3D Deutsche Telekom ad given Paul WS Anderson treatment
Film director Paul WS Anderson, who created movies such as Event Horizon and the Resident Evil series, has directed a 3D advert for Deutsche Telekom, working alongside The Mob.
The ‘A Thousand Little Things’ advert, created by Tribal DDB in Berlin, is the first to use 3D timelapse in order to promote the new Entertain TV package from Deutsche Telekom.
Shot in Los Angeles over five days, with additional filming taking place in Berlin, the advert captures the cityscape in 3D, a format the Anderson has previously worked in while filming Resident Evil: Afterlife, working with The Mob (based in both Manchester and LA) and his own team grown from Afterlife and the upcoming remake of The Three Musketeers.
Director of photography, Vern Nobles explained that Anderson set the team the challenge of shooting high speed, time-lapse and aerials all in stereo.
“Shooting in Berlin and Los Angeles with as many as 30 set ups a day, we also needed to get the gear tested and ready over the Christmas Holiday. There was not one camera system that could do everything Paul wanted and we had to invent some new tech along the way,” said Nobles. “Tom Hallman from Pictorvision put together at short notice a stereo gyro stabilized helicopter system that we'd developed after Resident Evil 4 and we couldn't have done it all without the help of Vince Pace and the Pace fusion 3D system. Vince and Jim Hays opened their doors and gave us complete support, letting us come in over the Christmas holiday and build the systems. We ended up using Arri Alexia on the Pace Fusion rig for stereo time lapse, 24fps and 60fps in Los Angeles with master primes and Red MX and master primes in Germany for High Speed and 24fps, with Red MX and 17-80 zooms in the helicopter. The Canon 7D system with ultra primes was used for time-lapse when objects were not too close to the camera."
Academy Award winning actor Christoph Waltz features in the campaign having also worked with Anderson on The Three Musketeers.
Postproduction took place at Toronto based Topix where the 3D effects were applied.
A 60-second version of the advert will air in cinemas across Germany while another four product-based cutdowns will run on television. The full 90-second version will show be shown worldwide at trade shows, exhibitions and festivals.