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.