V-Lab recently wrapped a series of commercials for Wesbank, Gold Reef City and News Café.

The Gold Reef City spot, directed by Jason Xenopolous (a Mass Hysterical / Moonlighting co-production from agency Idea Engineers), required extensive post production coordination to ensure the commercial appeared as though it was in-camera, and not merely a series of video effects.

Sam Alessandri, V-Lab’s VFX supervisor said, “Jason has a great understanding of the entire filming process, and was hands on in the post production process. We held several meetings ahead of shoot day to design the transition shots for the commercial, even inviting me on-set to ensure the right steps were taken.”

The shots were then married up from the video take off on set to make sure there were correct angles, lighting and styles. This approach was taken in order to have no hidden surprises when it came to the online. This process really streamlines the shooting and the worries,” said Alessandri.

Another challenge was changing the colour of the silver Z4 to black. With the help from some 3D mapping and reflections, it was carried off flawlessly. Flame artist Jean du Plessis added the final touches and video effects to this spot.

The new commercial for News Café was shot on the Phantom camera. “Shooting any project in slow motion has amazing results but it does not compare to shooting at a thousand frames per second, it really makes the world as we know it come alive,” says Alessandri. Directed by Andre Liebenberg of Bouffant, the spot proved to be one huge experiment, “The Phantom system has not been through many trials and tests as yet,” says Alessandri. “It is only when you play back the material at the certain speed that you are able to appreciate the effect that was initially intended. A great aspect of the system is that the high definition quality is kept from shoot to grade to final conform in Flame.”

Bouffant also made use of the Phantom camera in the latest Wesbank spot, directed by Eric van Wyk. Shot at 1000 frames per second, the system enabled the spot to be shot in super-slow motion, and still have enough frames to ramp the shots and create varied speeds for the spot to work.

Again, workflow for this system was pushed to the maximum and working in HD throughout the process kept the resolution at the best quality possible. “It’s still early days for the Phantom camera and a lot needs to be done in terms of figuring out the way the system works in order to get it up to par with the international industry,” says Alessandri, “but V-Lab are making great strides in offering clients hassle-free post on these projects.”

The concept from O&M agency was executed superbly, and the end result is a product with fantastic energy, and graphics supplied by Inca work seamlessly with the body of the advert.