mCommerce
Financial services explainer video
CGI advertisement
We were approached to help promote a new B2B business mobile app. As well as live action, our client wanted CGI to help explain the concept of the app.
An engaging concept
The film would show a typical banking customer in their home using the app, demonstrating its features and benefits in a real life situation. We would then need to combine footage of the phone with a high-end 3D animation of a fashion boutique coming out of the screen. We refined these ideas by developing the script into a highly detailed storyboard.
Pre-visualisation
The complex relationship between the live-action footage and the CGI elements meant that it was critical we locked down all the camera angles and movements before production began and so we created a pre-visualisation to help us with this. Pre-vis allowed us to tweak any aspects of the cinematography, such as lighting design and equipment choices, before any work began and gave us a great feel for how the final video would look. When it came to shooting the video we were able to use the pre-vis as a strict guide, which made the shoot day run very smoothly.
Dummy modelmaking
A large portion of the project would be done digitally in post production, and it was important to consider this on the day of the shoot. To help us visualise where our CGI elements would be, we created a cardboard version of the shop to act as a placeholder. This really helped us to perfectly frame and set the focus of the shots as if our digital shop was already there.
4K footage
We shot all of the live action footage at 4K with extremely high frame rate cameras. This meant that we had extra flexibility to fine tune our compositions and timings. It also allowed us to perfect each shot in the edit whilst maintaining stunning HD quality.
Matching the lighting
With the help of some reference pictures that we took on the day, we were able to precisely replicate the real world lighting whilst developing the CGI lights.
Onwards and upwards
This project was technically challenging and so was a great time for us to test some of our own R&D during production. Our company culture is all about learning new skills and tools, and it was great to finally use some of the technologies we have been nurturing behind-the-scenes.
