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mbai based Wilson Louis Films has recently produced a 30 seconds CGI and Live Action television commercial ‘Bangur Bulk’, that shows massive destruction by a Hulk to various elements coming in his way, but poor Hulk looses the battle, when he fails to bring down a building, that was created using Bangur Cement.
This tvc comes as the third one in the Bangur Commercial Series and “The series is not yet over, Picture Abhi Baaki Hain, there will be more to follow” shares Wilson Louis, Founder of WLF and Director of this TVC and AnimationXpress.com continues this freewheeling discussion with him to know about the making of Bangur Bulk and upcoming projects.
Hi Wilson, please take us through the concept planning stage for this tvc?
Sure, with every consecutive ad for Bangur series, the challenge for the next concept is that it has to be new, out of the box; in totality there were thousands of concepts running in my mind.
Initially I thought this commercial to be an easy one, but then it was like selecting the best color from more than 16000 colors available in digital medium. So it was a herculean task, a ‘hulk’ task to get ideas and concepts on a given framework and a set formula, we need something huge now, something much bigger and stronger, to blast the wall (as in the earlier ads it was a truck and an elephant) and then we got the idea of HULK and then we thought of our own BULK.
Bulk, in form of a hulk, whom we could associate to and then the rest followed.
We first thought of shooting bulk live, with an actor performing it, but we were not convinced as any actor enacting bulk had to remind audience about the ‘Hulk’ character and that would be very tough as we all will relate to hulk as a superhuman and so we thought of animating it (character animation) without copying the popular character ‘Hulk’, yet making it in a similar zone for the popular recall value and creating our own character.
Where did the shooting happen and please put light on the aspects that you give importance to while shooting?
The whole tvc, in fact the whole Bangur series, was shot in a studio. While shooting for such ads, it’s the concept and execution that’s important. But mainly, it’s the perfect reaction from the actors in the live action shots, that’s vital, as they are reacting to something that’s not really happening in front of them, live. So, giving them the right timing, storyline and reference for each action that they have to react to become’ critical on the shoot.
The final thing which comes to my mind, is animation and VFX; because by now we all know that VFX and its related post production technology is all achievable and should be there for helping you in the storytelling process and everything possible can be achieved in post production through proper planning and execution in the budget permitted.
The VFX should not over-shadow the concept at any point as that will not only make the logistics go wrong but also hamper the main message from getting across to the audience.
The opening sequence is too good! How did you decide on the opening sequence of a commercial like this which is a live action and CG one?
You bet! We wanted the feet stomp, the arrival of the bulk with a bang and then with its destructive achievements in just a couple of shots. All the actors seen in these shots are obviously live with generated backdrops that were shot against green. Rest, all shots were created in post.
Please explain the overall making of this commercial, starting from script to screen & research?
Our animation industry is full of talented people and if given a chance, they can prove wonders. My Company W.L.F. for some post production projects has a tie up with a post-production studio Javvadi studio headed by Ramji.
Ramji and his team Vinay Gunavante, Vaibhav Gaonkar, Sameer,Ranjan Das and Priya Swaminathan are just excellent to work with. For Bangur series their contribution, which is immense, starts right from the storyboard, designing and animation, up to its final output on tape.
The shoot may happen in a day or two, but then every minute to hour to months, which go into the post-production. The inspiration was all the hulk movies. And yes the city set up used in the film is my own complex on Mumbai’s Andheri’s Veera Desai Road.
Tell us more about the look and feel and animation part?
We had decided the look and feel should be night, firstly because, the whole effect of night ambience scares you and secondly, detailing for day work in VFX and CGI I had already done a lot before, which becomes very tedious, like in my feature film “Kaalo” (a day horror film), and also as the previous concepts for Bangur were all done in day ambience set up. Moreover the debris, fire and smoke in the destruction, looks more effective in night ambience.
How much time did the completion of tvc take & what were the challenges on the production front?
Three months in all for post-production work. First of all, to get the bulk look right was the main issue. Should he look Indian, Asian or look like an alien? Then, after selecting the look and color, came his attire and pose. Then, we got down to his scaling in relation to human size, detailing everything, right from his grin, his shout, his yelling and mainly the expressions in his eyes.
Then, the level of destruction and vastness of area and finally, the most difficult part, was the Bangur building which cannot be destroyed, the scaling of that building and the positioning of it.
Last and but not the least, where the post-production team actually thought of killing me, is the last shot of the film, of what will happen to the huge Bulk after it hits the Bangur building? We had 26 options to it and finally, selected breaking of hands, which you now see on the screen. One day I plan to release all the 26 options and the making of it
What are you currently working on?
What I can’t get to do in feature films, I will let out my creativity in the commercial /TVC world. I am currently working on few more TVC, Short films and yes I always wished to do a film on a huge scale subject like Bulk.
So right now I am, working on my most ambitious, super-hero, comedy feature film “Super Khan”, which is scheduled to go on floors by September 2014, produced by a renowned production house. Script over and now onto dialogues, storyboard and casting…just waiting to shout “action” with a big roar as BULK… “IM BACK”…
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