Prime Focus London Lights Up The Magic For Rankin & Chris's VO5 Elixir Spot

Prime Focus London has completed post production on a new ad campaign by agency Euro RSCG London for VO5 Elixirs, Alberto Culver's latest range of hair care products.
The spot was directed by HSI London directing duo Rankin & Chris and the ambitious project required extensive grade, Flame and 3D work.
Due to air tonight in the UK, the magically-themed ad sees a mysterious beauty with incredible hair appear inside a bubble, which itself appears inside a drop of golden, glistening oil.
The beauty clutches her bottle of VO5 Elixir shampoo before we see a miraculous transformation of her hair. She swooshes it, illuminating the bubble with the radiant shine that comes from using the product."
VO5 Care's global brand manager, Natalie Angenent was delighted with the final look of the project. She said: "We're really pleased with this ad as it creates great cut-through in a competitive hair care market and leverages the five vital oils of the VO5 Elixirs. The ad has a magical feel, which will resonate with our consumers."
Pete Young is a Flame Op at Prime Focus London, who worked on the project, said: "The so-called Tinkerbell effect shot was the hardest and took most work. The idea was that the audience should feel like the woman's hair was exploding with shine and light. We went for a big spin, with gleaming particles emitting from her swooshing hair, lighting up the environment around her within the bubble. The Tinkerbell scene was the key and we had to get it right."
He added: "We used Flame's Particle System to create natural glittery particles and threw in some expressions to make the particles feel more realistic. I was most happy with the particles generated on the Tinkerbell shot because we fulfilled exactly what the client was looking for."
Extensive 3D work was required, especially on the bubble which was created by PFL's Josh George. He explained: "We had to get a real sense of depth within the hero oil. I gave the Flame ops different refraction passes, as well as passes to create a chromatic effect within the bubble. They combined these with caustics generated in Flame and the resulting look worked really well. The hero bubble was built using about seven passes including oily specular, chromatic, refraction, reflection and depth. The bubbles coming off the packs were setup using ICE particles in XSI."
The finishing touches to the commercial were provided courtesy of a magical grade from Tareq Kubaisi.
Further information is available at: www.primefocuslondon.com.
(KMcA/BMcC)