Geomedia recently had the pleasure of being selected to work with San Antonio Credit Union (SACU) to design and create a :30 promotional spot featuring their Spurs Silver Card Platinum MasterCard.

The lively project titled “Assembly Line” takes place in a virtual factory and follows the conceptual process and stages of the manufacturing of a San Antonio Spurs theme credit card.

The entirely animated spot utilized our full arsenal of 3-D and visual FX talent and software and is showcased during television broadcasts as well as in-arena at the AT&T Center.

SACU outlined their requirements and an original concept was created by Dirk Mitchell to cleverly focus attention on the client’s hero card throughout the entire spot. The story starts as a futuristic robot begins to laser-cut a sheet of steel. Articulated robot arms and hands manipulate the “blanks” onto conveyor systems that allow further development of the card.

To intrigue the audience and peak curiosity, multiple stages of manufacturing are incorporated to incrementally evolve the card. Stamping, embossing and plasma-etching are invoked as the SACU/Spurs card continues to progress. The spot concludes with a massive army of completed cards and the summon for Spurs fans to “Join In”.

Designer/Art Director Martin Jaeger illustrated the initial storyboard, designed and custom modeled all of the robot parts, fixtures and assemblies utilized throughout the commercial as well as handled visual FX, compositing and finishing. Troy Davis served as Animation Director as well as lighting and choreography designer. Technical Director Jeremy Kenisky assisted with layout and animation. In addition to video editing, senior editor Jeff Chesnut provided in-house audio editing and sound design.

For years, whenever a Geomedia production called for a grip truck , we’d rent one from video equipment rental companies like Gear in Austin. Gear is an awesome company to work with, but as our live action business began to expand outside San Antonio into other Texas cities like Dallas and Houston, and smaller locations like Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Corpus Christi, it started to become clear that renting may no longer make the most sense.

Beyond the financial considerations, and perhaps even more important, owning the equipment (along with our Red One Digital Cinema Camera package) would provide us the freedom to be more nimble in helping a client ramp up a fairly elaborate video, tv or film production more quickly.

Not having to do two round trips to Austin for each rental wouldn’t hurt either. We were convinced.

So now that we’d decided that owning made more sense that renting, the choice came whether to buy a grip truck from someone or build our own.

We took kind of a hybrid approach.

First, Murray found a well cared for 2006 GMC W4500 at Enterprise Truck Sales. We then turned to ABC Truck for a new Dry Freight Van Body that would hold all our equipment.

At this stage we had what you might call a pretty basic cargo van with an Interlift Lift Gate.

Now…the interior.

Our Animation Director Troy (of Devo Hat fame) loves to build things in the real world as well as the virtual, so he took the lead from here and began by adding a custom 1/2 inch plywood layer to the interior.

To help secure our carts while we’re on the road, Troy custom cut 10′ horizontal E-Track pieces for the walls…

…and then we mounted some steel rails for hanging light stands from the rear swing-out doors.

As the interior continued to evolve, our DP Zach was busy putting together a plan for how to organize the truck (including finding a place for our Chapman Leonard Super Peewee III+ Dolly).

All that remained from here was a final quick trip to LA to acquire the remaining equipment needed to fill out the Geomedia Two Ton Grip Truck.

Nice work, Murray, Troy and Zach.

In addition to the website refresh, we’ve been busy in-house building the new Geomedia mobile site for iOS and Android mobile devices. During development, Geo artists mocked up an iPhone 4 model in 3D to visualize design iterations. Here are some 3D renders prior to final release.

Point your mobile browser to “m.geomedia.com” on your iPhone or Droid to view the site and stay tuned for an upcoming in-depth look at the design and development of our new mobile platform.

By Troy Davis, Animation Director, Geomedia

The lights go down…tip-off is near. You’re the home team and you want your fans pumped up.

Geomedia was recently approached by the San Antonio Spurs to help do just that by creating a series of in-arena presentations including the player introduction video for the Lighthouse Jumbovision display at the AT&T Center.

The project started with development of our in-house creative treatment. The intro needed to be entertaining, but with the opening of the NBA 2010-2011 regular season only weeks away we also had to consider the tight deadline and how to feature all the team’s players. As Geomedia perused various concept directions, ultimately we had to be realistic about the time available to shoot each player. For a typical promo shoot, access to players is usually extremely limited; here we were only allowed a maximum of 5 minutes with each player.

Our original concept involved a “futuristic warehouse” and the individual players moving toward a unified destination. As the storyline developed and the Spurs Game Entertainment team selected Bon Jovi’s “This Is Our House” as the soundtrack, the stage was set and the entire AT&T Center became the players’ environment. While setting the players among iconic locations throughout the arena we focused on each player’s signature move and ultimately the team’s unity.

We were able to take advantage of Spurs Media Day to shoot all the players at the team’s practice facility. Geomedia DP Zach Nasits prepared two entirely separate green-screen sets to enable quick capture of both wide and close-up scenarios. To capture player emotion, ominous and intriguing high-contrast lighting was utilized evoking power and strength.

Murray Breit directed the action utilizing a pre-determined checklist of poses created to efficiently gather the required moves for each individual team member.

A three camera setup with two Red Digital Cinema cameras and one Sony EX3 was used to capture over 60 minutes of HD motion.

Editor Jeff Chesnut cut the green-screen footage into a quick-paced montage that became the backbone of the developing player introduction piece. Post production continued as the project entered the 3-D animation and compositing stages.

Through a combination of dimensional scene geometry and photographic plates, custom sets were constructed for each of the 14 players. Rudy Martinez combined multiple-exposure digital photos into clean high-dynamic range imagery that, combined with SoftImage XSI set extensions provided a dimensional environment suitable for synthetic camera motion.

Extruded and reflective 3D text placed into the sets provided visual interest as well as player identification. Live-action image planes were incorporated into the scenes to allow players to reflect onto set pieces including the floor and text.

Once animated backgrounds were completed Jeremy Kenisky removed the green screen and composited the color corrected players into the scenes. In addition, dramatic optical effects and camera movement were added to complete the visual treatment of each shot.

Using After Effects, Joe Schaertl created a team shot at the end of the piece by joining 14 individual shots of players into a unified crowd match-moved into an animated rendition of the AT&T Center’s main lobby. Martin Jaeger utilized Cinema 4D to construct and animate the heroic Spurs logo.

In addition the the main video, Geomedia also supplied the content for the 360-degree LED ribbon and digital signage that surrounds the court.

Thank you San Antonio Spurs for choosing Geomedia to team up with you on this project.

National Payroll Week is the high profile annual event in the payroll industry and the Amercian Payroll Association is the organization responsible for making it happen. For 2008 they put together a national media buy including visibility on the Today Show and MSNBC to recognize and raise awareness of the occasion.

The APA turned to Geomedia to help them create the :30 TV spot that would drive this national ad campaign. The project turned out to be an interesting one for us and more importantly a successful one for the APA so we wanted to share some of the backstory with you here.

The concept for the commercial originated with the internal APA creative team and featured a husband and wife driving down a road where the road signs seem to predict inevitable misfortune. Everything seems to be going wrong before their eyes as they encounter bad weather, a rough road with endless hairpin turns, and no end in sight. But wait! A text message chimes in alerting them that their paycheck had been safely deposited and the world around them suddenly transforms to a place of beauty and color.

Nice idea APA. Like the way they use the images to tell the story.

Let’s get started.

Our first challenge was to find a place close to home that was wide open because just about every shot in our storyboard involved either the interior or exterior of an always in motion picture car.  

Our Picture Car

The location also had to be one that would down the road help us create the images of falling rocks, lightning strikes, and dangerous terrain that were vital to telling the story. More on that later.

To find a practical filming location, we began scouring the Hill Country West of I-35 from Austin to San Antonio. Though safety for our crew and talent is always a primary concern, we were once again quickly reminded during our location scouting of that infamous production axiom:

…that where ever man built roads, he also built power and telephone lines….

So after striking out on our first few candidates, we continued the search from just south of Austin to Wimberly, to San Marcos, to New Braunfels, before checking out Canyon Lake where we stumbled upon the perfect shooting location inside Canyon Park which is owned and managed by the US Army Corp of Engineers.

The park embraced a beautiful scene with awesome vantage point perspectives that would allow us to shoot from one hilltop to the next. Traffic control and lock-up would also give us the advantage of being able to shoot all day without too much interruption.

Finding the perfect location.

With our location approved, we filled out our own Geomedia RED ONE Camera Cinema Package by renting trusty old #11 from GEAR Rental in Austin, who also supplied specialty lenses, Grip and Lighting Package and Jib Arm. Keene Television and Film Services supplied the car rigging support for the car and lighting mounts.

With our toolbox now complete, we scheduled the shoot for one very ambitious day — filming from 8 car-mount positions, 2 crane set-ups, and several vantage-point shots captured with a Canon 400mm T4 telephoto lens. Assistant Director Tony Griffin and 2nd AD Donald Banks choreographed the ever-moving production convoy as Scott Hayes of the San Antonio Police Department lead the unit safely through the over 26 mile course.

(left) Our Crew getting "The Rig" ready (middle) "Hanging On"- Ron Meneses, Tony Griffin, and Jason Keene, (right) "Checking the Vantagepoint" – Zach Nasits- DP, with the APA Agency (Mark Coindreau-PR Manager, Erika Hurst-PR Coordinator, Ismael "Smiley" Garcia- Multimedia Manager, Bob Stover-Congress Production Manager

Jason Keene came on board as Key Grip and Gaffer Ron Meneses master-minded the rigging and lighting for the moving car shots. They were assisted by Roger Eickenroht and Eric Untersee. 1st AC Wes Turner managed the camera, and Donna Horner kept our people looking great with her talents in make-up.

Film Crew from (left to right) Wes Turner-1st AC, Tony Griffin-1st AD, (on ladder)Zach Nasits- Director/DP, Ron Meneses-Gaffer, Eric Untersee-Grip, (hidden) Jason Keene- Key Grip, Roger Eickenroht)

Creating practical effects on location or using tow rigs and process trailers with lighting effects and wind machines were outside the scope of this project.  And a poorman’s process trailer wouldn’t provide belief to the viewer without an even more elaborate greenscreen and photo-real compositing solution. Plus with over 90 straight days of 100+ degree weather and with no rain or clouds on the Doppler for months we were going to rely once again on the Geomedia 3D Animation/Visual Effect department to save our bacon.

Our first visual effects task was to create our overcast skies and lightning strikes.  We laid the groundwork for this stormy and “ominous look” with some in-camera setup on the Red One in conjunction with a Tiffen Cool Day for Night Filter. Sky replacement and lightning FX within the foreboding storm clouds were done in Adobe After Effects by Geomedia FX artist Martin Jaeger. Color grading to enhance the day for night effect were achieved in Apple Color.

Shot with Tiffen Cool Day for Night Filter with 3D Enhanced Skies

Next on the CGI agenda was building the fallen rock that blocks the road for our picture car. Tracking markers for the placement of the rock slide were set up on the road during principle photography. Boulders, rocks and debris were photographed and digitally composited into the final scene utilizing the tracking markers to match camera moves.

The Geomedia sound design team then scored the spot, created foley effects and tweaked the final mix down.

Here’s how the final spot turned out.

Thanks to the crew, cast and the great people at the APA for making this project such a pleasure to work on.