20 METHOD
STUDIO PHILOSOPHY
Method is an artist-driven visual effects company, created 10 years ago by Co-Founder/Visual Effects Supervisor Alex Frisch. Method provides artists and directors with the best creative environment in order to create high-end veffects. Over the past decade, Method has been consistently at the top of its field, creating award-winning visual effects for commercials, music videos, and feature films. A talent-centered studio, Method is organized around an exceptional team of artists, who are in direct contact with clients: directors and ad agency creatives. Method’s unique approach of combining traditional filmmaking techniques with the most sophisticated digital solutions in 2D compositing and 3D animation has helped to build the company’s stellar reputation over the past 10 years. Recent credits for Method include commercial projects for Bridgestone, Miller Lite, Audi, Washington Mutual, and Gatorade.
PEPSI
Creative and Production Process The election of President Obama was historical on two fronts. Alongside the significant decision to elect our first black president, we also saw the youth of our nation mobilize and energize with a spirit unmatched in previous campaigns. Pepsi commemorated this momentous inauguration with a retrospective of defining moments in history to advocate change from the present generation. Director Dante Ariola and TBWAChiatDay relied on Method’s finishing team led by Compositors Claus Hansen and Alex Frisch to create this narrative.
Believability was crucial to the success of this piece, so both Dante’s production designers and Method’s artists researched historical evidence to depict exact details of each time period. 3D Artist Andy Boyd and Matte Painter Helen Maier brought viewers back to World War II with a recreation of V-Day in Times Square. Alluding to Alfred Eisenstadt’s famous photo of a soldier kissing a nurse, the artists produced full CG buildings from 1940s Times Square with authentic advertisements from that time. Crowds were shot in camera in five different places and then rotoscoped together with supplementary crowd replication. Even the computer– generated confetti was analyzed, with the determination that it must appear to be long cuts of typing paper thrown from the skyscrapers, as was done back then for New York parades.
Further manipulations crafted to create a realistic picture included removing graffiti alongside the Los Angeles River to bring back purity to the 1950s drag race and adding graffiti to the surroundings of the 1980s breakdancers.
Another important aspect of this spot was the seamless transition from generation to generation. Integrating the hippie peace and love rally with the ’70s disco scene, Claus took thorough
steps to add flare action and match greenscreen shots of the siren in both scenes. Another organic flow massaged in Flame is the jump from a crumbling Berlin Wall into a present-day live concert by compositing in the view from each side of the hole.
Pepsi has always been true to its current ad branding of change since its inception in the 1890s by a pharmacist in North Carolina. From recognizing the economic crisis in its pricing during the Depression to being one of the first products to portray African Americans in a positive light via an all-black ad team, Pepsi is once again defining itself as the beverage of our generation.
Pepsi has always been true to its current ad branding of change since its inception in the 1890s by a pharmacist in North Carolina. From recognizing the economic crisis in its pricing during the Depression to being one of the first products to portray African Americans in a positive light via an all-black ad team, Pepsi is once again defining itself as the beverage of our generation.
Tools Flame
Credits
Director: Dante Ariola
Compositors: Claus Hansen, Alex Frisch
3D Artist: Andy Boyd
Matte Painter: Helen Maier