|
Gone are the days of bottled
mineral water. With new entrants banking on the 'Himalayan
origin' factor, Bisleri has released its latest 40-seconder
that positions the brand as mountain water, courtesy Prime
Focus, Ambience Advertising and White Light Motion Picture.
The account was handled by
Ambience Advertising, VFX for the commercial was executed
by Prime Focus while White Light Motion Picture's Subir Chatterjee
and Namita Roy Ghose directed the commercial with the short
brief of "mountain water".
"The idea was to depict
water as precious, as an essential part of our daily life
and not just a stream trickling from the mountains. We made
a mountain of water droplets and the primal man emerges from
it, symbolizing birth; then moving on to the assimilation
of water; on to growth; to celebration which shows the union
and finally back to the source - the mountains, which is our
belief of the cycle of life," Subir told AnimationXpress.com.
"There is no part in this ad film that has not been composited,"
said Prime Focus' Jayant Hadke, who is the creative director
for the project.
The ad escaped the normal routine
of storyboard-to-post production and was treated more like
a piece of art. The director's vision filled in the gaps.
Reading straight out of the duo's brief to Prime Focus: "Treat
water like the elixir of life. The ad must go through the
stages of birth, assimilation, generation, celebration and
return to source. Use graphics as a connect between traditional
beliefs and today's newer value system".
"Bisleri stressed on the
origin bit, so we tried connecting our shastras and Vedic
learning with the modern times. Besides, we have used spiritual
symbols and graphics to give the commercial a hip feel,"
Subir added. The commercial also uses dance as an expression
of celebration.
Only the water body by the
mountain and the droplets are CG, rest of the water movements
were shot and further enhanced. Prime
Focus Senior Manager (Business Development), Kunaal Saigal
added, "A lot of experimentation went into making this
commercial as the script was open ended. There were days when
we thought we have wrapped it up, but the very next day we
would go back thinking no, let's add something to it."
The important dance and gushing water sequences were shot
at high frame rates 500 or 1000 fps. "We now have a huge
library of shots of water," added Jayant, "as water
in every form, droplets, bubbles, flowing was either used
as the main focus or in the background."
 |
|
 |
| This shot
of gushing water from a bottle has around 20 layers. |
|
The original
shot. Later, layer by layer of bubbles were added around
the bottle. |
 |
|
 |
| Various shots
of the artist were amalgamated with symbols, concentric
chants, and water movement |
The beauty of each shot is
the subtlety with which many elements are included, like the
water formations in the above shot are synchronized with various
chakras. On an average around 40-50 layers per shot were utilized.
This shot symbolizing growth
underwent a lot of variations. Jayant said, "The tree
is complete CG. We thought of various ways of making the tree
grow, including a 360 degree shot, but then it was getting
too complex and taking the attention away from water, hence
we stuck to the plain frontal shot."
Considering there was no hardbound script and all that had
to be communicated was the feel, the content was up to the
artist's discretion, a lot of which was regarding which flower
to choose or which symbol to pick in order to avoid any religious
connotations.
With more and more VFX pumping
in the visual industry, ad filmmakers are making the most
out of the trend by using time constraints and minimal storyline
to their advantage.
connect@animationxpress.com
|
