RUSHES COMPLETE DEPECHE MODE PROMO

JOHN Hillcoat has chosen Rushes post-production facility for the latest Depeche Mode promo.
Set in New Orleans, the film opens on a magical un-manned truck pulling a float with a sensual pink satin throne on it. The band materialise on the float and begin to play the track. As the van rolls past old clapboard houses, passers-by in the street are inexplicably drawn to the float as if hypnotised. They rub their bodies against the throne, overwhelmed by free love.
The van leaves the town and travels though startling green fields, drawing more and more people to it. Carried away by passion the crowd being to sway and kiss in a clearing as the van circles them. Finally, there is just a single embracing couple left. The magical van disappears into thin air.
Rushes Inferno Artist, Phil Man, said: "Set in New Orleans, the slow pace and stately cinematography, combined with long edits and a beautiful colour grade by Rushes colourist, Mark Gethin, has resulted in a very elegant and stylish promo. There was very little visual effect work, just some plate restoration and cosmetic work to eliminate some film damage. All of the visual effects work was executed on Inferno. The film damage was removed by warping a combination of stills from the clip and the damaged areas were then painted away to reveal the warped image. The plate restoration involved some rotoscoping to remove people and a truck away from the clips to facilitate a dissolve transition, which left a ghostly residual of the original elements. Lastly, an entirely new background pleat was generated to match a steadicam shot. Once created, this clip was used to facilitate another seemingly seamless dissolve transition." (CD)