Toronto-based Flashcut editor Chris Parkins was able to really show his chops on the spot ‘Umbrella’ (Top Spot #3) for Ford of Canada. Directed by Jean-Marc Piche of Montreal’s Cinelande, the 60-second ad (later cut down to two :30s) displays some impressive cutting and morphing, which Parkins credits largely to inferno artist Mike Morey (then with Manta DSP, now with Stealing Time Editing).

The spot is highlighted by an opening tracking shot of a Ford vehicle speeding down a country road, turning into various different models through the magic of Parkins’ editing. At the onset, Parkins says it seemed like a difficult project to achieve, but a scaling back of transition shots from the original storyboard made the post requirements more manageable. It remained a challenging ad from a post perspective, however.

‘[Piche] shot all of the different cars on the road,’ says Parkins. ‘It wasn’t a locked-off shot. The camera was moving, because he wanted to make it feel quite real. Some spots, when they are done very technically, are so slick that you notice how crisp they are. We wanted to make this a little rough around the edges in terms of making it feel like a real scene.’

Naturally, over the course of the shoot, the sky would change and the sun would move, so instead of Piche working triple time, he, Parkins and Morey worked out a way to keep the shot consistent in post.

‘What we had to do was line up the road, cut the cars out, and create one background,’ says Parkins. ‘So we rotoscoped the cars, put them against the background, replaced the sky, and made it seamless. Also, there were fence posts they had shot, but we took a static one and moved it across ourselves.’

Morey brought the fence back into the shot in the foreground, relegating the cars to the background. One post served as a way to wipe off one vehicle as it speeds past it and bring in a new one coming away from it. Although viewers will barely see the post, thanks to the distraction of the moving cars, Parkins used it to build the rhythm of the spot.

‘I cut on the Avid, which was great because it has a pretty good special effects package,’ he says. ‘I was able to roughly cut out the fence posts and it gave me the timings.’

Wipe and transition effects are scattered throughout the rest of the spot. One segment Parkins is particularly proud of is a shot where a man and woman are approaching a Ford, and seen in the driver’s side window is the reflection of another car, which morphs into a new scene with the new car.

Creative for the ad was generated by art director Francois Vaillancourt and writer Alexandre Gadoua of Young & Rubicam, Toronto and Montreal. Parkins says he was pleased with their sensitivity to the plight of the editor, especially one cutting such a complicated ad.

‘The agency was very generous. They gave me a decent amount of time, which was nice,’ says Parkins. ‘They realized it isn’t something you can put together in a day or two. They gave me about a week, and then we spent about a week in the inferno [effects system suite] with Mike Morey.’

-www.flashcut.com