Hasta La Motion!

Gravity Cat, the commercial for Playstation 4 game Gravity Rush 2 (known in Japan as Gravity Daze 2), has won a Grand Prix award at Spikes Asia. The commercial, commissioned by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was designed as a cat video demonstrating new laws of gravity outdoing Newton’s law of gravity. Although the game is animated, the Gravity Cat commercial is made as live action film in which two sisters and their cat run freely across the walls and ceiling of their unit, before being released to free fly through the sky. The commercial begins with a university student struggling with her thesis on laws of gravity. At the end she’s released to live outside of the box. The cat appears in the video in recognition of the sidekick cat character in the Playstation game. And, of course, cat videos are eminently shareable.

The production team explain that they tackled challenging visual expressions, including one-cut takes, POV filming, animal takes, and gravity changes. “We made it as realistic as possible to get viewers questioning/wondering how it was made, and to give it the wow factor.” See the making-of video below.

Gravity Rush, known in Japan as Gravity Daze [a], is an action-adventure video game developed by SCE Japan Studio and Project Siren, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Vita.[6] Directed by Keiichiro Toyama, the core mechanics of the game is the player’s ability to manipulate gravity, allowing unique movements and navigation.[7] The graphics are cel-shaded, which in Toyama’s opinion stand out from the western photorealistic trend.[8] A sequel titled Gravity Rush 2 was announced on Sony’s TGS 2015 press conference and was released in the United States on January 20, 2017 for the PlayStation 4.

Gravity Cat Credits

The Gravity Cat ad was develop at Hakuhodo Inc. Tokyo, by creative director Yuta Okuyama, creative team Yusuke Amagai, Yuki Yokoi, Keita Togawa, and Masumi Nishibori, account executives Kiyomi Wada and Maiko Hayashi.

Filming was shot by The Directors Guild director Show Yanagisawa and assistant director Masumi Nishibori, with Sturgeon cinematographer Ryoken Okamura, assistant cinematographer Shinji Kawai, lighting designer Atsutoshi Ueno, assistant lighting designer Kohsei Kobayashi, set designer Yukiko Kuribayashi, stylist Takeru Sakai, makeup artist Yuki Aika, Tohokushinsha Film Corporation producers Takashi Aso and Tatsuya Sunohara, production manager Takuya Omura, and assistant production manager Takuya Sugimoto.

Art production was by Shunsuke Okutani at Nouvelle Vague Co Ltd.

Editor was Etsuko Kimura at Active Cine Club with Hanako Tabata. Online editor was Kenichi Sasaki at Defense.

Visual effects were produced at Omnibus Japan Inc by CG director Tetsuaki Matsumoto, CG producer Hisamichi Kido and CG production manager Chu Ikebe.

Colorist was Toshiki Kamei at Cutters.

Sound was produced by sound designer Erito Ayaki and sound effects producer Yoshio Nakamura. Music, “Mewton” feat. Haru (DIALUCK), was composed by Yuma Yamaguchi, with and produced by Kazuyoshi Tonami at Yuge Inc.