Grey's Anatomy looked to New Leaf Media to create a high-concept promo for the finale of season six.
Press Release from Zoic Studios
Grey's Anatomy looked to New Leaf Media to create a high-concept promo for the finale of season six. The spot, directed by Philip Boston of New Leaf Media, alludes to the crushing end of this season when a vengeful man enters Seattle Grace Hospital and shoots several doctors. Entitled "One Gun Shot" the promo features a bullet traveling slowly through the halls of the hospital. Nurses, Doctors and patients dive and move for cover as the bullet flies, eventually piercing the white lab coat of an unnamed Doctor. To create the bullet and its trajectory through the narrative, New Leaf Media turned to the talents of the digital production and VFX experts at Zoic Studios.
Zoic's CG animation was derived from the work the company has done for numerous episodic and feature presentations with bullet flights. Zoic's team, headed by Creative Director Les Ekker, assisted New Leaf's production with a laser, describing the bullet's path for all the actors in real life, and assuring a convincing path through that panicked crowd. Zoic also shot a real 9mm slug for accurate reference, and captured the lighting and reflections with HDR photos on set. During pre-production, the Zoic team remodeled the bullet, enhanced its textures and shaders and created a unique new shock trail that would have its own signature look. The drama of the natural action of actors and bullet combines with the cinematic soundtrack to make for a dramatic piece that draws the viewer into that frightening moment. The successful spot helped bump Grey's to a 4.8 on the evenings Neilson's as well as help create 2.1 million new Facebook followers.
"We are proud to have helped create this compelling piece of drama that promotes this dramatic and excellent show," notes Ekker. "It was great collaborating with such talented creatives as the team at New Leaf and the clients at ABC."
On the editorial side, Zoic Studios' Senior editor Dmitri Gueer notes: "The task of isolating great takes for the visual effects shots was facilitated by the fact that the Phantom footage looked absolutely stunning. The bigger challenge was building the story of mystery and suspense around the visually gripping imagery of an ever-advancing bullet that is about to hit someone. The overall level of creativity of our clients at New Leaf and ABC made this a dream job."
Client: ABC
Production Company: New Leaf MediaCreative Director/Writer: Philip BostonDirector: Philip BostonDP: Michael OizerProducer: Michael Mattes, Andrew Maguire
Visual Effects Production: Zoic StudiosVisual FX supervisor: Leslie EkkerEP: Erik Press & Steve Schofield
Editorial: Zoic EditorialEditor: Dmitri Gueer
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