth was modeled and rigged in Cape Town, I added controllers for additional bounce and nose control. Textured by mixing the camera projections with a painted texture of each horse.

We knocked out four of these in a week... as far as end result, they do the job and look great.

Right click and save as:
Lo Res 6.8MB

Vodacom DSTV Select insert

Print Billboard made with the characters

This was a short clip that Stanley Segal and myself did for Vodacom's launch of DSTV Select. The characters were designed by Sasha Perdigao and modeled in crazy clay - these were approved and then Stanley and I modeled and I rigged all 17. Some had soft bodies applied to jiggle areas, such as the chef's hat and I also added controlers to the bits that needed finer control such as CNN's helmet straps.
The whole project took us just over a week.

Right click and save as-
Lo Res 1.5MB

Vodacom - "Rollerskate Mambo" launches

As most of my friends are aware, I have been busy with the latest in the Mo commercials from Vodacom. Well we finished it this weekend and it launched on Sunday night on MNet and Etv. Don't worry if you missed it, it will be on every channel soon and during every program. And if you do not have a TV or aerial, then you can download it here!

Vodacom "Rollerskate Mambo" -
Hi Res 15MB
Lo Res 7MB

And as promised a few weeks ago when we shot the commercial... here are some snaps from Burgers Park in Pretoria.

Truth in Advertising

"Can I get a copy of the rough cut?"

"ffff, stick it up your ass, you f&%k!"

"Its just that I like making decisions on multi-million dollar campaigns by basing it on what my pea-brained disinterested wife thinks about it."

One of the best short films taking the piss out of the advertising industry.
Its so funny, yet disturbingly real... its more a documentary than a spoof if you ask me. Now it's a few years old and I have seen it several times but finding it just recently made me cry all over again.

This spoof of the world of marketing - From Cannes Film Festival 2001 - is directed by Tim Hamilton and can be viewed here
Thanks to Google!

Work as usual

Nothing much has happened these past two weeks back at work. We finished off some Vodacom Squeezebacks for the Super 14 which I can show on the 2nd February once they have aired.

Preparing for some Fido Dido spots from Egypt, which Hilton is currently shooting - other than that, just our extremely secret project as usual. Once the project is revealed I can show all here. So stay tuned later in the year.

Vodacom "Pimp my ride"

Two weeks ago we finished our second full length Mo the Meerkat spot. Running in at 60 seconds, and featuring a girl "Moitia". We are constantly trying to improve the character and take him to the level of a feature film character. I animated all the shots from and including the one where he leaps backwards off the windshield, lands on his hand and looks at camera.

Download the video here (5MB)or the Hi-res version here (13MB)

Vodacom "Can't Touch This"

Since it has been flighted on television and is currently on cinema too, I figured I could now show some pics from the shoot and the finished piece.

Back in April of this year, we were asked if we could refine the existing Meerkat character and animate a new Vodacom spot with Mo the meerkat. Obviously always up for a challenge we accepted and by June 9th we had delivered. Everything was hand animated, no Motion capture like the originals, as this time he was doing far too extreme moves for an actor to capture.

Download the video here (4MB)or the Hi-res version here (10MB)

Cape Town in Spring

Blimey - its been ages since I posted anything, and as I look back it appears that I post maybe once a month.
Well thats just not good enough!
So here goes, some more photos from the film front.

I spent three days and two nights in Cape Town last week on the Southern Sun shoot at the gorgeous Cullinan Hotel in the CBD. The Southern Sun group were very kind in putting the main crew from Joburg (the rest were local) up in the hotel for the two nights we were there - we actually slept during the day and the staff got strict instructions not to try and clean our rooms before 2pm ;)


I went down as VFX supervisor for the Refinery as there were to be a few tricky shots with crowds and wipes (I wont bore you with the details) as well as hero finale that was to be made up of many plates - as it turned out we got most of it in camera and just seeing the cut today - its working rather nicely.

As it was a very busy hotel we were only permitted to shoot from 7pm to 7am - YIKES!
Harsh but I guess only fair as they dont need smelly crew around their main lobby during the day.



This was the view from my room just before the first nigth shoot was to begin.


Those smug bastards sitting there drinking their hot chocolate and eating muffins.
Grrrr - dont they do any work. (kidding) Fun team to work with from MorrisJones, gladly work with them again anytime...


A collection of christmas trees exploded outside the hotel



Our Hero's car transforms in his imagination from fancy taxi to fancier limo.


The porters line up for their big moment, bowing to our hero as he walks past.
This is the kind of treatment you get at Southern Sun Premier Hotels ;) Well it feels like it anyway.


Inside the lobby of the Cullinan

The crew with the setup of the lobby shot. Waiting for the lighting department as usual.


Besides showing off his fishing trophies the entire time, Werner did do a bit of DOPing (and thats pronounced Dee-Oh-Pee-ing - Not DOPING) Here he is with director Slim discussing their next plan of action.



Here is the same view as above but at 6:15am as I was making my way to bed after being awake for 26 hours. Having gotten up at 4:30am the previous morning to get to the airport.

That day I spent relaxing and I also hit the gym for a short while, getting my body ready for the next night of pain and suffering.

That evening went smoothly and certain concerns were dealt with and what we considered possible FX shots turned out to be filmed in camera so less work for our EQ artist this week.

Here is Slim's producer Greg with the Helium Light inflated to give a stunning moonlit feel inside. Greg is still wanting to know why he paid for this...

Anyway, that evening didn't take as long and we were all in bed by 5am.
Back to Joburg that afternoon, exhausted and with a serious internal clock problem...
Luckily I had the weekend to rectify it.

Coca Cola Shoot

So today I spent wrapped in warm clothes placing tracking markers in the middle of Suikerbosrand, south of Jozi. The reason - Coca Colab Commercial (not a typo - Colab as in Colaboration) directed by Sunu Gonera - who is off to LA soon to direct his first Hollywood feature.
I wont tell you the concept and that stuff as I dont know the restrictions but instead just show some pics of the shoot. The director, DOP, AD, grips, loader etc and the little incident... which I like to call - production must check everything!!


Actors are taught to display product with INTENT to sell... er two please.


Sunu and Alard (DOP) talk about the shot


Two of my markers (a CG stadium is going to build as camera pulls back)


The grip, Focus Puller, DOP, AD and sound with Actors... rehearsing the pull out shot


Johnny making his "snap"


A look back at the location set up.

The little incident I was referring to concerns the client and the caterers. You see the client is Coca Cola, the caterers, well they aren't important but they like to drink Nestle Pure Life Water.
So whats the problem you ask?
Well, Coca Cola owns Valpre, another local mineral water and the fact their competitors product was made freely available to all in a shiny water cooler... didnt go down to well and the catering crew was asked to remove the afore mentioned product and replace it with Valpre.

This always happens, nothing new and not only because its a drink owned by one company. While on the "Lays" shoot with Francois Pienaar there was to be only Pepsi, 7-Up and Miranda at lunch, why? Because Pepsi Co. owns Lays... simple

Thats life I guess in these commercial times and so just a note for all you budding production managers, make sure your caterers know who the client is...

Well here they discard of the forbidden product

The Agency sits, guarding their product (bottom right of shot)

One last thing to leave you with, two nice shots of the camera.