Indiantelevision.com Team

(6 November 2007 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Prime Focus has delivered the post production and visual effects for Godrej Sara Lee's new Hit commercial, wherein an insect invasion on China was digitally created.

Think Tank

The advertisement is based on the creative input from Equinox Films, scripting by Publicis Ambience's Prasanna Sankhe, and direction by Ram Madhvani.

Action

The ad is shot entirely in Shanghai, the commercial looks and feels like a live news flash by a Chinese news channel. As the plot unravels, the 'news flash' reveals itself as an advertisement of Indian pest repellent spray Hit.

Proposition

The core concept of the commercial was to exaggerate the concept of a 'pest free India' and highlight history’s largest exodus of pests to neighbouring countries.

Creative challenges

In order to effectively portray this and deliver on the creative brief, Prime Focus digitally created an invasion of a swarm of mosquitoes and cockroaches in China.

Additionally, the post production team had to contend with the panic motion in the camera movement which added another layer of complexity in the process. The erratic movements and 12 second one-take-shots needed to be tracked meticulously and then merged with the 3D elements.

Commenting on the creative challenges posed by the Hit TVC, Prime Focus creative head - VFX/Animation Merzin Tavaria said, "At Prime Focus we have executed a number of visual effects projects both for feature films as well as commercials. However the HIT ad posed some unique challenges. The tracking as well as dynamics departments worked tirelessly to ensure that we were able to deliver on the director’s brief as well as the creative script. For this we greatly appreciate the support we received from Equinox Films, Publicis Ambience and director Ram Madhvani."

"The post-production task of creating real looking roaches and mosquitoes was well executed by Prime Focus. We are once again pleased with the results and timely delivery, as despite the obstacles of handheld cameras and chaotic shots, the company managed to create the final product within two weeks as required by Ram Madhvani," said Equinox producer Manoj Shroff.

The compositing department had a mammoth task of putting together close to about 56 layers split up into three cameras in its correct hierarchy and match motion blurs and colours in about six hours to meet the deadline.