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Monkeyhead has just finished a series of four spots to promote Red Bull's BC One Competition that focuses on the four elements of Hip Hop. The Los Angeles effects facility used a variety of tools--from Adobe After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D--to the Red digital camera system and BOXX Technologies render farms to complete the spots over the course of just five weeks. Monkeyhead Founder and Creative Director Josh Sahley discusses some aspects of the creation of the spots, which can be viewed below.
DMN: Five weeks to complete four spots for Red Bull BC One Competition. How many different ideas were rejected before you decided to go with the four that you went with? How did you manage all the different elements for all the spots?
Josh Sahley: The concept was to do four spots, each one representing one of the four Elements of Hip Hop. So, as a team we just needed to figure out the type of artist and visuals that would represent these elements - The Circle, Spiral, Line and Voice. Once we had that nailed down, we really just started working on different style frames for them to go over and select.
The only other idea that the producer originally wanted but didn't work out as well was to have a def poetry style read for each spot. The issue was we wanting to use real world artists, which meant that not all of them would be able to remember and deliver lines as well as an actor may. So, during the first sample read we decided to switch the spots to a more interview style read, expressing personal feelings of the art form and how what they do represents one of the elements. Once we went down that path it all just clicked. Then all we did was just made adjustments to the visuals to match the revised editorial. Then we created storyboards for every shot and pasted on a board to follow at the shoot.
BC One - 4 Elements of Hip Hop: THE CIRCLE from Monkeyhead on Vimeo.
DMN: You used the Red camera for the video shots. What has improved with regard to the Red workflow than what you've experienced in the past in terms of software compatibility? Why did you go with the Red camera?
JS: Well, the biggest thing for us and the Red this time is that After Effects, Final Cut and just about every other main program now can use Red's native codec. In the past we'd have to convert all of our footage, which was a slow and tedious process before we could even use it. For these spots we were able to import the footage directly into our Compositing stations and utilize its full color and size, giving us much more flexibility then the past.
DMN: How many hours of Red footage was captured in total? What kind of storage workflow was employed to handle all that data?
JS: I don't have an exact count of the hours of footage shot but I do know we almost filled our 6 terabyte external RAID with the different passes alone. We shot all the angles we needed and more to be safe. We always work as safe as possible to make sure we're covered no matter what.
BC One - 4 Elements of Hip Hop: THE SPIRAL from Monkeyhead on Vimeo.
DMN: Cinema 4D was used to create the worlds that you had sketched up. What is it that your animator liked about Cinema 4D in creating the worlds?
JS: Cinema 4D's controls are very easy and powerful. So, for us, we're able to just focus on what we want to do and not as much time trying to figure out how we can do it. We're also able to utilize the MoGraph module in many areas with ease and drop our files to Net Render or Smedge for quick renders on our recently expanded Boxx Technology Farm. With that and 11.5's many new quality and speed improvements, we're able to pull nice, high-end effects in a short amount of time.
DMN: What other software and hardware was used in the creation of the Red Bull spots?
JS: Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator with Net Render and Smedge to control the render farm.
DMN: In "The Line", Zulu Gremlin takes a spray can and draws a line across the screen complete with splatter. How was this created?
JS: That line with all the elements coming out of it was a mixture of a handmade 2D streak with a layered 3D streak and buildings blended in. We also used footage of splats and dancers from the Red filled in as Silhouettes coming out of the line. They blend in but add just enough unique life to it. All comped together and tracked in place in After Effects helped bring it to life.
BC One - 4 Elements of Hip Hop: THE LINE from Monkeyhead on Vimeo.
DMN: How was the opening Spiral created in "The Spiral?"
JS: The Spiral was created in 3d with a nice handmade streak texture added to a perfect mathematical spiral path. Then around that we took footage of a crowd and duplicated it, then offset it and wrapped it along the same spiral path to give it a cool feel and capture the excitement of the DJ and their audience in a unique way.
DMN: How many artists at Monkeyhead were involved in the Red Bull BC One Competition project?
JS: We had 8 of us total on the project. Myself - Josh Sahley, Shawn Harris, Blake Newton, Eugene Sung, Adam Smith, Keko the Killer and Eric Stolz/ Oddio for the audio mix. There was also an additional Storyboard artist who was originally brought in to help by the client.
BC One - 4 Elements of Hip Hop: THE VOICE from Monkeyhead on Vimeo.
DMN: What is Monkeyhead working on next?
JS: We're starting to really expand in different areas this year but currently we're working on a new TV Show Open, three different broadcast promo projects and a movie package. So, things are going well. We also have been working on some internal projects to showcase more of our range, including our new reel for 2010 that should be finished and on our site in the next two weeks. Keep an eye out for it!
For more information, visit http://www.monkeyhead.com
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John Virata is senior editor of Digital Media Online. You can email him at jvirata@digitalmedianet.com
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