F25 and ATM Virtual have turned the world of advertising upside down [the Febrisan project]!

The behind-the-scenes video of the commercial we have produced with director Armin Kurasz for the oS3 agency and Orifarm became a viral sensation mere moments after it had been shared to social media. The video has been posted to the most popular Instagram accounts dedicated to film production (such as Filmmakers World and Movie Effects VFX, each of them followed by more than a million film industry enthusiasts). With each passing minute, the number of likes, comments and shares grows on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Why is there so much interest in the behind-the-scenes footage of the Febrisan commercial? Mostly because we used cutting-edge virtual production technology to create it. It allowed us to turn the entire flat – and even the world outside the window – upside down already on set, as if gravity didn’t exist. What is more, the entire production – including building the set, post-production, and delivering broadcast-ready materials – took merely 3 weeks!?

Virtual production may have only recently started taking over the world, but at the time of shooting the ad, we’d already had experience using this technique. We were one of the first production houses to use the VP technology for the YouTube Brandcast project in 2020. Armin Kurasz is a director who has the most expertise in this field. With years of tests and numerous successful projects under our belt, together we completed the project very quickly and within a client-friendly budget, delivering a high-quality end product. And we’ve only scratched the surface of the opportunities that this technology presents!

How did we produce the Febrisan ad?

When a producer is handed a script, they immediately start thinking what type of production method they should choose. Everyone should ask themselves this question at the very beginning and take various options into consideration. In the case of this project, the first idea that would probably pop into everyone’s heads would be to build a flat interior and a rotating set, which would take a lot of work and cost a fortune.?The second option was to shoot the commercial using a green box; however, this would involve a complicated post-production process and wouldn’t bring the desired high quality of realism.?So we quickly came to the conclusion that virtual production would be the best solution for this project. We have years of experience working with that technology, which has rapidly developed in the past two years and which allowed for an efficient production and remarkable quality. That’s why we believed it was the right choice, given the limited time and the expectations of the end result.

We started with choosing the flat interior – the setting of our commercial, which, fortunately, didn’t have to be created from scratch using 3D technology. The project was based on a stock model that we bought. This is where the fundamental difference between traditional production techniques and virtual technology lies. At this point, into the picture comes a stage designer who, in this case, has more room to experiment –?they can very quickly and easily move the walls or change their colour, add furniture and even choose a different window view.?To such a virtual set we brought in a few real props in the foreground for an added touch of realism. The next step involved the director working on camera movements, animated backgrounds and objects levitating in the foreground, which resulted in the characters’ setting smoothly turning upside down and returning to its original state.

“Virtual production allows us to spend less time and money working on complex projects than we normally would using traditional methods. This way, we can easily shoot scenes in various virtual locations in one day. But what’s most interesting is that the advantages of using this technology are not limited to the cost and length of the production. We can dream up the most extraordinary settings and explore ideas that otherwise would be unattainable. We get to control the weather, time of day, seasons and even the laws of physics. The creative possibilities are practically endless,”?says director Armin Kurasz.?

After we had built the set, we worked on suspending the actors in the air with the help of stunt performers. We had tested and worked everything out the day before, during camera tests. That was also when we worked on the animation rhythm which we synchronised with the characters and objects hanging on ropes. Because of that, we weren’t caught by surprise by anything on set, all the takes we had planned went smoothly and the shooting day ended on time.

You can watch the fruits of our labour by hitting play on the commercial and the behind-the-scenes video below.

Now, let’s get to the most important part – project INSIGHTS summed up in a few bullet points:

• The outstanding quality of the 3D shot of the flat knocked everyone’s socks off and seemed so real that you could accidentally “enter” the kitchen when walking by the screen :)
• Adjusting and synchronising the lighting of the 3D shot to the real-life studio lighting only takes a short while – everything was systematically linked together and worked as a single organism.
• The few minor bugs that occurred were practically unnoticeable and undetectable, which is a testament to the progress that the technology has made in the past two years. One could even say that it’s a technological breakthrough, as the minimisation of the risk of system malfunction allows for using this kind of technology without having to worry about shooting delays and, consequently, unplanned overtime.
• Working with a LED background at the post-production stage is similar to working with a regular shot, which is yet another significant accomplishment that allows you to quickly achieve the desired end result and complete the project.
• ?By not using a green box, we managed to avoid the problematic and time-consuming keying that would additionally impose certain restrictions in terms of creative approach and production planning.
• We gained full control over set conditions, stage design and its décor, and the animation and movement of the levitating objects.

With virtual production, you don’t have to spend any money on “virtual building materials”, giving the stage designer a whole lot of freedom. “Repainting” the walls or the furniture multiple times is not a problem, either.

• An interesting point is that by creating a virtual location, we preserve it in the form of a 3D model available on a computer drive, which allows us to quickly and rather inexpensively return to the same set and pick up where we left off should we need to make any adjustments.
• Virtual reality makes the job of an actor significantly easier, as they no longer have to imagine their surroundings (as is the case with green boxes) – they simply have to react to whatever they see on the screen.
• ?The creators, the client and the agency get to see the end result already on set, which means that it’s much easier to make adjustments and that the decision-making process takes less time (compared to using a green box).
• ??In our case, the setting was a “real” flat with levitating objects, but the action could have just as easily taken place on the Moon or in a completely abstract world.
• When the operator adjusts the lighting in a virtual scene, it’s done easily and quickly, and it doesn’t cost a thing. They get to decide the angle of the sun or change day shots to night shots, among other things.

We shot the whole thing at the ATM Virtual studio – everyone there made sure we had everything that we needed for our set, technology-wise. The post-production was handled by the Televisor studio.

CREDITS: Client: Orifarm, Agency:?oS3: Marta Hermanowicz [Creative Director],?Ma?gorzata Gontarczuk [Senior Art Director], Dominika Majcher [Group Account Director], Ma?gorzata Szerenos [Account Director], Matth?us Biardzki [Senior Account Manager] DIRECTOR:?Armin Kurasz, DOP: Tomasz Zió?kowski, Producer:?Monika Wagner, Kris Kotlarski, Executive Producer:?Marcin Dworucha, Production Manager: Dorota Pieku?, Production Coordinator: Kinga Borowa, Costume Designer: Sara Milczarek, Assistant Costume Designer: Monika Tomczak, Steadicam: Jaros?aw Wierzbicki, Stage Designer: Natalia Mleczak, 1st AD: Jakub K?dzierski, VP:?ATM Virtual?: Marlena Przybyszewska,?Maciej Kap?ucha, Focus puller: Tomasz “Czerwo” Czerwiński, 2 AC: ?ukasz Gracz, Video: Piotr Kasprzak, Making of /photos: Tomasz Kochański, Gaffer: Mateusz Cichocki & Pawe? Cichocki, MUA: Magdalena Kakietek, Assistant MUA: Ma?gorzata Andrzejewska, Propman: Tomek Suska, Grip: Przemys?aw “Groszek” Liberman, Set Manager: ?ukasz Wiewiórski, Stunt Performers: Stunt Service - Kaskaderzy filmowi, Lighting: Piramida Film, Casting: Ewa Hornich, Transport: Tomek ?liwiński, Medic: Fundacja Prometeusz Monta? online: Tomasz M?czka/ teameditors.pl, Post-production:?TELEVISOR, Online Editing: Frederick van Eeden, Sound: G?O?NO, Cast: Ola ?ebrowska, Marek Ja?kiewcz, Milan Wolf.

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