Has anyone seen XBox 360 commercial... at DVinfo.net

Kevin Red · November 15th, 2005, 12:00 PM

Where the whole town is throwing water balloons at each other?
Did you notice the glowwing/muddy/shaky look it had when people were running through the street?
I thought that looked awesome.
Anyone know how to acheive this?

Kevin Red · November 15th, 2005, 08:49 PM

http://media.putfile.com/X360_Balloon_Commercial
heres the video

Xander Christ · November 18th, 2005, 02:18 AM

Try desaturating the image and posterize it by adjusting the RGB curves to 'flatten' parts of the footage.

It also could be that the director/cinematographer/art director/location scout picked that location because the buildings were monochromatic, adding to that flat look. Dress people up in flat colors matching the background and viola! Instant flatness.

Kevin Red · November 18th, 2005, 12:08 PM

Noted. Thanks.

James Llewellyn · November 18th, 2005, 12:26 PM

Filming that must of been a whole lot of fun o.O

Jim Rog · November 20th, 2005, 03:52 PM

like the look would also like to know how this was done

Glenn Chan · November 20th, 2005, 07:46 PM

Some of the shots look a lot like news footage when news was shot on film.

Considering the client and that it's a commercial, chances are that it was shot on film (could be 35mm) and telecined on a Da Vinci (or similar system) by a professional colorist. Some of the material looks soft (a lot less sharp) and like it has less exposure latitude... maybe that was shot on super8 or 8mm. That material looks different from the rest.

A lot of outdoor shots had lots of detail in the highlights and shadows, which is usually hard to capture with video. It doesn't look like video at all.

If the film is capturing large amounts of exposure latitude, then the raw image is going to be somewhat desaturated.

A good way to get the look is to shoot on film and to get the colorist to match the look. If you want to get similar results on a low budget, either:
A- Shoot film. Super8 shouldn't cost that much.
B- Shoot video on a camera that can be tweaked to have much greater exposure latitude (i.e. cinegamma on a DVX100). You may be able to light things to lower the contrast ratio so it captures on video better.
Color correct to match the look- apply s-shaped color/RGB curves, desaturate a little.
Maybe add some fake grain.

The posterization may have been introduced by webcompression, I wouldn't go for that.

Xander Christ · November 28th, 2005, 12:21 AM

I just saw the commercial on broadcast tv and boy, the web version Kev posted doesn't do the image quality any justice. But, now I see the "glowwing/muddy/shaky look" being referred to.

The commercial is definitely handheld film. The color of the film stock reminds me of Agfa (bluish, neutral and pastel); contrast is normal in the real commerical but a bit washed out on the web.

Try doing a search on google for "film damage". I know Nattress, DigiEffects and a host of other companies create plug-ins that can create those jittery/mis-aligned shots.

Steven Fokkinga · November 29th, 2005, 06:01 AM

OT: I liked the commercial, but I think it was a bit of a rip-off atmosphere-wise from the playstation commercial where all the people made a mountain of themselves with the vocals of shirley temple...

November 15th, 2005, 12:00 PM	#1
Kevin Red Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 103	Has anyone seen XBox 360 commercial... Where the whole town is throwing water balloons at each other? Did you notice the glowwing/muddy/shaky look it had when people were running through the street? I thought that looked awesome. Anyone know how to acheive this? __________________ AMD Athalon 2800 (2.08ghz) running Windows XP sp2 1GB of RAM Vegas 6.0 NLE 300+ GB hard drive space running SATA RAID 0 With an NVIDEA Geforce FX 5600XT http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=149990

November 15th, 2005, 08:49 PM	#2
Kevin Red Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 103	http://media.putfile.com/X360_Balloon_Commercial heres the video __________________ AMD Athalon 2800 (2.08ghz) running Windows XP sp2 1GB of RAM Vegas 6.0 NLE 300+ GB hard drive space running SATA RAID 0 With an NVIDEA Geforce FX 5600XT http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=149990

November 18th, 2005, 12:08 PM	#4
Kevin Red Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 103	Noted. Thanks. __________________ AMD Athalon 2800 (2.08ghz) running Windows XP sp2 1GB of RAM Vegas 6.0 NLE 300+ GB hard drive space running SATA RAID 0 With an NVIDEA Geforce FX 5600XT http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=149990

November 18th, 2005, 02:18 AM	#3
Xander Christ Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 115	Try desaturating the image and posterize it by adjusting the RGB curves to 'flatten' parts of the footage. It also could be that the director/cinematographer/art director/location scout picked that location because the buildings were monochromatic, adding to that flat look. Dress people up in flat colors matching the background and viola! Instant flatness.

November 18th, 2005, 12:26 PM	#5
James Llewellyn Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 80	Filming that must of been a whole lot of fun o.O

November 20th, 2005, 03:52 PM	#6
Jim Rog Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: PAL Zone Posts: 188	like the look would also like to know how this was done

November 20th, 2005, 07:46 PM	#7
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Some of the shots look a lot like news footage when news was shot on film. Considering the client and that it's a commercial, chances are that it was shot on film (could be 35mm) and telecined on a Da Vinci (or similar system) by a professional colorist. Some of the material looks soft (a lot less sharp) and like it has less exposure latitude... maybe that was shot on super8 or 8mm. That material looks different from the rest. A lot of outdoor shots had lots of detail in the highlights and shadows, which is usually hard to capture with video. It doesn't look like video at all. If the film is capturing large amounts of exposure latitude, then the raw image is going to be somewhat desaturated. A good way to get the look is to shoot on film and to get the colorist to match the look. If you want to get similar results on a low budget, either: A- Shoot film. Super8 shouldn't cost that much. B- Shoot video on a camera that can be tweaked to have much greater exposure latitude (i.e. cinegamma on a DVX100). You may be able to light things to lower the contrast ratio so it captures on video better. Color correct to match the look- apply s-shaped color/RGB curves, desaturate a little. Maybe add some fake grain. The posterization may have been introduced by webcompression, I wouldn't go for that.

November 28th, 2005, 12:21 AM	#8
Xander Christ Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 115	I just saw the commercial on broadcast tv and boy, the web version Kev posted doesn't do the image quality any justice. But, now I see the "glowwing/muddy/shaky look" being referred to. The commercial is definitely handheld film. The color of the film stock reminds me of Agfa (bluish, neutral and pastel); contrast is normal in the real commerical but a bit washed out on the web. Try doing a search on google for "film damage". I know Nattress, DigiEffects and a host of other companies create plug-ins that can create those jittery/mis-aligned shots.

November 29th, 2005, 06:01 AM	#9
Steven Fokkinga Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 204	OT: I liked the commercial, but I think it was a bit of a rip-off atmosphere-wise from the playstation commercial where all the people made a mountain of themselves with the vocals of shirley temple...