Framestore has teamed up with 180LA and Pepsi on a new advertising campaign featuring Beyoncé, titled Mirrors.
The spot celebrates Beyoncé's most iconic personalities from her past - including Sasha Fierce, and the singer as we saw her in Bootylicious and
Crazy in Love - as well as her iconic dance moves and unforgettable fashion as they flash before her in a mirror and she dances through her past step-for-step.
The choreography builds to a climactic ending as Beyoncé shakes out of her reflective mood and breaks back into the present - a move manifested by the mirrors around her shattering into millions of pieces.
Mirrors is the first effort to come out of Framestore's new LA studio, created in cooperation with the company's London office. 180 LA approached the VFX company early on in the process, sharing a fantastic idea that would allow Pepsi and Beyoncé to explore a rich history of colorful characters. That being said, they needed a methodology that would allow them to use historic footage of the star in the mirrors surrounding her on the sound stage.
Watch the spot at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_2smYVl0zrk!
180 LA's creative concept was brought to life by Framestore's meticulous technical execution. Inserting historic footage of Beyoncé inside the mirrors required significant planning and the Framestore CG team used photogrammetry/photo-modeling and survey techniques coupled with global illumination rendering to create the studio replica and images.
"The mirrors in the studio added a huge layer of complexity," said Aron Hjartarson, Framestore Creative Director. "Since each mirror required a separate plate, the VFX shooting demands were extremely high. Beyoncé and Pepsi are icons and the expectations were immense - we're lucky that we're able to access such top notch talent within our network of studios around the globe."
Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda shot the master plates of modern Beyoncé using a motion control rig to capture the best imaging. The smashing of the mirrors was simulated using Side Effects' Houdini rigid-body dynamics and particle systems.
"Framestore was involved from an early point in the process, allowing us to establish a creative previsualization plan with the agency, editor Steve Gandolfi and director Jake Nava," explained Alex Thomas, Framestore's Head of 2D/ VFX Supervisor. "Working on a project of this scale has been a brilliant, collaborative experience, and a really exciting way to launch the LA office."