New York - Guerilla FX, an independent design, effects, and
post finishing company, has created the visual effects and heart for a 30-second
commercial for Montefiore Medical Center. The spot was developed by
Lorel Marketing Group of King of Prussia, Penn., and includes live-action shots
by Harpoon Pictures.
“Big Heart” opens in what appears to be a cavernous exhibition hall, where individuals
view a large, holographic, semi-transparent red heart as it rotates in space.
The voiceover encourages viewers to: “Imagine you could shape a weak
heart and avoid the need for a transplant; Imagine if your heart ever stopped
beating it would automatically restart; Imagine you could see into the heart
without ever going inside.” The visionary thinking of the
Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center has imagined all this, and more, and has made
them a reality.
“Big Heart” was directed by Larry Robins of Harpoon Pictures, who says of the
project, “The agency’s original notion was to shoot this in Philadelphia at the
Franklin Science Center’s big heart model. However, the heart had neither the
scale nor the scope we wanted to attach to the Heart Center. After looking at a
number of Beaux Arts buildings and museum spaces, none of which were exactly
right or available for our project, we sent two days talking to CG companies
all over the country -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, even Montreal.
Our greatest challenge was building the heart that was both believable
and schematic at the same time. We were not sure exactly what it should look
like. The last company to pitch me and agency producer Jeff Brown was
Guerilla FX, and when Thor Raxlen suggested that the heart be made out of light,
that made everything click. Suddenly we knew exactly where we were going
with the spot. Things that seemed problematic became obvious. The holographic
heart logically supported things like rotating the heart. It became its own
light source. We did not have to light the heart as it would be built from
light so it had its own glow, its own presence, we could see people inside and
outside of the heart.”
“Once Guerilla FX was awarded the job, we worked closely with Harpoon. We
created, in 3D, a number of style frames which suggested different ways of
achieving what we felt should be a cross between a laser show and a holograph.
To figure out the logistics beforehand, I sat down with Larry and Harpoon’s
production designer Ken MacCleod and his 3D program, Sketch Up, and we created
a virtual set. We gave Ken a model of the heart, which he incorporated into the
set before we attempted to build the set in a 3D environment,” explains
Guerilla FX creative director/VFX director Thor Raxlen. “Next, I worked with
Larry Robins and DP Predrag Dubrovcic, who shot their actors blue screen on a
variety of platforms and from a number of angles, to insure that this footage
could be incorporated into our environment. Then we took the footage back to
our studio and built a rough assembly of the room and our heart design, modeled
it in 3D, placed the actors in the various environments, created a rough cut
CG-matic and tracked the scenes in 3D so that we could seamlessly integrate the
actors walking and cameras moving in the environment. We also added lines
within the heart to suggest a scanner segmenting the heart into 64 distinct
parts. Finally, we rendered this out in HD and simultaneously down
converted to standard-definition. Moving People allowed us to create the digital extras
walking around in the background. We used Pixel Farm’s PFHoe for the 3D
tracking. In Autodesk's 3ds Max we created a virtual set that corresponded to
the real filmed set and that enabled us to insert our filmed characters into
the virtual sets and create camera moves that do not feel like a series of
locked off shots. For the rotoscoping and chromakey, we used Adobe After Effects
and Apple Shake, and lastly, our editors assembled the spot.”
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The Guerilla FX team, which completed the visual effects, offline editorial,
and postproduction for “Big Heart” included:
Creative Director/VFX Director
Thor Raxlen;
Executive Producer Doug Robbins;
Online and Offline Editor Linda
Peters;
Senior 3D Artists Jesse Holmes, Steve Sullivan;
3D Artists Andy
O’Donnell and Komal Crasto;
3D Modeler Todd Daniels;
Compositors Jason Yantz,
Christopher Green and Eric Miro;
and Post Supervisor Jody Peters.
Representing the Lorel Marketing Group (King of Prussia, PA) were:
Creative
Director Gerry Stankus,
Senior Art Director Ali Wilcox,
Senior Account
Executive Dan Lenzoni,
Associate Account Executive Aileen Weisen
and Producer
Jeff Brown.
Harpoon Pictures, Ltd. (New York, NY) and Director Larry Robins, Executive
Producer Chester Mayer, Director of Photography Predreg Dubrovcic, Production
Designer Ken MacCleod and Producer Mark Romanski shot “Big Heart” at Sony
Stages (New York, NY).
Representing Montefiore Medical Center were Vice President of Marketing Tom
Tebbens and Product Line Manager, MEHC Chris Snyder.
Credit Sheet
Airdate: February 8, 2007 in the New York market
Client: Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital
and Academic Medical Center for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx,
NY)
Title of Spot: “Big Heart”
Length and # of Spot: one :30
Description of Spot: In what appears to be a huge open modern
computer-generated exhibition hall, individuals view a large, pulsating,
transparent red heart as it rotates in space and a voiceover intones “Imagine
you could shape a weak heart and avoid the need for a transplant; Imagine if
your heart ever stopped beating it would automatically restart; Imagine you
could see into the heart without ever going inside.” The visionary
thinking of the Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center has imagined all this, and
more, and has made them a reality.
Visual Effects/Editorial/Postproduction: Guerilla FX
City/State: New York, NY
Creative Director/VFX Director: Thor Raxlen
Executive Producer: Doug Robbins
Senior 3D Artists: Jesse Holmes, Steve Sullivan
3D Artists: Andy O’Donnell and Komal Crasto
3D Modeler: Todd Daniels
Offline Editor: Linda Peters
Compositors: Jason Yantz, Christopher Green and Eric Miro
Online Editor: Linda Peters
Post Supervisor: Jody Peters
Agency: Lorel Marketing Group
City/State: King of Prussia, PA
Creative Director: Gerry Stankus
Senior Art Director: Ali Wilcox
Senior Account Executive: Dan Lenzoni
Associate Account Executive: Aileen Weisen
Producer: Jeff Brown
Production Company: Harpoon Pictures, Ltd.
City/State: New York, NY
Director: Larry Robins
Director of Photography: Predreg Dubrovcic
Executive Producer: Chester Mayer
Production Designer: Ken MacCleod
Producer: Mark Romanski
Location of Shoot: Steiner Studios
City/State: Brooklyn NY
Client: Montefiore Medical Center
V
ice President of Marketing: Tom Tebbens
Product Line Manager, MEHC: Chris Snyder
Audio Post: New York Sound
City/State: New York, NY
Mixer: Joe Cunningham