We looked back at the last ten or so years and came up with our top 10 TV spots of all time from around the world..ones that involved vfx anyway. With some great spots shown during Super Bowl 2007, we ask… were any of this years spots worthy of being one of the best visual effects based spots we’ve seen in the last ten years?
Just when you feel creativity has died, nothing on air is cool anymore, and the ennui seemed to have settled on your soul – along comes the new Super Bowl ads, proving at least a bit of creativity is still alive in TVC. Well…just a bit.
In no particular order- here is our list. Where we were able to obtain the accurate dates or details, we have tried to include as much information as possible.
Before you email, we surveyed a group of senior visual effects artists and got input from fxphd post-grads to help form our list. Yes, it is subjective, but here it is. Rather than complain, email us ([email protected]) your input for our next top 10 list – which is top ten film clips or music videos. Or add your comments below and help us fill in some of the blanks.
There was really only one ad shown during the Superbowl that made our top ten.. see below. We should say that there were many spots that were brilliant advertising that would have made the list – if they had had visual effects.. Honda Cogs for example is brilliant and yet we did not feel it should be on a vfx list. Still others – were just funny, and again really not vfx used to help tell and sell a story – not breakthrough spots that Clients will say ” have you seen the X spot – well something like that… actually how did they do that ?”
Honorable mention spots that we wanted to include but did not for various reasons:
Lincoln Mercury Surprising Journey by the Mill
Guinness Surfer by Framestore/CFC
Orange Hold Up by Smoke and Mirrors
Carton Draft’s Big Ad by Animal Logic
Of course we’d love to have included Apple’s 1984 – but it was outside our rough decade….but adding an ipod does win it a super special mention!
1995 Pepsi: Sucked In
Director: Simon West
Consider the fact that this was created in 1995, it still ranks as one of the favorite Super Bowl commercials of all time, and the impact it had in bringing Flame to the forefront of commercial visual effects. The advertisement won a Cannes Golden Lion and Clio Awards.
1996 Nike: Good vs. Evil
Director: Tarsem
Visual Effects: The Mill
Editor: Robert Duffy, Spot Welder
Agency: Weiden & Kennedy/Spots
By today’s standards, this spot seems not as complex, but at the time it pulled out all the stops. The athletes were photographed on blue screen at different times and in different locations….so it involved a ton of compositing and relighting.
2000 Electronic Data Systems: “Herding Cats”
Visual Effects: Sight Effects
Agency: Fallon McElligott
While the commercial has aired only six times, EDS had a huge response, and ended up even briefly hosting a “cat herding†game called “The Good, The Bad, The Furry,†on their web site.
“Herding Cats†was created by Minneapolis-based Fallon McElligott with visual effects by Sight Effects (Venice, California). Bob Wendt, Agency Producer & Agency Visual Effects Supervisor for EDS Cat Herders, has his own web site, featuring the ads in QuickTime format.
2002 Levis: Crazy Legs
Director: Spike Jonze
Director of Photography: Lance Acord
Visual Effects: Ben Gibbs, Sea Level
2001 Mountain Dew Ram
Director: Kinka Usher
Visual Effects Lead Artist: Alex Frisch, Method Studios
This is a great spot: effective, compelling and it hurts. The effects are seamless, the art direction faultless and it just works. Its play on the nature documentary genre is well executed. Method studios left no sign or how they did it or where the effects started or stopped. Brilliant work from a great company in Santa Monica.
For a super high res version visit method studios
2003 PlayStation 2: Mountain
Director: Frank Budgen
Agency: TBWA, creative Trevor Beattie
Visual Effects: The Mill, London
This spot perfectly captured the zeitgeist, and the 20 something addiction to cool effects but effortless execution. Filmed with 500 extra and of stunt men, it was also the first TVC to use Massive Software. If the visuals were not cool enough, the audio was a sublime choice. It is such a great use of vfx used to tell a strong creative story.. please let us see more of these !
Download the :75 version of the spot.
2004 British Telecom: BT-ICT Networking
Director: Joseph Kahn
Visual Effects Telecine: The Syndicate
Visual Effects Supervisor: David Lombardi
The ad part of a 26 million pound campaign was visually spectacular and effortless. The 60 second spot was made by the Syndicate in Santa Monica.
Icom magazine has a great making of including a quicktime showing wireframe and final comps
2005 FedEx: Stick
Agency: BBDO/New York
Director: Tracktor
Visual Effects: Framestore CFC NY
The shoot took place over three days in mid-December in the California desert near Lone Pine. Butler and Hulin attended the shoot, braving ultra-low temperatures and 3.30am calls. With just four weeks to light, animate, render, and composite 11 CG shots, the team had their work cut out for them. The Framestore NY team was led by Senior Inferno Artist, Murray Butler, and Head of 3D, David Hulin. Framestore CFC came through, in one of the funnest spots of 2006
2006 Guinness : noitulovE
Director: Daniel Kleinman
Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London
Visual Effects: Framestore CFC
VFX Supervisor: William Bartle
This spot has a great story and even better visual effects to tell it. Winner of a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2006, we covered the spot in an fxguide story.
The Framestore CFC web site has a page devoted to the spot.
2006 Coca-Cola Happiness Factory
Visual Effects: Psyop NY
This spot by design and creative house Psyop’s spot directed by Kylie Matulick and Todd Muellerwas not new, but it is goregous. It really shows a new athesthetic between CGI and design and makes a relatively simple idea entertaining. Its the best of the best in Super Bowl 2007, which is why it is here….but has been out since Juuly of 2006, airing in theatres in the states.
Psyop has done amazing work since arriving on the scene. Their spots for Fox Nascar, EA sports, and car companies
such as Infiniti have all been graphical and breathtaking.