Experimenting with film speeds and lighting and combining a miniature model with actual sets, Maxx Films director George D’Amato has created a fast-paced world inside a logo for an energetic new spot.

The :30 for Enbridge, a new entity under which energy companies have merged, brings the viewer zooming around the corners of a swirling logo and into the action taking place in the confines of a narrow, curved hallway constructed at Toronto’s ShowLine studio.

The idea behind the quick-cutting commercial – shot anywhere from two frames per second up to 60 fps – was to present a new way of looking at an energy company, with the number one priority being to familiarize the public with the Enbridge name and logo.

Inspired by Tim Burton’s Batman, which opens with the camera traveling through the famous bat-shaped logo, the Chiat Day creative team of creative director Duncan Bruce and writer Aubrey Singer took a similar spin by having the camera speed through the corridors of a model of the Enbridge logo, later marrying the footage married to shots from the actual set to make it seem as if all the action is taking place within the walls of the logo.

Shot by Doug Koch, day one of the three-day job was spent lensing the inside of the miniature logo. A Frazier lens captured the severe angles and optimized the depth of field while a Mega Mount allowed the camera, which was suspended on a crane arm one inch off the ground, to spin.

Once that material was in the can the mini was put aside and the real action began to unfold inside the elaborately decorated corridor. Footage shot in the mini was later cut and pasted between shots of the real set to create the final effect of passing through the different environments.

‘It was difficult trying to get everything to look proportionately correct,’ says D’Amato. ‘The challenge was to get the different worlds to fit in that unusually sized piece of architecture.’

Prior to entering the first environment, the camera passes through the blue flame of a gas burner, which was shot by driving a Bore Scope lens through the center of a gas burner built into a scale model of the logo.

When D’Amato called ‘action’ on day two, bright lights flashed as the grinders and welders went to work on the smoke-filled set. In this scene, the camera follows an energy worker along the pipeline corridor, past fellow workers to the end of the line where two men come together and pose for a portrait shot.

On day three, the corridor walls remained the same but the pipeline and dirt were replaced with a rain forest through which a little girl runs in slow motion from behind a tree. A cavalcade of shopping carts, representing choice, are shot in the corridor as well.

After the camera moves past the shining chrome carts it comes to a red wall, the edge of the E, and moves up to reveal the Enbridge swirl and logo.

Art director was Alan Fellows. Executive producer was Harve Sherman and Garner Kinmond was production house producer. Angela Carroll was agency producer. Alex Eaton edited at Stealing Time, with Michael Harding assisting.