Inspired by the vision of Solid Waste Management Department’s staff,  the resulting commercial is a straight-forward concept to get the recycling message out to San Antonio’s new recycling participants.

On first glance the spot looks simple enough.  But actually there are quite a few of visual effects, compositing elements and rotoscoping techniques used throughout the commercial.   We think the best effects are the one that aren’t noticed.

After a few pre-pro meetings with the band, it was clear to everyone that Andrea would be the focal point of the visuals.  Her compelling stage presence is matched only by her amazing vocals.  We decided early on to feature Andrea’s performance in as many different settings as possible.   We faced the challenge of only having a single location to shoot, San Antonio’s Scottish Rite Temple.

After scouting the location director Murray Breit and Director of Photography Zach Nasits identified 6 unique locations inside the Temple that would provide the diversity desired.  Hair and Makeup Artist Donna Horner and Wardrobe Stylist Krista Ynostrosa designed a different hair, make up and wardrobe “look” specifically matched to each setup.  Add in a smoke machine, some oversized light bulbs, a baby grand piano, some kind of crazy cardboard covered bicycle wheel and at the end you have a music video with a nice variety looks.

Getting our gear into the Scottish Rite was no easy task.  The loading dock door is 8 feet off the ground. Why? Maybe check the ‘The Lost Symbol’ for the answer because we don’t know. Thanks to the crew, we loaded in without incident. Then it was on to the following locations.

The Parlor

The Window

Stage (Band Performance 1 Alone)

Among the Bulbs

Stage (Band Performance 2 Crowd)

Creative lighting techniques were handled smartly by our Gaffer, Ron Meneses.  The smooth tracking shots of the Chapman Pee Wee III+ Dolly were expertly provided by Greg Lomas.   Assistant Director, Jacob Esquivel kept the whole ‘circus’ moving and on schedule throughout the night. It’s also important to mention the tireless efforts of Matt Rasmussen, Rudy Martinez, Jeff Chesnut and Jeremy Kenisky and their work in a variety of roles. We had equipment help from Holtz Entertainment and the cool wardrobe selection was supplied by The Vintage House.  A delicious dinner break was provided by Asia Kitchen.
From setup to setup Andrea never lost her energy or enthusiasm.  Her emotional performance is authentic and can be experienced in every scene. Andrea’s determination to give her best performance each and every take had a positive residual effect on the rest of the crew.

A few days later we shot a few scenes with Andrea driving around the city at night to add to the overall mood of “Midnight Eyes”.

As with every shoot, we faced some problems and unforeseen challenges.  But everyone pulled together and came up with some quick solutions. When we wrapped we felt confident that we had captured some great images.  We all had a blast.
Next was editorial and color grading, here’s the end result…

In case you’re new to the band, Rose of Jericho has released 3 CDs to date.  Their music can also be found throughout the critically acclaimed video game Rockband for the Playstation and  Xbox consoles.  In fact, Rose of Jericho is Rockband Network’s featured ‘Artist of the Month‘ for September.  Their music is available at iTunes, Amazon and their website.

This years’ production featured live action with testimonials and personal accounts from the hospital’s patient, doctors, and staff. Through extensive research and hard work, agency Executive Creative Producer Joseph Guerra and senior Creative Director JC Cody felt all the stories were unified in that each of the patients’ testimonies were stories of survival, real-life examples of “Living Proof”.


The project presented challenging logistics from a production standpoint, but our talented team conquered each situation along the way. With only 8 days to prep the project we were able to successfully complete a three-day shoot on a schedule that more realistically should have required four or five days.

Our filming location was an ever busy city hospital so plans were often redirected as the next scene might included a doctor that would be unexpectedly unavailable “saving someone’s life” or our location needed to move since a surgery took longer than anticipated. Needless to say, our set wasn’t always a controlled environment and our AD team worked the schedule constantly to ensure that our shoot was successful.

We completed over 37 live action scenes with uncompromised blocking and lighting setups. ER’s, OR’s, research labs, MRI Labs, heli-pads, hospital exteriors, common areas, hallways, waiting rooms, limbo interview sets, designed home interior sets… You name it we shot it all at the University Hospital.

In addition to production, and integral to the success of the campaign, we also handled HD post production in-house. Creative editorial, color grading and subtle visual FX heighten the emotion of the poignant narratives, which culminate with “living proof” of each story’s happy conclusion.

So this one goes out to the entire production crew, AD, agency CD’s AE’s, etc. post production artists and the marketing team at University Hospital, who all made it possible.

Hope you like these commercials. Watch the the rest of them here.

Teaming up with Creative Director and Principal, Stephen Rybak of mdr, Geomedia produced a 30 second photography-in-motion spot that captures the atmosphere and excitement of a day at the ballpark.

Drawing inspiration from a storyboard concept and subsequent animatic designed by Geo’s Art Director, Martin Jaeger, we traveled to beautiful Corpus Christi and Whataburger Field where Director of Photography, Zach Nasits, and crew captured still sequence scenes of players, fans and stadium details to be incorporated in the final spot.

Geomedia Motion Graphics Designer and Editor, Joe Schartel, blended together  2D and 3D animation elements, composting techniques and organic transitions to take the viewer on a fast-paced journey of the sights and sounds of a Hooks game.

It was the agency’s vision to highlight the many areas of interest found in and around Whataburger Field.  The spot is filled with an abundance of iconic ballpark imagery, like Hook’s mascot Sammy Seagull, the swimming pool just beyond the right field fence, the majestic Harbor Bridge and many other unique amenities that make a Hooks game a fun family destination.

Related link: Corpus Christ Hooks Facebook Page

Client: American State Bank
Agency: Creative Civilization
Project: “ASB Goodcents” Broadcast :30
Director: Murray Breit
DP: Zach Nasits
Editor: Jeff Chesnut
Visual Effects: Martin Jaeger

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.

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.

As the 2010 holiday season fast approaches, it’s the time of year when we’re starting to not only schedule projects for 2011 but also invest some energy in reviewing the year gone by. It’s sort of annual tradition around here as it gives us a chance to celebrate what’s working and see if we can identify new strategies to help Geomedia continue to grow as a full service San Antonio production company.

While going through this process, one of the bright spots of 2010 that really stood out for us occurred back in February during the American Advertising Federation San Antonio Addy Awards. Geomedia has been a participant at these awards for many years (not sure we’ll ever live down our custom built Devo hats ) and it’s always a thrill when we can help one of our advertising agency clients earn some recognition from their peers in the industry for a project we know firsthand how hard they worked on. Some of those winners this year included Creative Civilization, The Atkins Group, Texas Creative and Synthetic Pictures.

Congrats!

Perhaps the highlight of the night for us though was the 2 Gold and 1 Silver Addy Awards the campaign for Goodwill of San Antonio earned. Not only because the organization is filled with wonderful people concentrated on helping others (and San Antonio Corporate Strategy & Advertising firm Bradford Lawton was great to work with), but these awards marked the first time Geomedia was recognized for our Cinematography.

These kudos felt especially warm and fuzzy in that they’re in large part the result of a multi-year concerted effort to build out our Geomedia live action production department. Some key milestones on this journey included Zach Nasits joining the Geomedia team as our DP in 2007, our acquisition of a Red One Digital Cinema Camera in 2008 and putting our Geomedia grip truck on the road in 2009.

Being able to integrate all these resources into our workflow has been key, and now seeing the culmination of those efforts start to bear fruit and hearing how happy our clients are to be able to get high quality 3D Animation, Visual Effects and now Live Action all under one roof in San Antonio is what Creative Atmosphere is all about.

related links:

San Antonio Business Journal article on 2010 American Advertising Federation San Antonio Addy Awards.
American Advertising Federation-San Antonio on Twitter
American Advertising Federation-San Antonio Facebook Page
Goodwill of San Antonio on Twitter

Client: San Antonio Express-News
Agency: Creative Civilization
Project: “More Sunday” Broadcast :30
Director: Murray Breit
DP: Zach Nasits
Editor/Visual Effects: Joe Schaertl

Client: Dell
Agency / Production Company: Synthetic Pictures
Project: “Damn Monkey”
Director: Justin Corsbie / Synthetic Pictures
3D Animation: Troy Davis
Visual Effects: Martin Jaeger