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A new ad for the healthcare provider Novant Health gets a dramatic visual effects boost from MPC New York. The spot, created by BBDO Atlanta and produced by Knucklehead, shows a woman in the fight of her life - only problem is, her opponent is invisible.
Titled Boxing, the spot is a visual allegory depicting a woman's battle against cancer. When we first see the fighter - tattooed, ripped and gripped with a look of steely determination - she's in a ring by herself, accompanied only by the referee. The bell sounds and she circles an unseen opponent, who quickly starts to exact a toll.
Part way through, at the start of a new round, we see her wearing a scarf to cover her head, having lost her hair during chemotherapy. Her face and body are battered. She's losing the fight and falls to the mat. The ref begins to count her out but her trainer encourages her to keep on fighting. She comes back with renewed strength and delivers fierce body blows to cancer, her invisible opponent, which falls as the ref declares a KO. We match cut to our fighter, now dressed in street clothes in the hallway of a Novant Health facility. Her arm is raised in triumph and she clasps hands with her trainer, who was her Novant Health nurse all along.
MPC's team, led by VFX Supervisor Alex Lovejoy and Lead Flame Artist Marcus Wood, added layers of nuance and detail which made the shots more believable as well as impactful. The fight scene effects, which were captured in camera, were accomplished with the use of an air gun that made the fighter's skin ripple as if she was actually being punched. Beads of sweat and other elements were added in post at MPC, whose artists also performed cleanup on the fighter's tattoos and gloves. To capture the most realistic performance the woman was hitting an actual punching bag, which was removed from several shots.
Boxing was directed by Knucklehead's Lieven Van Baelen and edited by Jeff Jay at Hero Post. Color grading was performed at Company 3 in Atlanta, with Billy Gabor.
To view the spot, click here
.
Boxing Credits:
Client: Novant Health
Agency: BBDO, Atlanta
EVP, Chief Creative Officer: Wil Boudreau
Creative Director: Mike Hanley
Associate Creative Director: Scott Biear
Art Director: Hayley Efird
Copywriter: Emily Miller
Executive Producer: Jenny Russo Novak
Chief Strategy Officer: Tricia Russo
Production Company: Knucklehead
Director: Lieven Van Baelen
Executive Producers: Cathleen Kisich, Tim Katz
Editorial company: Hero Post
Editor: Jeff Jay
Executive Producer: Molly Baroco
Assistant Editor: Britt Dunn
VFX: MPC
Managing Director: Justin Brukman
Executive Producer: Camila De Biaggi
Senior Producer: Matthew Loranger
VFX Supervisor: Alex Lovejoy
Flame: Marcus Wood, Amanda Amalfi, Rob Walker
2D Compositor: Tobey Lindback
Color Grading: Company 3, Atlanta
Colorist: Billy Gabor
About MPC:
moving-picture.com
MPC is a creative studio that crafts spectacular visual experiences in any space, on any screen. They have been global leaders in VFX for over 25 years with industry-leading facilities in London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, Bangalore, Montreal and Amsterdam.
Renowned for adding visual wonder and creative expertise to the advertising, film and entertainment industries, some of their recent projects include films such as The Jungle Book, The Martian, Life of Pi, the Harry Potter franchise, X-Men and Prometheus, along with advertising campaigns for brands such as adidas, Intuit, Samsung, Under Armour, Mercedes-Benz, Mountain Dew and others.
Their broad range of skill-sets provide a multitude of creative solutions, including concept design, pre-viz, shoot supervision, 2D compositing, 3D/CG effects, animation, motion design, software development, digital & experiential production, color grading for advertising and any combination of these services.
MPC is a Technicolorcompany.
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