Media: Experiential
Category: Automotive
Client: Mercedes-Benz
Agency: Merkley Partners
Link: https://www.fxguide.com/featur...
Country: United States of America
Senior Campaign Specialist: Gloria Libby
Agency: Merkley + Partners
CCD/Partner: Andrew Hirsch
Head Of Production: Gary Grossman
Producer: Scott Mushinskie
Group Creative Director: Max Godsil
Associate Creative Director: Brian Hall
Chief Client Officer: Cynthia Davis
Group Account Director: Beth Liss
Account Director: Jordan Sabourin
Account Executive: Amanda Ribeiro
Production Company: The-Artery
Director: Vico Sharabani
EP: Deborah Sullivan
Head of Production: Lynzi Grant
Producer: Emily Brown
Production Services: The Astronauts Guild
DOP: Evan Pesses
Creative Technologist: Scott Connolly
VR supervisor: Ian Spohr
360 Stitching: VR PlayhouseVR
Supervisor: Derin Turner
EP: Leo Vezzali
Published: December 2017
Synopsis:
The-Artery developed the creative and production approach for the 360-degree experiential content for the new, state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium halo screen. This content is showcased on the stadium's HD Video Halo Board, which is the largest video board in the world. The board itself is 58 feet tall and 1,075 feet in circumference, totaling approximately 63,000 sq feet, with 20K resolution. In the end, the final delivered master was a 20K x 1080 clip which would be viewed on the seamless 11 HD screens, seamlessly encircling the crowd at the Stadium. We were incredibly honored to be a part of this wonderful project alongside our agency and client partners.
The new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta houses one of the largest LED screen in the World. It is 60 stories high and continuously wraps around the top of the massive football stadium. Even in the days of high resolution cinematography, filming a spot which is 20K is exceptional. To make matters even more complex, the project was a 360 experience that would need to be experienced from well beneath the screens by a giant crowd.
Conceptually, practically and from a workflow point of view, the Halo Screen Mercedes-Benz Stadium spots produced by The-Artery in New York were never going to be easy, but the results are a stunning multi-dimensional clean visual solution delivered by director Vico Sharabani.
Sharabani conceived of the solution to the piece and solved the complex production issues for the Atlanta Falcons Stadium’s new 63,800-square-foot halo board. In the end, the final delivered master was a 20K x 1080 clip which would be seen on 11 HD screens, seamlessly encircling the crowd at the Stadium.
The piece was shot on a set of Red Cameras, each a HELIUM Weapon @ 8K but cropped in virtually and with overlap left and right for the seamless stitching. Derin Turner from VR Playhouse suggested using 14mm S4/i T2.0 Cooke lenses, "as we needed to use the best lenses we could," he explains. Lens imperfections can be the weak link in any stitching and the Cooke lenses free from optical problems, such as optical errors or chromatic aberration, worked extremely well.
The team had six cameras with a seventh as a spare. Building the rig with the actual cameras and lens took a couple of days, with production services and camera help by The Astronauts Guild, under the eye and skill of DOP Evan Pesses and Creative Technologist Scott Connolly. "If you do the maths, that is over half a million dollars of just cameras and lenses alone," explains Sharabani.
The Red Helium large sensor not only provides high resolution, but the optical characteristics of large formats such as Vista-vision. The result is not only high resolution footage but high quality, high dynamic range, large format perspective and rich imagery that makes the cars look great.