Here and on p. B6, Playback looks at the three top finishers in the category of editing. The spots gained favor for their overall look and the pace and flow of the images therein. We asked agency creatives to explain the concepts behind the spots and the directors and editors to discuss the process and challenges in arriving at the final cut.

*In This Report

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH TOP SPOTS WINNERS:

Direction/cinematography B3

Editing B4, B6

Art Direction B7

Animation B8

Sound B10, B11

Performance B12

THE YEAR IN SPOTS SURVEY:

Canadian commercial production houses B14

Canadian animation houses B20

* * *

Just as it often takes much time and effort in front of the mirror for some to achieve the ‘natural look,’ it required great finesse in preproduction and shooting and attention to detail in the edit to bring out the natural beauty in bbdo’s ‘Recycling.’

The spot, part of a campaign foursome for Alcan aluminum from bbdo Vancouver, revolves, in a real visual way, around the concept of a never-ending cycle and features some stunningly seamless transitions between different natural environments.

The spot was directed by Curtis Wehrfritz out of Jolly Roger in association with Vancouver’s Aviator Pictures and shot by u.s.-based dop Paul Goldsmith. The transitions were made seemingly flawless by Third Floor Editing’s Richard Unruh.

The creative strategy, says bbdo art director Dean Ponto, was based on conveying the idea that aluminum is infinitely recyclable and the challenge was visually representing that central principle.

Drawing inspiration from early geography classes, Ponto, together with copywriter Katie Barni, built a storyboard around the idea of a rain cycle and British Columbians contributing to aluminum recycling efforts.

Ponto set out four different natural environments and looked for elements which would provide smooth transitions between them; for instance, the wheel from a bike ride in a lush forest dissolving into a windmill on a flat prairie expanse.

Ponto created the different scenarios and worked with Wehrfritz on adding elements and transitions to the spot, which was shot last October throughout greater Vancouver.

When it came to editing, Ponto says the team went to Third Floor in anticipation of a monster job, but when the shoot was completed the material was so well planned and shot that Unruh was freed up to lend his skills to shining an already bruise-free apple.

‘The entire shoot was designed so that in editorial things would already work together at their transition points,’ says Unruh. Wehrfritz says the editor is typically involved in ‘the preproduction of post-production’ and is mindful of post considerations in the early stages of a project.

Unruh followed through on the shoot with post devices and techniques which further smoothed the transitions between scenes, for instance, speed control and creating transparent mattes, which meant things like fallen leaves from the final scene appear subtly in the previous scene of a kayaker on the water.

Unruh, working with Spin Productions’ Stephen Lewis, adjusted dissolve rates to make transitions invisible, a process which included changing the locations of mid-points and Lewis holding back areas of the frame through soft-edge mattes so the team could control the portion of one image showing through another during the transparency of a dissolve.

‘This was done to achieve something that doesn’t look any more complicated than a dissolve,’ says Unruh. ‘Nothing was meant to be apparent or flashy, it was meant to be organic. The desire was to make it appear simple and liquid so one image would melt into the next.’

Wehrfritz says the shoot didn’t leave room for much error and involved creating many elements for the camera. Things like the windmill and the water trough which appear in scenes had to be created and built to spec so they would work exactly into the scenes, and locations had to be found which allowed for the gear used. The shoot employed a Mega Mount, a specialized camera mount with three independent wheels which allows a larger range of camera moves and helped deliver Ponto’s concept of the camera floating through diverse environments.

Unruh says the transfer was also an important factor in the look of the spot and was handled by Bill Ferwerda at dave. The shoot used black-and-white film with a duo-tone look intended.

Ponto says the details provided at the edit stage added to an already well-executed project. ‘The transitions already cut together well, but he made them more like art,’ says Ponto.