Directors Think Tank’s Sling Ng shoots latest Petronas F1 spot for McCann Erickson Malaysia

Directors Think Tank director Sling Ng has just completed the latest Petronas F1 ‘Back to Start’ spot for McCann Erickson Malaysia, in what is seen as a bold and unconventional direction for the client. The spot launched last week.

The idea behind the film is about ordinary people with extraordinary dreams. They work hard to rise and meet challenges. Petronas are inspired by these people and created the best fuels and lubricants to not just excel in the F1 sports but to keep everyone moving forward. The story is told in a reverse way, following the career path of an architect.

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“It’s a challenging project, in a way that it’s not really telling a story in a linear way,  but yet at the end of the day,  the idea needs to shine through.  We shot everything as per normal and then watched the playback in reverse.  I was amazed by how small gesture or movement can look so awkward in reverse, so along the way, we needed to fine tune the action so that look pretty convincing in reverse,” says director Sling Ng.

Says Skipz, VFX Director at VHQ (KL), “The challenging task of this project was to replace the older version of the F1 car that had been shot to the latest model of the F1 car for year 2017.  To retain the realism of the car, we decided not to create a CG car, but instead make use of what we had shot and digitally modify it.  This included changing the rear wing, front wing, air intake, side pod and nose cone of the F1 car”.

EP Pat Singh adds: “The post production on this project was very important.  We also had to build some CG sequences to create a believable Kuala Lumpur in the near future.  We also had to create a hyperlapse sequence in CG, to show the city deconstruct as a form of showing time going in reverse.  The VFX team at VHQ KL worked very closely with our ‘in-house’ Animation/VFX directing team Underpants in Auckland to create some amazing animation and VFX”.

Credits:

Post Production: VHQ (KL),  UNDERPANTS (Auckland)