New Yorks UVPHACTORY Uses SOFTIMAGE|XSI To Forge VH1s Metal Month of May

Summary: With a trio of spots and an extensive graphics package UVPHACTORY has unleashed the Apocalypse for VH1’s Metal Month of May.
VH1's "Metal Month of May" spot (QuickTime, 30sec, 400x300, 6MB).
Behind the scenes featurette (QuickTime, 3min, 400x268, 20MB).

 

New York’s UVPHACTORY Uses SOFTIMAGE|XSI To Forge VH1’s “Metal Month of May” and More

By Michael Abraham

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – The crust of the earth ruptures and a pair of 500 foot tall, stiletto wearing "demonettes," all spikes, studs and leather, emerge from Hell intent on the destruction of Gotham. In an instant, the city is engulfed in dense clouds of billowing black smoke, molten lava, flames and shock waves that destroy everything in their path. The vixens tower over the Manhattan skyline and, with their demonic guitar riffs, set about the total decimation of the city as terrified New Yorkers attempt, in vain, to flee this unimaginably powerful and relentless dystopia of heavy metal! For VH1’s Metal Month of May UVPHACTORY has truly unleashed the Apocalypse.

Produced and directed by UVPH, the live-action, effects heavy :30 teaser exploded onto the airwaves April 14. "This very sexy and menacing live-action piece is extremely effects heavy. In fact, this just might be the most mind-blowing piece we have created to date. The teaser is all about Hell breaking loose so we pored over heavy metal films, comics, magazines and listened to Slayer, Iron Maiden, Pantera, AC/DC, Motorhead, KISS, Megadeath and Lamb of God (which was used in the spot) for a week which helped get everyone’s creative juices flowing. In the end, this spot has the feel of a cinematic trailer for the likes of V for Vendetta, The Day After Tomorrow or War of the Worlds," stated Brian Welsh, UVPHACTORY Executive Producer.

"VH1 wanted the teaser to look like a big budget Sci-Fi Hollywood blockbuster but did not have the millions of dollars needed to create and shoot the destruction of New York City, cars exploding in flames, New Yorkers running from the havoc wrought by the heavy metal "devilettes", or for cameras shooting as they fly over the Empire State Building. We needed to find a cost effective way to execute the client’s boards and Bashir Hamid, our 3D Animator/Compositor, suggested a trick-of-the-trade, photogammetry, which allowed us to turn still images into 3D environments," explained Alexandre Moors, UVPH Creative Director. "I walked through New York shooting hi-res photos and this innovative process allowed us to transform the stills into 3D scenes in which you have camera movements. By assigning geometry to each building, the software was able to create the parts of the pictures that were missing as we moved around a structure. So all the city images are 3D and the skies are completely fabricated as well."

Dicken Schrader, VH1 Senior Producer/Writer and Director of the live-action spoofs, said of his experience working with the UVPH team, "When what you have on tape is better than your original concept I’d have to say it was a truly great experience. It still astonishes me that UVPHACTORY was able to find a way around the obvious execution, come up with an alternative that was within our resources, and create something of this caliber. The results were better than anything I had initially envisioned. It was a great learning experience for all of us, and the results are just incredible. The teaser was not just approved, it was applauded!"

"UVPHACTORY is able to handle all aspects of design and production really well - they produced the live-action shoot for the image spots, and designed the layout, directed the green screen and executed all of the 3D and visual effects for the tease beautifully! In addition to all of that, they also created a complete graphic promo toolkit package that was used to donut a gazillion other promos for the month - all of which turned out really well. I have worked with UVPH on a few projects now and they have always knocked it out of the park, which is why I keep going back to them. They make us all look great, every time."

UVPHACTORY also produced, cast, designed the heavy metal concert set, complete with rock ‘n roll lighting and pyrotechnics, and the prosthetics used in the two live-action spoofs, a :30 and a :60, of the heavy metal scene created to promote VH1’s month of metal madness. The first will begin airing on April 23, the second on April 28, and both will continue through May.

Bad as he may be in his music videos, the public and private personae of "The Prince of Darkness" are quite different. In front of the cameras, the past-his- prime Lucifer, surrounded by four gyrating and scantily clad "devilettes," is all macho struts, distorted guitar riffs and earsplitting rhythms. However, his human side lies just below the surface. In spoof #1, the old softie seems to be having an allergic reaction to the peanuts in his snack cookies. In spoof #2, the shock rocker storms off the set infuriated when the director repeatedly calls him "Luci," not demonstrating the respect this aging family man craves.

In addition to the teaser and two image spots, UVPH designed and executed a full graphics package for the Metal Month of May toolkit including logo design and animation, six promo opens, six promo closes, lower thirds, backgrounds, transitions and single and double mortises.

The UVPH creative team included Principal/Co-Founder Scott Sindorf; Principal/Co-Founder Damijan Saccio; Creative Director Alexander Moors; Executive Producer Brian Welsh; Designers John Stanch and Colin Hess; Lead 3D Animator/Compositor Bashir Hamid; Compositor/Rotoscope Eunha Sophie Lee; Compositors John Stanch, Shuyi Wu, Sean Donnelly and Robert Domani Henry; 3D Animator/Tracking Sean Eno; Editor Robert Lopuski; Directors Alexandre Moors (teaser) and VH1’s Dicken Schrader (live-action spots); Director of Photography (live-action) Brian O’Carroll; Assistant Director/Line Producer Jonathan Lia; 2nd Assistant Director Justin Pandolfino; Production Manager Melissa Sarno; Gaffer E.I. (Ted) Reid; Art Department Betil Dagladen; and Wardrobe Katy Robbins.

UVPHACTORY utilized Softimage|XSI 5.0, Next Limit’s RealFlow 3.0 fluid simulator, Boujou 3.0, Apple Final Cut Pro 5.0, Adobe After Effects 7.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Illustrator CS2 in the completion of this project.

Representing VH1 were Senior Producer/Writer Dicken Schrader, Producer VH1 Creative Shannon Horan, Senior Vice President VH1 Creative and Consumer Marketing Nigel Cox-Hagen, Executive Producer Wendell Wooten, Vice President VH1 Off-Air Nancy Mazzei, Vice President Creative Tony Maxwell, and Director On-Air Promotions Adam Wilson.

VH1's "Metal Month of May" spot (QuickTime, 30sec, 400x300, 6MB).
Behind the scenes featurette (QuickTime, 3min, 400x268, 20MB).

 

About UVPHACTORY

UVPH is a New York-based design and production company offering a complete range of creative services including conceptualization, live-action direction and production, editorial, 2D/3D animation, sound composition/design and final compositing for broadcast, commercial, film, music video and web clients. Additionally, UVPH has leapt full force into the longer format arena, directing and producing music videos. Since the company’s formation in 2000, UVPH has attracted a diverse client base including AT&T, BET, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CBS, Cinemax, Cingular, Coca-Cola, Comedy Central, ESPN, FOX Sports, General Electric, HBO, IBM, IFC, Miramax, MTV, NBC, Scripps Networks, SCI FI Network, Showtime, USA, US Cellular, VH1, and VOOM HD Network, among many others.

UVPHACTORY is headquartered at 224 Centre Street, Suite 2E, New York, NY 10013; 212-483-0040; Fax: 212-483-9371; For more information, or to see a reel, contact Senior Producer Brian Welsh. Visit the UVPH website at http://www.uvph.com/

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