Framestore, the visual effects specialist, has recently completed work on the production of Paramount+’s launch spot, the latest major streaming service to premiere in the UK.
The advertising campaign marks Kamen Markov’s first assignment at Framestore and features headline stars including Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci.
Working in collaboration with writing/directing specialists Los Pérez and agency New Commercial Arts, Framestore has visualised an immersive new world, explored in an almost two-minute long advert for Paramount+.
A short film gives viewers an exclusive glimpse behind Paramount Mountain, following rookie employee ‘Pete’ on his first day as a stage runner, delivering coffees to recognisable personalities. A portfolio of IPs feature including Halo, Paw Patrol and Star Trek, as well as acting talent such as Miranda Cosgrove.
Markov worked with Framestore’s Previs team to plan the piece. Visualisation supervisor Vincent Aupetit says: “We worked from storyboards provided by the client and built an animatic, realising the shots and improving on them in previs first. We used real-world references of planned shoot locations. The edit went through several rapid iterations, with the final IP not being locked at the time of previs.
“The show was a lot of fun to visualise and contained iconic shots and moments from the reimagining of the Paramount Logo flying over the mountain to referencing characters or elements from Star Trek, Halo or Transformers.”
Creating a consistent world
Framestore has extensive experience in advertisement and marketing material, with its clients including Three and Heineken. The majority of the exterior plates for the firm’s latest promotional film were shot in Farnborough, UK, forming the basis of ‘Paramount Land’.
“Almost all the exterior shots required us to enhance the location with extensive CG set extensions, background mountains and sky replacements to create a world, consistent with the story,” says Markov. “For practical reasons, the driving sequences were predominantly shot on a blue screen or with a precision driver and we needed to include in post [production] several head replacements of Jack Whitehall.”
One of the most extensive shots worked on was the iconic Paramount opening sequence which displays the Paramount Mountain complete with the logo and stars hovering above. The team used a CG camera flyover to show behind the mountain for the first time.
They then joined this scene to a live-action plate that they shot in the studio, stitching them together to create a fully CG 15-second shot.
“Work on the opening sequence started before the shoot and continued right up until the end. It is a very long shot and had a lot of CG set extensions outside and inside the studio with CG trees, clouds and landscape,” says Markov. “It is easy to build something that is wide but when you get close to it you have to allow for close-up detail. You also have to account for the detail in the distance including the lightning, and everything has to smoothly transition, so we really had to blend everything together.”
Staying authentic to the brand
As a brand staple that is recognised worldwide, it was decided to include the Paramount Mountain as a background feature in all scenes.
“There are two stories being told, one is the story of Pete and his journey delivering coffees and the other is the story of what might be going on at the back of the mountain, behind this famous logo. For that reason, we always kept the mountain the hero of the piece.”
The mountain needed to be authentic to the logo and brand, so the Framestore team built in detail that expanded to include additional stars and backgrounds. They also had to relight it to work with daylight scenes as well as the traditional sunset ambience that is recognised in cinemas.
“Some of the DMPs are really complicated. For example, the wide shot which shows our completely redesigned back of the mountain, includes our DMP artists’ work of creating a landscape complete with buildings and the old roads connecting the different areas,” says Markov.
Famous faces
Another key scene in the advert sees a Jeep crossing a rickety bridge. To achieve this, Framestore constructed a miniature set and used a remote control vehicle to drive over a model bridge. British comedian Whitehall and ‘Pete’ were then filmed in the car on blue screen, with a car composited on top, alongside an extensive background and cloudscape.
Markov says: “We got a nice interaction of the bridge wobbling and then we shot the bridge with the plate parking lot, before putting everything together. This was all done at miniature scale using props and puppeteering for the Jeep’s crossing.”
Markov’s team worked with Company 3, Framestore’s sister company of expert colour specialists, to create a ‘playful’ grade for the spot.
Markov says: “From an overall creative perspective, it was important for us to work hand-in-hand with the colour grade. It is where the picture is really finished, so we worked closely with colourist Steff Perry and essentially finished the film together.
“It was great to work with Los Pérez who had lots of fresh ideas – we also thoroughly enjoyed being involved in a channel launch campaign in collaboration with New Commercial Arts and it was a joy to bring this incredibly creative idea to life,” concludes Markov.
Framestore was recently commissioned to create experiential media for AIR, a choreographed lighting experience at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt in New York, US.
