Brickyard VFX Touch Down on Super Bowl Spots

Bud Light Lime, Denny’s and Cash4Gold Tap VFX Facility for CG, Compositing and Color Grading

Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX contributed visual effects, including CG and compositing work, for three ads that aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII Game. Brickyard’s talented Santa Monica-based effects team worked on “Sphere of Summer” for Bud Light Lime directed by Smuggler’s Stylewar via DDB Chicago, “One Up” for Cash4Gold directed by Hungry Man’s Bryan Buckley via Euro RSCG Edge and Arnold Worldwide and “Thugs” for Denny’s directed by Biscuit Filmworks’ Perlorian Brothers via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

In the :30 “Sphere of Summer” for Bud Light Lime, a young guy toting a six-pack exits his apartment onto a blustery, snowy street. Everything in frame is cold and snowed over until he walks past, surrounded by a sphere of warm sunny summer hues. He approaches a man scraping snow off his car, which seamlessly turns into an opening convertible top. As he moves along, colorful flowers bloom from seemingly dormant planter boxes, a snow blower turns into a lawnmower and a snowman becomes a woman cooking at a bar-b-q. Finally, the fellow steps into a backyard party surrounded by the sunny sphere. He looks across the party at a girl bundled head to toe in winter garb, hands her a Bud Light Lime and she miraculously changes into a summery outfit as the voice over reveals, “Bud Light Lime, it’s a summer state of mind.”

Brickyard completed complex multi-layer composites to transition the winter and summer plates, and inserted swirling CG snow into almost every shot. “Our creative team worked around the clock to change the seasons around the calendar from winter to summer and back again,” explained Steve Michaels, Partner, Brickyard VFX.

Cash4Gold’s Super Bowl spot, “One Up,” features Ed McMahon and MC Hammer hawking Cash4Gold’s service of converting precious metals to cash. The spot opens on the Cash4Gold logo and a “Heeeere’s money!” from McMahon, who demonstrates how easy Cash4Gold’s “satisfaction-guaranteed” service is by placing a pair of unwanted gold cufflinks into the Cash4Gold bag. McMahon and Hammer each show increasingly ludicrous items that can be traded in for cash, such as a gold medallion of Hammer wearing a gold medallion, McMahon’s gold golf clubs, gold microphone and gold hip replacement, and Hammer’s gold sledge hammer and gold parachute pants. The spot closes with a shot of McMahon saying “Goodbye, old friend” to a gold toilet and the Cash4Gold.com URL. Brickyard VFX performed color correction and online editing for the spot, along with adding bling on the gold elements throughout.

Denny’s first-ever Super Bowl ad, “Thugs,” features voiceover narration from Burt Reynolds. The ad pokes fun at competitors’ frilly breakfasts while promoting the Denny’s Grand Slam. The :30 spot opens on a booth filled with three gangsters having a serious conversation about “taking care” of a man named Benny who may or may not be a snitch. The conversation is interrupted as a waitress using a noisy can of whipped cream draws a happy face on one thug’s silly dessert disguised as a pancake breakfast. The commercial closes on the Denny’s logo and the tagline “Isn’t it time for a serious breakfast?” as Denny’s offers a free Grand Slam breakfast to the entire country. Brickyard VFX completed finishing, beauty work and color correction for the spot.

About Brickyard VFX
Located in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard VFX is an independent visual effects boutique specializing in top quality visual effects from 3D characters through to compositing. Completely artist owned and operated, the company was founded in 1999 to bring clients a level of customer service, craftsmanship and focus difficult to find at facilities today. Brickyard’s creative expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, color correct and render seamless digital effects for Pontiac, Bud Light, T-Mobile, NBA and many other accounts. For more information, please call Brickyard VFX Pacific at (310) 453-5722, Brickyard VFX Atlantic at (617) 262-3220, or visit www.brickyardvfx.com.

CREDITS

Client: Bud Light Lime
Title: “Sphere of Summer”

VFX Facility: Brickyard VFX
Shoot Supervision: Mandy Sorenson, Robert Sethi, Sam Kao
Lead 2D Artist: Mandy Sorenson
Lead 3D Artist: Robert Sethi, Sam Kao
2D Artists: Patrick Poulatian, Gavin Miljkovich, Narbeh Mardirossian, Christel Hazard, Cathy Gochnour
3D Artists: Dan Guiterrez, David Blumenfeld, TV Tran, Carl Harders
VFX Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Visual Effects Producer: Amy Russo

Agency: DDB Chicago
Sr. VP Creative Director: Mark Gross
VP Creative Director: Chris Roe, Chuck Rachford
Assoc. CD, Art Director: Chris Carraway
Assoc. CD, Copywriter: Pat Burke
Agency Executive Producer: Will St. Clair
Agency Producer: Kate Hildebrant

Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Stylewar
Director of Photography: Crille Forsberg
Live Action Exec. Producer: Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody, Lisa Rich, Allison Kunzman
Live Action Producer: Tim Kerrison
Production Design/Art Direction: Steve Sumney

Editorial Company: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Carlos Lowenstein

Telecine Company: Filmworkers Club
Colorist: Michael Mazur

Audio Post: Another Country
Audio Mixer: John Binder

Music: High Decibels “That Dude”

Graphics/Animation: Lift

Client: Cash for Gold/Euro RSCG Edge
Title: “One Up”

Agency: Euro RSCG Edge

CEO: Steve Netzley
President: Greg Johnson
Managing Partner: Jack Kirby
SVP Direct Marketing: Marc Kravets
VP, Agency Services: Mary Thonrnby
Account Supervisor: Ashley Eveland
Account Executive: Hannah Whitney

Agency: Arnold Worldwide, Boston
Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat
EVP, Group Creative Director: Mary Webb
ACD, Writer: Sean McBride
ACD, Art Director: Josh Tetrault
Art Director: Jack Miller
EVP, Director of Integrated Production: Bill Goodell

Production Company: Hungry Man Bi-Coastal & International
Director: Bryan Buckley
Line Producer: Mino Jarjoura
Managing Partner/Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne
Executive Producer: Dan Duffy

Executive Producer: Cindy Becker
Director of Photography: Adam Beckman

Editorial: Cosmo Street Editorial
Editor: Tom Sherma
Producer: Amy Febinger
Producer: Jerry Sukys

Post Production: Brickyard VFX
Flame Artist: George Fitz
Producer: Diana Young

Audio: Lime Studios
Audio Engineer: Mark Meyuhas

Client: Denny’s
Title: “Thugs”

Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Executive Creative Director: Jeff Goodby
Creative Director: Jim Elliott
Associate Creative Director: Chris Toland
Art Director: Mike Coyne, Croix Gagnon & David Kolbusz
Agency Producer: Jon Drawbaugh & Rob Sondik
Copywriter: Brian Ahern, Will Elliott & David Kolbusz

Production Company: Furlined
Director: The Perlorian Brothers
Director of Photography: Robert Yeoman
Executive Producer: David Thorne
Producer: Jay Shapiro

Visual Effects: Brickyard VFX
Lead 2D Artist: Patrick Poulatian
Executive Producer: Diana Young

Editorial Company: HutchCo Technologies
Editor: Jim Hutchins

Telecine Company: Co3
Coloris: Stefan Sonnenfeld

Graphic: Brand New School

Sound Design: Eddy Kim & Andrew Tracy/740 Sound Design
Audio Mixer: Rohan Young/Lime Studios
Music: Human Worldwide Music

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