“SPLASH-DOWN”
This spot was shot exclusively with the KENWORTHY SNORKEL SYSTEM. Today, I would choose the Cine-Magic REVOLUTION system...although the KENWORTHY was quite a bit faster [T-Stop wise], and I would also use the ZERO-GRAVITY ARM.
The spot is set during an extreme urban heat wave, where a very enterprising fellow has rigged a mechanism to "shoot" BUD bottles out of the refrigerator, down a long metal pipe, and land into his hand as he [and his girl] chill out in an old army surplus raft.
The set was built in an actual loft in Chicago. There was no air conditioning in this space and in the middle of summer, it was VERY hot! The bottle rig actually worked, Geoff Binns-Calvey, our FX man, designed and built this incredible rig. The "ice" and other frosting material were artificial, as the real refrigerator was dismantled and the back cut up to allow 1.2K Pars to blast through. Silica Desiccants was mixed with water to create the artificial ice on the bottles. The FX crew piped in CO2 to simulate condensation fog [through holes in the appliance].
Our lighting approach was "hyper-reality", a term I use to define the approach of mixing realistic lighting/sources with the added "gorgeous" embellishments. We created an environment of moving lights [headlights, trains, etc...] which in turn embellished and complimented the action and camera movement.
Jeff Kauck, a wonderful and extremely visual director, over saw the execution of this spot. For once, the director and I had the rare opportunity to sit down and plan the visual look, colors, contrast and motion of the lighting and camera work
| Director: | Jeff Kauck/Kauck Productions |
| Gaffer: | Marty Rhomberg |
| 1st AC: | Mark Woods |
| Colorist: | Kevin Marck |