Post Production
My, oh, my! Where do I start? Let me start with this, I won’t go into a ton of detail because the post production on this ad was really intense. Instead, I’ll just post a few videos that will show how I accomplished these shots and we’ll leave it at that.
White Water Rapids
As most of you know, there are no rapids in, around, or remotely close to flat ol’ Lubbock, TX. You also know that we knew this. And since we knew that you’d know that we knew that you’d know, we shot it on green screen. So, check out how we pulled off the rapids.
Niagara Falls
The next really big effects shot was sending these guys over Niagara Falls. Again, we don’t have Niagara Falls in Lubbock, and I’m pretty sure Brandon wouldn’t have wanted to pay for all of us to go (not to mention the whole safety mumbo-jumbo about sending two untrained stunt men over a waterfall). Nevertheless, I digress.
Moving on… Now, I will show you how we [safely] sent these guys over a waterfall.
Not Now, Walter White
The last of the VFX shots was not supposed to be a VFX shot. See the following
After delivering the ad, we were informed that the house was a known meth house and that it couldn’t be in the ad. Chalk it up to a bit of miscommunication, but, the house had to go. While I would never claim that it was fun, it was definitely a huge learning experience.
In short, we had to cut everything out of the scene above the fence and still keep our actors in the scene. We also had to insert a new background, which was compiled of several different assets. Watch this video to see what all we had to do.
What you hear
As with all of our projects, audio is a huge part of the process and delivery. I know we’ve said it many times before, but, it it is arguably the most important sense to fool when it comes to making videos. Bad sound makes a good film bad. Good sound can made a bad video good.
This was no exception. Especially since so much of the commercial was on green screen. On the green screen shots, there was no reference audio, so, we had to recreate all of the environments to make you, as an audience, feel like it was real.
The other part, was that it is all made possible due to our amazing voice over artist, Ryan Ramon! As if he didn’t have his plate full enough, I requested some reads from him for this video, and he called me shortly after to explain that he had laryngitis. Probably the single worst ailment that could befall someone whose livelihood depends on their voice. Nonetheless, he had me some placeholder audio and I was able to get the ad cut.
With that, we say a huge THANK YOU to Mr. Cinnamon-butter Ramon.
We hope that you have enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at how we took these Super Bowl commercials from concept to delivery and if you have any question, leave them in the comments. If you are interested in our services, head on over to our contact page, and we’ll be glad to start the conversation!
Until next time.