Samsung’s Epic Content King

Earlier this week, we were exposed to a new epic advertising campaign through CHI which sees extreme TV content come to life on screen as it is being controlled by an all-powerful viewer, who also stars, in a city centre setting to promote the perks of Samsung’s new smart TV product.

Shot by Stink’s Adam Berg, the minute-and-a-half-long commercial sees a cluster of content including a herd of buffalo, a tyrannosaurus rex, a teddy bear, and an alien invasion to name a few, all being controlled by the viewer and here the creative team at CHI offer extended insight into the project before MPC’s VFX and CG supervisors, as well as man at the helm, Adam Berg, break the piece down further.

Answers below from creatives Rob Webster and Alexei Berwitz:

What was the brief and how did you come up with the idea for the campaign?

The brief was to create a TV commercial to promote the Samsung smart TV that you can control through gesture and voice. But the client gave us an extra challenge – they wanted to produce a film that blew people away and made them think differently about Samsung as a brand. People tend to buy Samsung products for rational reasons; because they're technically brilliant and competitively priced. Our aim was to make an ad that people love, so they might start to feel the same way about the brand, too.

Looking at the final film, how close are all the characters compared with what you initially visualised?

Pretty close on the whole.  We wanted the script to reflect recognisable film and TV genres. The aliens and their spaceships were a little more complicated, but MPC created a range of cool designs and we honed in our favourites fairly quickly. For us though, the real magic comes in bringing those characters to life, making them feel real, rather than like CGI animations and puppets. Adam and MPC have crafted a world that is both fantastical and yet completely credible, and that’s a testament to their skills as filmmakers.

What’s your favourite part of the ad?

The alien invasion was pretty special for us. A lot of the pyrotechnics action was filmed live in a single take. It was pretty spectactular to witness a whole street in Cape Town explode before our eyes, with cars and vans flipping as they blew up. But seeing the playback and realising everything had been captured on camera, was even better.

Answers below from Franck Lambertz, VFX supervisor, and Chris Antoniou, CG supervisor:

What was it like working with director Adam Berg?

FL: It was a great experience working with Adam. He has a very clear idea of what he wants (and equally what he doesn't!) which on a project of this scale makes the process that little bit easier. He is very much up for collaborating, which is hugely beneficial, as is the fact he has a very good understanding of VFX and is fully aware of what is achievable within the constraints of time and budget.

Ultimately, he has a great vision and along with Ben Croker, his producer, was able to shoot some amazing scenes, most noticeably the shots with the cars blowing up. This sequence is quite special. It's not often you see ads these days with such an epic feature film quality to them and it pretty much illustrates why he is one of the world's top commercials directors.

How much creative freedom/input did MPC's artists have creating the different elements?

FL: Our job is always an interesting balance and we have to appreciate the different points of view involved in our work. We collaborate with the director, agency, as well as the client, who could all have a different idea of what it should look like. The whole process always starts from the director’s treatment and a deep discussion with him. We absorb his universe, his view. After this debrief, we propose what we think it should look like. In this instance, our concept artists sketched ideas for UFOs and the Mothership and there were a great deal of changes before the final versions were chosen.

Was it difficult to match the CG/3D elements with the live action?

FL: I can't say it was easy. The t-rex was a particular challenge; we needed to fake the size of the T-rex’s foot slightly to match all the points of pressures we made on the taxi. One of our animators had to carefully adjust each nail to match the real car and in comping we had to retime the real car deformation, warp some elements to match and add 2D/3D rock and smoke to blend everything together.

What is your favourite part of the spot?

FL: Difficult question; in this spot you have all the VFX that you could dream of: a huge creature, a big mothership erupting, some massive explosions in the street. Saying that, I also really like the bear; he is a lovely little old-fashioned puppetry piece. Once we animated his face he really took on a life of his own.

Finally, Adam Berg, Stink’s director on the job, adds his input:

When you first saw the script, what were your thoughts?

Fuck, Yeah!

From where did you draw inspiration for the spot?

All the obvious channels, I guess. Films, TV and renaissance art.

What was your favourite part of the shoot and how long was it?

We shot the main attack of the aliens as a single take on a street in Cape Town. We had just one go at it as we were flipping cars and blowing stuff up. We were a little nervous that it would all go wrong but then we just said, ‘fuck it, let’s go’ and drove down this street with everything going off at once. It was epic.