Sanagate, LOST IN CHAOS, TV Commercial, 2016
Directed & VFX supervised by Andy Alesik. Produced by Filmgerberei, Switzerland. Creative agency: Ogilvy. Post-Production & Visual Effects provided by Batelion.
Renowned film company ‘Filmgerberei’ based in Zurich, Switzerland, hired us for the VFX in Sanagate’s latest TV commercial. Sanagate is not only a very famous health insurer in Switzerland, but also member of the CSS Insurance Group.
When we received the treatment and script, we made a 3d previsualization to discuss and plan all shots in detail. Since the TV spot was so VFX heavy, creative agency Ogilvy entrusted VFX supervisor Andy Alesik with directing the TV spot.
Drawing the storyboard would have left my client with too many questions, and me with too many hours. I wanted something compelling, easy to implement, easy to change. So I took a plain standard figure from Daz3d. Exported it as an FBX and imported it into Maya. I didn’t need any IK, since I wanted to move quickly through all stages. Forward Kinematic is perfect and damn fast in Maya. Whenever I found a nice pose. I made a viewport screenshot.
The backgrounds used in the storyboard were based on photos taken by the location scout.
When my client (Filmgerberei) first saw the storyboard,
they offered me to direct the spot.
The Casting
During the casting, I wasn’t sure what these agency people were actually up to. A species of their own. Fortunately, they didn’t insist on their shortlist and listened to the director. The day before the shoot, my candidate confessed that he had only worked a few times as a model for still photography, but had never stood in front of a camera and had absolutely no acting experience at all.
Sanagate, Lost in Chaos was filmed within two days with a 40-person film crew – as planned and in budget. Within 10 days, the post-production took place partly in Switzerland, Greece and Germany.
