Kung Fu Fighting For the Last McNugget
Def auth… 2008-6-17 13:48:25
China was about the last place Brian Shneider thought he'd be going for a two week supervision assignment for a McDonald's spot -- but that's just where he was sent to supervise for Ring of Fire on a project starring two incredible martial artists who are only 8 years old.
KUNG FU was shot in Hang Dian at World Studios, five hours south of Shanghai. Directed by Partizan's Paul Goldman for Leo Burnett Chicago, it's a beautiful and clever homage to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and other martial arts movies and marks the opening of DreamWorks' KUNG FU PANDA, out in theaters June 6.
The spot opens on two children having lunch outside in an ancient Chinese courtyard. They start to fight over the last chicken McNugget with chopsticks and as their sparing escalates, they magically rise and continue their balletic chopstick fight in the air, leaping and chasing each other over the roof tops of a picturesque Chinese city.
Among the challenges for Ring of Fire was to make the action look as realistic as possible and come up with solutions to allow Goldman to accomplish all of the action shots he designed with Master Woo-ping Yuen. Woo-ping is the famous martial arts choreographer known for his work on such films as THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, KILL BILL: VOL. I and II, and THE MATRIX TRILOGY.
The kids did their stunts wearing harnesses attached to rigs held by cranes. The rigs and kids were hand controlled in a similar way that resembled a large "human marionette" by a team of men from Woo-ping's crew. These scenes were tightly choreographed because of the risk involved -- dangling these kids and swinging them from huge heights in their harnesses to make them fly.
Back at Ring of Fire, Shneider and other Ring of Fire artists performed rig removal, sky replacement and compositing. Goldman had a very specific concept regarding the color palate design changing throughout the final piece and Ring of Fire was able to accentuate the colors in Flame adding to the drama of the story.
DreamWorks did the character animation for the spot, starring the voices of Jack Black as Po the Panda and Angelina Jolie as Master Tigress.
"Collaborating with Paul in China was great, he knew exactly what he wanted -- so it was our job to figure out how we could get him there. The process was very organized from conceptualizing to storyboarding to the shoot, the crew came together and it was one of those rare experiences where it all flowed to a point where it almost felt easy for a change. It was a wonderful collaboration," Shneider said.
Credits:
Agency: Leo Burnett
Tony Katalinic: VP Creative Director
John Hansa: SVP Creative Director
Denis Giroux: VP Executive Producer
Production Company: Partizan
Paul Goldman: Director
Sheila Stepanek: Executive Producer
Ian Bearce: Head of Producer
Lindsay Skutch: Line Producer
Chris Voudaris: Director of Photography
Visual Effects: Ring of Fire
Jerry Spivack: Creative Director
John Myers: Executive Producer
Brian Shneider: On Set Supervisor
Producers: Justin Beaupre, Casey Conroy, Taryn Spates
Flame: Brian Shneider, John Cimapa, Shelly Dutcher, Eric Bruno
Animators: Marcel Hemmingway, Kyle Gnebba
Rotoscope Artist: Gary Mortenson
Editorial: Radar Studios
Graham Gangi: Producer
Greg Somerlot: Editor
Character Animation: DreamWorks Animation
KUNG FU was shot in Hang Dian at World Studios, five hours south of Shanghai. Directed by Partizan's Paul Goldman for Leo Burnett Chicago, it's a beautiful and clever homage to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and other martial arts movies and marks the opening of DreamWorks' KUNG FU PANDA, out in theaters June 6.
The spot opens on two children having lunch outside in an ancient Chinese courtyard. They start to fight over the last chicken McNugget with chopsticks and as their sparing escalates, they magically rise and continue their balletic chopstick fight in the air, leaping and chasing each other over the roof tops of a picturesque Chinese city.
Among the challenges for Ring of Fire was to make the action look as realistic as possible and come up with solutions to allow Goldman to accomplish all of the action shots he designed with Master Woo-ping Yuen. Woo-ping is the famous martial arts choreographer known for his work on such films as THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, KILL BILL: VOL. I and II, and THE MATRIX TRILOGY.
The kids did their stunts wearing harnesses attached to rigs held by cranes. The rigs and kids were hand controlled in a similar way that resembled a large "human marionette" by a team of men from Woo-ping's crew. These scenes were tightly choreographed because of the risk involved -- dangling these kids and swinging them from huge heights in their harnesses to make them fly.
Back at Ring of Fire, Shneider and other Ring of Fire artists performed rig removal, sky replacement and compositing. Goldman had a very specific concept regarding the color palate design changing throughout the final piece and Ring of Fire was able to accentuate the colors in Flame adding to the drama of the story.
DreamWorks did the character animation for the spot, starring the voices of Jack Black as Po the Panda and Angelina Jolie as Master Tigress.
"Collaborating with Paul in China was great, he knew exactly what he wanted -- so it was our job to figure out how we could get him there. The process was very organized from conceptualizing to storyboarding to the shoot, the crew came together and it was one of those rare experiences where it all flowed to a point where it almost felt easy for a change. It was a wonderful collaboration," Shneider said.
Credits:
Agency: Leo Burnett
Tony Katalinic: VP Creative Director
John Hansa: SVP Creative Director
Denis Giroux: VP Executive Producer
Production Company: Partizan
Paul Goldman: Director
Sheila Stepanek: Executive Producer
Ian Bearce: Head of Producer
Lindsay Skutch: Line Producer
Chris Voudaris: Director of Photography
Visual Effects: Ring of Fire
Jerry Spivack: Creative Director
John Myers: Executive Producer
Brian Shneider: On Set Supervisor
Producers: Justin Beaupre, Casey Conroy, Taryn Spates
Flame: Brian Shneider, John Cimapa, Shelly Dutcher, Eric Bruno
Animators: Marcel Hemmingway, Kyle Gnebba
Rotoscope Artist: Gary Mortenson
Editorial: Radar Studios
Graham Gangi: Producer
Greg Somerlot: Editor
Character Animation: DreamWorks Animation