The MPC VFX crew conjure an array of evil and existential threats to BMW’s new luxury X7 SAV in this 75-second blockbuster directed by MJZ’s Dante Ariola and inspired by kid’s adventure stories.

MPC creative director Michael Gregory: “For this type of large-scale fantastical film, the visual effects were vital in bringing the weird and wonderful characters such as Roy the Destroyer, Poseidon and the fiendish lawyer to life.

“We had a lot of artistic license to go big and didn’t need to stick to any rules which made it a lot of fun. Early on, when Dick Tracy, Burton and Gilliam references were discussed, we knew it was going to be special.”

“The 18-foot giant Roy was particularly challenging to shoot but using Leica Scanning on the tech scout meant we could pre-vis the shots and mark out the camera position and angles based on the real location. This technique proved invaluable to make sure his green screen plate was correct.”

Watch the making-of:

 

 
Client: BMW

Vice President of Marketing BMW of North America: Trudy Hardy
Head of Brand Strategy and Communication BMW of North America: Wolfgang Gross
National Marketing Manager: Lisa Judge
National Marketing Campaign & Production Manager: Neil Moreno

Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Co-Chairmen: Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein
Executive Creative Director: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Roger Baran
Art Director: Stefan Copiz
Copywriter: Andrew Bancroft
Director of Production: Tod Puckett
Executive Producer: Benton Roman

Production: MJZ
President: David Zander
Senior Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins
Director: Dante Ariola
Producer: Natalie Hill
Director of Photography: Kasper Tuxen
Production Designer: Nigel Phelps
AD: John Lowe

VFX/Post: MPC
Creative Director: Michael Gregory
Shoot Supervisors: Michael gregory, Dan Seddon
CG Supervisors: Ryan McDougal, Tim Kafka, Josh Hatton, Nishanth Shrinivasa, Boyo Frederix
Lead Compositor: Toya Drechsler
Compositors: Rodrigo Jimenez, Guillaume Weiss, Alexander Kulikov, Dylan Brown, Concept Art/DMP: Jason Heinze, Abhilash A, Bala Krishnan R, Geetesh Tari
Mohan Rao, Srinivas Achary, Silvia Bartoli, Sachin Sureshrao Dhapudkar
PreVis: Alex Moon
CG Animation: Srikar Balakrishnan, D. Venkatesan, Carl Edlund, Sashdy Arvelo
CG FX: Bhargavan SP, Prashanth Paramasivam, Andreu Lucio, Arnau Gilabert, Jinguang Huang, Andy Sheng, Nema Safvati
CG Lighting: Martino Madeddu, Sumit Kumar, Asher Stusek
Executive Producer: Karen Anderson
Senior VFX Producer: Christian Downes
VFX Coordinator: Justin Rogers-CdeBaca
Producer: Mireille Antoine
Line producer: Chris Preston-Barnes
Colorist: Mark Gethin
Executive Producer, Color: Meghan Lang
Color Producer: Rebecca Boorsma

Editorial: Work Editorial
Editor: Rich Orrick
Assistant Editor: Theo Mercado
Senior Producer: Jamie Lynn Perritt / Brandee Probasco
Executive Producer: Marlo Baird

Music: Woodwork Music
Composer: Philip Kay
Producers: Andy Oskwarek & Sam Phillips

Sound Design: Trinitite Inc.
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich

Mix: Lime
Mixer: Rohan Young
Assistant Mixer: Jeremy Nichols
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan