Agency
Agency: The Martin Agency
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
Creative Director: Neel Williams
Associate Creative Director: Justin Harris
Executive Producer: Brett Alexander
Senior Producer: Heather Tanton Collier
Junior Broadcast Producer: Mary Alice Williams
Account Director: Ben Creasey
Account Supervisor: Allison Hensley
Account Executives: Jon Glomb, Allie Waller
Business Affairs Supervisor: Suzanne Wieringo
Senior Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz
Project Manager: Andrea Justis
Production Company
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Randy Krallman
Co-Founder: Patrick Milling Smith
Co-Founder: Brian Carmody
Executive Producer: Shannon Jones
Chief Operating Officer: Andrew Colon
Line Producer: Ian Blain
Production Manager: Jay Wintringer
Director of Photography: Bryan Newman
Editing
Editing Company: Cut+Run NYC
Editor: Rob Ryang
Edit Assist: Beau Dickson
Producer: Ellese Jobin
VFX Production
VFX Production: The Mill
Executive Producer: Anastasia von Rahl
Producer: Alex Bader
Production Coordinator: Jake Fritz, Mary Mondrus
Shoot Supervisor: Phil Crowe, Felix Urquiza
VFX Creative
VFX Creative: The Mill
Executive Creative Director: Phil Crowe
2D Lead Artist: Gareth Parr
3D Lead Artist: Matt Bohnert
2D Artists: Daniel Thuresson, Peter Sidoriak, Adam Lambert, Kelsey Napier
3D Artists: Annie Zhao, Victor Duncan, Ziye Liu, Chris Goodrich, Cory Cosper, Tamara Paterson, Nole Murphy, Juan Zavala, Bridget Warrington, Eugene Guaran, Andreas Graichen, Monique Espinoza, Felix Urquiza
Matte Painting: Gillian George, Rasha Shalaby
Tracking Artists: Michael Lori, Freddy Parra, Chase Webb, Danny Garcia, Alice Panek
Concept Artist: Eugene Gauran
Design Artists: Justin Sucara, Greg Park
Colour
Colour: The Mill
Colourist: Adam Scott
Executive Producer, Colour: Thatcher Peterson
Senior Colour Producer: Liza Kerlin
Colour Producer: Diane Valera
Description:
Behind the Project: Geico ‘Star Captain: The Lost Keys'
What’s the secret to winning in outer space? As Geico’s latest spot ‘Star Captain: The Lost Keys' demonstrates, remembering where you put your keys is a good start.
Continuing Geico’s Count On campaign, The Mill had the pleasure of partnering once again with The Martin Agency and Director Randy Krallman of Smuggler to deliver the intergalactic ad, which humorously depicts a familiar predicament set against an unfamiliar backdrop.
Shot entirely on bluescreen, ‘Star Captain: The Lost Keys' called for collaboration and ingenuity across The Mill’s teams to transform the setting into a sophisticated, high-tech spaceship about to enter battle.
3D Lead Artist Matt Bonhert comments, “This was an exciting project for us. Our team was involved early on in the production process, which was wonderful, and we were given creative freedom to design and build the sci-fi environment."
Matte Painting & Environments Supervisor Gillian George worked on set to capture extensive reference photography whilst working closely with Randy and Bryan Newman, Director of Photography, to visualize what could be accomplished with set extensions. To construct the vast hanger, detailed matte paintings were projected onto 3D models to enhance their texture, lighting, and scale. Gillian’s work significantly helped the 2D team as it gave them the flexibility to move and adjust elements within the environment on a moment’s notice.
To illustrate the epic space battle ensuing outside of the ship, 3D artists utilized matte painted planet backdrops, dozens of 3D ships and script-driven laser animations. Elements such as explosions and energy shields were then composited into the scene to add to the frenetic tone of the narrative.
2D Artist Peter Sidoriak says, “We constructed a procedural shield reaction system which enabled the shield effect to be linked directly to the laser blasts. This feature also created many different effects depending on the various lasers that hit the shield.”
To further enhance the detail in the vast hanger, Design Artist Greg Park crafted the UI screens, which Lead 2D Artist Gareth Parr then animated. 2D Artist Daniel Thuresson strategically tracked and placed them seamlessly into the background. Daniel comments, “The production team had shot some screens on set so it was crucial that we mimic the color and overall look of our screens to match those.”
Gareth adds, “We were grateful for the trust The Martin Agency placed in us, as well the creative freedom they granted our teams. Crafting the piece was a huge collaborative effort amongst everyone involved and we couldn’t have enjoyed the process more.”