Oktobor helps create unique ‘Mandom’ TVCs for NZTA via Clemenger BBDO, Wellington
TVC PRODUCTION – In his director’s treatment for the latest trio of NZTA TVCs, Nick Ball described ‘Mandom’ as, “A room, space, corner or area that is specifically reserved for a male person to be in a solitary condition, away from the rest of the household in order to work, play, involve himself in certain hobbies and activities without interruption. This area is usually decorated by the male that uses it, without interference from any female influence and often involves his friends coming over to share in the experience.”
According to Steen Bech, Oktobor’s VFX Producer on the Mandom spots,this is exactly what they were asked to help create. Bech said, “TheMandom spot was undoubtedly one of the cleverest we have worked on.Director Nick Ball and producer Barbara Devlin approached us with bunchof funky script ideas that were based around shooting a series of ‘man’rooms and then joining them all together culminating in a wide shot ofan open faced, multi-layered apartment block.”
The open apartment building wide shot took two weeks of pre-productionplanning with many levels of logistics that the Oktobor team had towork through and navigate.
Bech continued: “Along with Nick, Barbara and the set designers we hadto work out how many rooms to shoot, how fast the camera was going tomove and pull out and how best to make all the transitions betweenrooms as seamless as possible.”
In order to get the shots as tight as possible, Bech and the Oktoborteam went to production company @radical.media’s set at Auckland FilmStudio’s, Studio #5 where the seamless set had been constructed.
Bech added: “The shoot was a very involved process that included@radical dressing out each room three times to create all the roomsseen in the two 30 second teasers and the main 60 second spot.”
Back at Oktobor Senior Flame Artist Andy Dill was tasked with creatingthe VFX for the spot. Dill said, “Our job was divided into three maintasks on Mandom: adding small details to the live action such as grillsmoke, backgrounds and lens flares, stitching together rooms to createseamless camera moves and creating a wide shot that would show a largecross section of life in Mandom.”
The 30-second teaser spots were designed to spark curiosity in theviewer about the world of Mandom. The main task for Oktobor was tostitch together the various rooms into a single camera move.
Dill continued: “The sixty was nearly all a single shot, with only asingle join until the actor gets to the fire pole. The thirties werenot. Due to the need to dress and re-dress the set, we shot each roomindividually and joined them together in flame, adding little thingslike floor joist and plaster in the walls.”
The single most complex shot for Oktobor was the wide shot. Based on across section of Kowloon’s now demolished ‘Walled City’, the goal wasto show the scale of Mandom.
Dill added: “Nick had shown us this great illustration of what theWalled City looked like inside and we used that as a start point forour design of Mandom’s interior. Together with Nick and the agency wecame up with a list of rooms we’d like to see.”
Dill and his team then had to design, decorate and light each of the 25 rooms.
Dill said, “This meant dozens and sometimes hundreds of elements in asingle room from doors, windows and wallpaper to lights, shadows andwind blown trees. It was a very detailed process. Once the 2D team hadfurnished and lit the entire space it was time to populate the shot. Wehad our own green screen area off to the side of the main set duringthe shoot. Steen (Bech) and I directed the extras to perform variousactivities including playing golf, riding bikes, rocking out andappreciating art. There’s nearly seventy extras that we chroma keyedout and placed in the shot.”
Oktobor EP David Hofflich concluded, “Everyone at Oktobor was veryproud of the way the spot was put together and how the effects reallyworked. The wide shot was particularly challenging but very rewardingand I’m delighted to say both client and agency were very happy withthe results.”
CREDITS
Client: NZTA
Agency: Clemenger BBDO Wellington
Executive Creative Director: Philip Andrew
Senior Art Director: Brigid Alkema
Agency Writer: Alex Metson
Agency Art Director: Ben Davidson
Agency Producer: Martin Gray
Production Company: @radical.media
Director: Nick Ball
Producer: Barbara Devlin
DOP: Ian McCarroll
Editor: Sam Brunette
Post Production: Oktobor
Grade: Kenny Gibb
Lead Flame: Andy Dill
Flame: Ken Stewart
VFX Producer: Steen Bech
Music: Liquid
Audio Post: Liquid studios
8 Comments
Kenny Gibb is the man..What happened to him?
sounds like a lot more work then what it was worth.
I guess you had to be there…
Awesome. I bet the lads in Christchurch, Te Awamutu and Palmy will take notice of this. Stop. And really think about their driving. What an wonderful use of taxpayers money. Well done LTSA and Colenso.
FTW!
I am impressed by the look and the shoot must’ve been fun and the long hours in post make it look great and it’s technically clever, and at first look it seems a good idea in a difficult category that’s been well-flogged.
But.
The idea that it’s big to stay in control is good, yet the expression of that idea — that it’s exciting to be on the edge of control yet never lose control — is fatally flawed.
Compounding that, the execution is a long way over the top, given we don’t have a minute to lose or a dollar to spare when it comes to stopping intentional or unintentional dickheads driving like actual dickheads.
There’s got to be a better way than this – a more direct way – to help young-brained men to stop being a bunch of c*nts when they get behind the wheel. I’m not going to solve what I see as a planning problem behind this ad here on this blog, but I’d like the team who worked on this – and that means everyone from the client through to the director – to have a long hard think about where the target market are at in their *consumption of both messages and media* before they spend such a huge wodge of cash on a single big slick production again — perhaps starting with a question: where are the heroes of the young in this campaign? If you’re any type of man, you’ll listen to someone you respect. Try that?
Ah, damn, I ranted. Sorry.
The real problem is that young men believe themselves to be immune to harm. Accidents always happen to other people. And their day to day experience proves it. Most of the time you can speed and drive like a total cock and be totally fine. Advertising can’t change human nature. The only reason that the LTSA fund this crap is to make it look like they’re doing something. A Clems is happy to feed off them. It’s all quite repellant actually.
Worst, most self-indulgent LTSA ad in a long time.