There were no moral issues, only technical ones, when Toronto’s Spin Productions helped clone a dancing cheese enthusiast not one but three times for a recent spot for Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese produced by Arf & Company in Hoboken, New Jersey.

The spot, from FCB Chicago, posed the challenge of not just creating multiple ‘Fionas,’ but realistically capturing her interacting with her many selves and integrating the different incarnations of actress Holly Wortell in the scene, accounting for lighting nuances and reflections.

Spin was provided with 18 different plates to create the composite, with each shot executed via motion control. Wortell was shot by Arf for the background plate, and for subsequent replications producers used a front-screen projection, essentially a reflective green screen only seen from one angle to accommodate green-screen shooting within the tight confines of the set.

For shots in which Wortell hands herself plates, producers used a motion-control model mover, a computer-run robotic arm. Where the actress appears to be carrying a plate, she is actually walking alongside the model mover, which moved the plates in a repeatable motion.

An on-set computer also accounted for repeatability and interactivity with lighting, ensuring, for example, that light reflected off the set and off all the characters’ hair at the right time.

Spin creative director Steven Lewis says credit for believability is also due to Wortell getting eye lines right and convincingly acting with herself.

Gear: Live action was shot over four days using Arf’s proprietary motion-control systems which controlled the camera as well as props. Arf also provided on-set compositing capability for interim checks on the interaction of the character(s). Spin used Discreet Logic Inferno to composite layers and paint out rigging.

Artists: Arf director/cameraman was Alex Fernbach. Spin’s Steven Lewis and Gudrun Heinze composited and Norm Odell edited at Flashcut.

Agency senior vp, client creative director was Dave Moeller and art/creative director was Steve Brodwolf. Arf exec producer was Nancy Carly and effects supervisor was Ed Vivona.