Ntropic Shoot Lincoln MKZ
Right on the heels of their successful work together for the 2013 Ford Escape launch, the team at Ntropic collaborated closely with agency creatives at Team Detroit on a seamless series of web films that highlight the new features of the 2013 Lincoln MKZ luxury sedan. Shooting internationally on-location in Spain's spectacular City of Arts and Sciences, the Ntropic team was led by Creative Director/Director Andrew Sinagra. Working with a local Valencia crew, Sinagra steered the project, which included the creation of three, CG-heavy spots for use on the Lincoln MKZ web site, as well as for other cross-platform purposes. The campaign is a visually lyrical journey through the world-class feature and design elements of the 2013 Lincoln MKZ.
For Sinagra, this collaboration with Lincoln and Team Detroit gave him and the Ntropic team the opportunity to fine-tune a system that they introduced to the Ford Escape production last summer. As with the Ford project, the Lincoln MKZ vehicle was not available, so they shot live-action plates with a stand-in vehicle to showcase the dynamics of a real vehicle, relying heavily on pre-vis to plan out the production in advance. The production team had free reign to shoot for three days in the City of Arts and Sciences, which Sinagra says was the perfect environment to film seamless drive sequences for the new Lincoln model, and capture the footage required for three spots in which a 100% photo-real car was created and animated in postproduction. We found a few locations in the States that would have worked, he notes, but then we thought: why limit ourselves? Thats when we looked internationally and found this incredible location, designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela. It was perfectly in line with our very stylized look and feel for the whole piece. We were extremely pleased with the end results, as were the clients.
Ntropic also utilized an innovative technology that they developed for the Ford project, shooting with the Alexa Plus ARRI camera. Among other things, the technique entailed pulling metadata from the lens and embedding information (such as focal length, F-stop, etc.) into the footage. The result; stylishly engineered vignettes that integrate photo-real VFX and weave beautifully through day and night lighting, as well as time-lapse sequences, with an exhilarating focus on the powerful features of the 2013 Lincoln MKZ. Ntropic continues to work closely with the ARRI engineers to develop the technology further, and implement it fully into the companys production and post process.
With this project for Lincoln, Ntropic proves once again its ability at a very high level of technical quality, yet have an artful point of view and a collaborative instinct. According to Team Detroit Art Director David Cilibraise, the reason he returns to Ntropic is about the high-quality that the company provides, and also the collaboration. I continue to work with Ntropic because with Andrew, Nate and Jim; they give you their vision for your project, and they help move it forward and add to it, he explains. For this Lincoln campaign, we designed it to be used for multiple purposes, they were able to create full CG vehicles that look absolutely real because of the nuances of the car and the physics. They are really pioneering this area, and they go ten steps further to make sure the car looks right in all the right places. Ntropic is just a great group of people to work with.
Credits:
Client: Lincoln Mercury
Ad Agency: Team Detroit
VP/Creative Director: Ken Tadeo
Art Director: David Cilibraise
Art Producer: Julie Sparrow
Production/VFX/Postproduction Company: Ntropic
Creative Director/Director: Andrew Sinagra
Executive Producer: Jim Riche
Live-Action Producers: Mark Reusch, Lindsay Fields
VFX/CG Producer: Fawn Fletcher
Inferno Artist: MB Emigh
Lead VFX Artist: Mark Wurts
VFX Artists: Dustin Zachary, James McCarthy, Jeremy Lei Ontiveros, Val Sinlao, Johnny Diaz
Editor: Mike Hackett
Colorist: Marshall Plante
