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Home » CINEMA 4D Helps Framestore Create Sci-Fi Spots for GE’s Brilliant Machines Campaign

CINEMA 4D Helps Framestore Create Sci-Fi Spots for GE’s Brilliant Machines Campaign

Framestore, the award-winning visual effects company, has created three noteworthy commercials for GE that feature a smartly conceived take on some of the top blockbuster science fiction movie franchises of all time, namely The Matrix, Back to the Future and Star Trek.

Began by its original five partners some two decades ago in London, Framestore now has offices in Los Angeles, Montreal and, most to the point here, New York. Working out of its Soho headquarters, the company teamed with uber-agency BBDO to create the commercials as part of GE’s Brilliant Machines campaign.

According to Framestore creatives, a major aspect of the commercials’ success was MAXON’s powerful yet approachable 3D animation software package CINEMA 4D. The app played a prominent role in creating visual effects for the spots, where it was used to model, animate and render its unique imagery.

I’ve commented about CINEMA 4D’s importance in the New York production scene in prior articles. Framestore’s high-profile spots help to illustrate the growing importance that C4D plays in creating visual effects driven, cinematic-quality projects here and elsewhere.

According to Marc Smith, Framestore New York senior design director, CINEMA 4D has become a regular part of the commercials department production, and used extensively for everything from style-frame creation, TV campaign production, brand idents, and feature-film title sequences.

Fun Spots

With their attention to detail and faithfulness to the originals, these spots are fun to watch because they also offer a sophisticated take on three of the most iconic Hollywood fantasy films ever made.

The first spot, Agent Smith, focused on GE’s innovations in medical technology. It features Hugo Weaving, the original Agent Smith from The Matrix series. The commercial shows multiple instances of the actor popping up in each scene; it required the use of body doubles, head replacement and rotoscoping.

The second spot, The Future is Now, showcases GE Turbines. Featuring the voice of Michael J. Fox, the lead in the time-travel themed movie favorite Back to the Future, it began with the Framestore team shooting on set with the same DeLorean used in the movie. For post work, a detailed a CG version was created to match the original.

According to Marc Smith, Framestore relied on CINEMA 4D for the entire 10-second sequence where the camera travels through a turbine. Other tools, including After Effects and Maya, were also used in different sections of the spot.

The third spot in the campaign, the Star Trek themed Enterprise, focused on GE’s deep fuel safety technology. Give the production team credit for authenticity: Not only does the spot feature the real bridge from J.J. Abrams’ production of the classic science fiction property, but it also has two of original actors, John Cho (Sulu) and Joseph Gatt (Science Officer 0718).

In this spot, CINEMA 4D was, once again, a center of the production. The 3D app was used almost exclusively to create the interface designs on the hero graphics shots. I thought that these elements were remarkably well done. I was also struck with how well the Framestore crew handled integrating these designs with the live action elements. Check it out in the clip below.

Creative Partners

Summing it up, Marc Smith presented Framestore’s use of the app straightforwardly. “CINEMA 4D represents an extremely valuable addition to the Framestore pipeline, providing us with an extremely nimble 3D toolset,” Smith said.

The takeaway: CINEMA 4D is a compelling product, useful for the most high-end of projects yet with a user-interface that still wins accolades for its low learning curve. Effects supervisors also like C4D since it offers powerful features such as projection mapping, sculpting, BodyPaint and dynamics simulation in one package.

CINEMA 4D has become a leader in the broadcast/motion graphics arena, certainly here in New York. We’ve even awarded the most recent version 15 as one of our “Best of 2013” products.

(Full disclosure: I often demo and represent CINEMA 4D at trade shows and other events.)

About Joe Herman

Joe Herman is a filmmaker, artist and post production specialist and writes often about the industry. You can reach him at joe[at]legendmultimedia[dot]com. Or reach and follow him on Twitter @JoeHermanTweets.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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