Fischer Edit/FX Blog

Fischer FX’s Alicia Reece and Matt Collings got the opportunity to flex their 3D inspiration on a recent broadcast campaign for Cox Business through Minneapolis based ad agency Periscope. The team promised their ability to bring Sir Roger, a 3D medieval knight, to life for the spot intended to capture the youthful, online gaming crowd.

Reece, a 3D artist and modeler at Fischer FX, who has worked on 3D and motion graphics projects for clients like Target, Activision and Microsoft, saw this job as “paving the way to do more character stuff” in the future. Visual Effects artist Collings attended the shoot with the real Sir Roger, taking reference photos and observing the mood of the spot.

While Reece began building the knight, Collings modeled the stone fortress background, texturing the location and lighting the whole scene. The team approached the movement of the knight carefully, inducting a volunteer, a broom handle and some lobby couch cushions to ferment the knight’s movements on tape and inevitably help the animation process through film reference.

As it turned out, the original request turned into two scenes lengthening their time frame. After which the team composited and matched their textures to reference images resulting in the final image seen below.

Fischer Edit’s Tim Taylor edited the spot with online by Fischer FX’s Jay Holgate and Jake Parker as Flame Artist, the final mix was provided by Modern Music.

Watch it below:

Animation by Fischer FX in this Cox Business Spot from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

Fischer Edit’s Lindy Wilson edited this new spot from Land O’ Lakes featured as Ad of the Day on Adweek. Check it out here.

Best Of Show ADDY Honor Is For The “Birds”

Washington State Lottery’s “Birds”

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 09, 2009, — From SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery in June 2008 to a year later earning Best of Show distinction at the 2009 ADDY Awards in Washington, D.C., this past weekend (6/6)–that’s the progression for a Washington State Lottery TV spot titled “Birds” directed by Jerry Brown of Sticks+Stones Studios, Los Angeles, for Publicis in the West, Seattle.

In the commercial (which also copped a Gold ADDY), enterprising people take it upon themselves to give the gift of flight to birds who can’t otherwise–namely a penguin, a chicken and an emu. The means toward that end are hang gliders with harnesses on each to accommodate the penguin, chicken and emu, respectively. After we witness each bird get its debut flight experience, a voiceover and an accompany super relate, “Every bird should get to fly.” A tag appears with the Washington State Lotto logo and the slogan, “Whose world could you change?”

Director Brown noted that the penguin, chicken and emu didn’t actually fly in the spot. A prime challenge of the project, he said, was “how to seamlessly composite birds with hang gliders and still make it feel spontaneous and observed.” This meant that Brown had to capture the birds “enjoying flight” even through they weren’t experiencing it. Brown and DP Tom Olgeirrson deployed camera angles that “while interesting, didn’t stretch credulity,” said the director. “The animal trainers worked with the birds for more than a week, suspending them in harnesses and getting them used to being in their rigs.” Jake Parker of Fischer Edit, Minneapolis, served as VFX supervisor/Flame artist on the job. Fischer’s Lindy Wilson was the editor. Attracting Brown to the job was its positive, uplifting spirit, focusing on the good deeds lottery winners can perform–”to show someone,” said the director, “doing something for someone that they couldn’t do themselves.”

The Publicis in the West ensemble included creative director Dan Fietsam, art director Scott Rasmussen and copywriter Jeff Siegel. Among the other Gold ADDY winners were: Federal Express’ “Carrier Pigeons” directed by Tom Kuntz of bicoastal/international MJZ for BBDO New York; the American Legacy Foundation’s “Tough Love” (part of the “Truth” campaign), also directed by Kuntz, this time for Boston agency Arnold; and the Environmental Defense Fund/Ad Council’s “Polar Bears” directed by Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Ogilvy New York.

The annual ADDYs competition is conducted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). For a full rundown of this year’s ADDY Awards winners, log onto www.aaf.org and click on “awards.”

Fischer FX’s Alicia Reece and Matt Collings got the opportunity to flex their 3D inspiration on a recent broadcast campaign for Cox Business through Minneapolis based ad agency Periscope. The team promised their ability to bring Sir Roger, a 3D medieval knight, to life for the spot intended to capture the youthful, online gaming crowd.
Reece, a 3D artist and modeler at Fischer FX, who has worked on 3D and motion graphics projects for clients like Target, Activision and Microsoft, saw this job as “paving the way to do more character stuff” in the future. Visual Effects artist Collings attended the shoot with the real Sir Roger, taking reference photos and observing the mood of the spot.

While Reece began building the knight, Collings modeled the stone fortress background, texturing the location and lighting the whole scene. The team approached the movement of the knight carefully, inducting a volunteer, a broom handle and some lobby couch cushions to ferment the knight’s movements on tape and inevitably help the animation process through film reference.
As it turned out, the original request turned into two scenes lengthening their time frame. After which the team composited and matched their textures to reference images resulting in the final image seen below.
Fischer Edit’s Tim Taylor edited the spot with online by Fischer FX’s Jay Holgate and Jake Parker as Flame Artist, the final mix was provided by Modern Music.

With the 2009 “Dancing With the Stars” season already in full swing including a line up featuring the likes of Lil’ Kim, Denise Richards and Steve Wozniak among others, it seemed appropriate to reveal the spots cut by Lindy Wilson for the game version of the show. Fischer Edit, Activision and Gabriel deGrood Bendt all teamed up on a large campaign of some of the video-game giant’s cache of products.

Wilson edited “Dancing With the Stars” showcasing Nintendo Wii’s game and featuring some well-known talent (including GdB Creative Director Doug deGrood’s son). The talent’s spontaneity offered up great moments for Wilson. Of the dad character Wilson says,  “My selects of him were hilarious. It was hard not to use them all.” However she notes, “You didn’t want to have the same degree of wackiness the whole way through…Doug’s very good with humor, he starts it out part way normal and then it gets crazier.”

Wilson knows what she’s looking for when she delves inside spots, talking about the embarrassment of the family at their dad’s dancing, “You want them to look like ‘Wow?! We’ve never seen Dad do this!’ and you want the wife to look like ‘Gosh I love him but – what is he doing? He’s really suprising me.’” To find unison in their reactions took some time but overall the purpose for Wilson was really to make the game look fun, something she already knew firsthand.

After starting on the job, Wilson herself went out and purchased the game which her daughters loved. “Having the enthusiasm from my kids, to be working on something that was so positive. I felt good about doing it, I knew that it was good for people and families,” she explains.

Working with agency GdB and Activision proved to be a great experience for Fischer Edit and Wilson who went on to edit spots for many more of their games last year. Additionally, Wilson’s taken to playing WiiFit’s Yoga to complement her kid’s love of all the other games.

“Dancing With the Stars” for Activision Edited by Lindy Wilson from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

“Me First” Edited by JoLynn Garnes for Nexxus from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) Minneapolis, Minn.: Fischer Edit, a creative editorial and post-production house works with Campbell Mithun, Motion 504 and Modern Music on Nexxus’ latest television campaign.
Editor JoLynn Garnes cuts “Me First” for product Dualiste, the newest spot from Nexxus. Needing considerable effects and color for the model’s hair, Campbell Mithun called on broadcast design studio Motion 504 for help. While there designer Scott Wenner and producer Eric Mueller suggested getting Garnes in as the editor. She explains, “the interesting thing is, usually it seems like the editor gets hired first…[but]…they said ‘we want to work with JoLynn’.” Wenner and Garnes had many years experience working with each other, “I’ve known Scott since the beginning of my career as an editor. We worked together for almost five years. I haven’t been able to work with him since then, so it was fun to get together again,” tells Garnes.

Fischer Edit/FX acted as host to Campbell Mithun’s team including creative director, Nicole Ackmann, producer Lisa Thotland, copywriter Peggy Arnson and art director, John Conroy throughout the span of the project. As editing began, Garnes already had some stills created by the director that were much greener than even the footage taken. The spots were filmed in Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain with international talent. Inevitably the color was dialed back to the vibrant blue seen in the final version.

Hair at this level of detail wasn’t something Garnes had done before. “It was the first time where I had to overly pay attention to hair. I had to change my point of view of hair and recognize what would be an easy shot for them to clean up. These kinds of spots are challenging because you have to have it just right.”

For music, Campbell Mithun worked with Modern Music’s Daron Walker, the team was looking for a “sort of stripped down beat heavy track that was more atmospheric than safe.” Walker created a track that meshed well with the mood and visuals on screen.

Playing host to Motion 504 and Campbell Mithun throughout this process was a great opportunity for Fischer Edit/FX. About the team at Motion 504, Garnes notes, “it’s always good and fun to have that group all together again.”

Inspired by the memorable openings of “The Simpsons”, Burger King Kids’ latest campaign proved to need comic timing from Fischer Edit’s Brian Slater and visual effects finesse from Fischer Edit/FX’s Jake Parker. As Visual Effects Supervisor for “The Roof/Simpsons” Parker attended the Hollywood shoot to oversee production and provide some leeway for the enhancements that would need to be made in post. In the spot as a brother and sister eat their Burger King Kids meal while playing with their new toys, their Dad, Grandpa, Mom and family dachshund drop through the ceiling onto the couch.

On set, the adults were outfitted with climbing harnesses and safety wires to protect them. Initially Parker thought it would be mass chaos as all three tried to land at once, but the crew managed to perfectly choreograph each descent, doing all three in one take. To get things just right however, the cast ended up spending half the day just improving the fall. “It was pretty hard on them…especially Grandpa,” Parker says of watching the actors work.

The dog-falling gag required its own special technique. Rigging the small dog was prohibitive since the rigging gear would end up obscuring too much of the dog. Of course, dropping him from the ceiling would be legally (and morally) prohibited as well.  The solution was to drop the dog a very short distance (about 6-8 inches) on a very soft foam pad. Both the dog owner and the ASPCA were comfortable with that approach. The problem, Parker noted was that upon landing, the dog’s feet sunk into the foam and essentially disappeared. He was able to get the dog’s trainer to drop the dog from one inch above a hard surface in order to get the shot of the dog’s feet without any warping of the surface.

Once in post, Parker repeated the three inch fall shot from the ceiling to just above the table, then he combined the footage from the three inch and one inch falls to get the dog’s landing. Because there was a combination of the dog’s feet sinking and standing, Parker first tried to “glue” feet from other takes onto the dog, but using composited pieces of debris where his feet disappear ended up working better and made it into the final edit.

Rig removal, additional debris and particle dust was also needed on the actor’s shots. On set a small amount of debris was dropped with every fall but it didn’t carry the kind of effect needed. Parker used some raw element footage of debris and dust falling with debris rotoscoped (read: cut out) from other takes to drop into the scene. These extra pieces plunked down on the actor’s heads, all accurately missing the kid’s meals, made it into the final edit. Formerly of Fischer FX, Tony Mills lent Parker a hand with rig removal, cleaning up all the green wires and rotoscoping out their harnesses. The plaid flannel in the dad’s shirt was particularly challenging as the rigging wire lay across his shirt pulling and rippling the pattern. To fix this, Mills applied a matte and made a composite of the cloth eliminating the wire and easing the wrinkling in that area.

In the end, the grandpa stole the show with some improvisation about it raining. Parker added rain and synced up the lightning flashes to make it appear real. This ad for the Burger King Kids campaign from Campbell Mithun required a lot of work from Fischer Edit/FX but in the end conveys the humor and believability that existed in its initial conception.

Take a look at “Simpsons/The Roof” here or to view other Burger King Kids spots, click here:

Burger King Kids “Simpson’s/Wii” from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

Burger King Kids “Wii/Bees” from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.

Students from Minneapolis’ Miami Ad School took a break from classes last month to drop by Fischer Edit/FX’s studios and learn about our work and how post-production fits together with the agency world. The group comprised of both first and second year students toured the space and met our editors, producers and visual effects artists. They asked some great questions and we’d love to seem them again soon.

Since it’s better to hear it from them anyway, take a look at the Miami Ad School blog where they have photos and commentary from their afternoon with us.

Industry stalwart Dan Winter passed away suddenly this past September, leaving behind a wife and nine-year-old daughter, not to mention scores of stunned friends and family members. To honor his memory and benefit his family, Crash & Sue’s Stephanie Szeremeta and Donna Drewick organized a musical benefit and silent auction Nov 20th at the Fine Line Music Cafe. This event brought out some of the area’s musical and production pioneers, all gathered to remember this man, who, as i recall, was always armed with two things: a great big grin and a great big handshake.

Power-poppers Stingray Green started the music out, playing to a nicely-filled room. Splice Here audio guru Kent Militzer was particularly tone-o-riffic, while Kruskopf-Coontz Creative Director Robb Burnham dished up the boom and whap from behind the kit. Echo Boys Randy Anderson and Tom Lecher followed with the Pearl Brothers,cranking out a great list of classics, plus Lecher’s awesome hair. John Lydon eat your heart out!

The Phones, a long-time personal favorite, came up next. Back in Fargo/Moorhead, i used to bust ass to get done with my grocery store duties and run down the block to the Zodiac Lounge, hoping to catch their last set. Those were the 1980s, when one band would often play all night. Dan Winter was a fixture with The Phones, running sound and logging thousands of road miles with them during that decade. As always, a great set from them. I could almost feel the familiar itch of my 85% polyester Country Store Grocery uniform. Scratchy!

If you’ve never heard of The Hopefuls, that’s a bummer. They closed out the night with a typically stellar performance. Recent Modern Music additions Johnny Hermanson and Eric Fawcett make up half of this powerhouse, and it was a real pleasure to share the stage with them and all the other great musicians that night.

Upon last tally, more than $2000 was raised to help wife Laura and daughter Andrea, helping with expenses and starting an education fund. I urge you to visit danwinterfund.com in case you missed the event and would like to contribute. 

A heartfelt thanks to all of the participants and organizers, those who attended and contributed, the Fine Line for having us, and a huge raise of the glass to Big Dan Winter. We miss you.

jay holgate

fischer fx