While acting as Creative Director at Superfad, I co-directed this commercial for Samsonite Spinner bags in collaboration with the good folks at Connelly Partners. This 30-second spot entitled "Bullfight" features a matador using a wheeled red piece of luggage in lieu of the traditional cape to showcase the elegance of the 360-degree rotating wheels. Here, I designed the look of the world and came up with the idea of creating a shot progression inspired by the cinematic angles you’d see in classic Western showdowns. The production was truly noteworthy as we filmed a live bull in a corral.
Samsonite “Bullfight”
Production & VFX Breakdown BTS
As stated previously, the spot was a tremendous (but fun) undertaking. We filmed all of the bull’s action in a corral with trainers before taking the footage into edit and making rough previz cuts. Once the cuts were locked, we rotoscoped every frame of the bull and composited it into the stylized desert background. Below are a couple of videos that detail a portion of the process.
Style Frames & Storyboard
To win the job, I designed a set of style frames to show off the look of the world that we wanted to create—a frontier-like limbo where the matador could engage in his epic battle with the bull. After the award, we went into the storyboarding phase, where I was able to work with my favorite artist (Tom Price), who created the beautiful drawings below. Once we’d captured the footage, I began another round of style frames with stills from the shoot. This was then used as the guide for the compositors as they went to work meticulously creating each shot.