The first line of the treatment for the new Girls Aloud music video begins: “Five glass spheres fall at impossible speeds towards Earth. Protected within these futuristic force fields, Girls Aloud descend through space and time”. The description of this opening idea for ‘Untouchable’ was the hook for international VFX facility Framestore to get involved in the latest Girls Aloud promo.

An ambitious and technical film, created and directed by Marco Puig, Framestore were required to split the VFX work for ‘Untouchable’ into pre and post shoot. Puig wanted to do as much work in camera as possible, so the Framestore team used back projection to create much of the space-scapes before the shoot. This work was then cut into three films – back projection, side projection and reflection projection to put onto the glass spheres.

After the shoot, Framestore set about creating a number of dramatic and exciting wide shots. One involves the glass pods containing the girls entering the earth’s atmosphere, as seen from the earth’s orbit. As the spheres streak through the sky narrowly avoiding an airplane, they burn up like meteors and hurtle towards the planet’s surface.

The images and special effects work alongside side the beautiful members of Girls Aloud dancing raunchily in their pods to create an incredible looking music video.

The schedule was exceedingly short and the entire job, including the shoot, edit, design, VFX and grade, was turned around in just 2 weeks. The promo was exclusively aired for the first time on 25th March, on Channel 4 to a large audience in the high profile time slot immediately after Desperate Housewives.

About Framestore:
Framestore has been working in digital film and video for over 20 years now, creating original and astonishing work that has helped make it the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe.

Among Framestore notable commercial credits are Smirnoff Sea (winner, 2007 VES ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Visual Effects in a Commercial’s), The Chemical Brothers The Salmon Dance, Casino Royal ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® Title Sequence, Vauxhall C’smon campaign, Sure to Go Wild, Guinness noitulovE, Johnnie Walker Fish, Levi Odyssey and Guinness Surfer.

Since 2004, Framestore NY has been flying the flag in the world of US commercials, landing work for clients such as GE, FedEx, Hoover, Pepsi, Nike, Smirnoff, and Coca-Cola, and winning top awards including both an Emmy and a VES in 2006.

Framestore movie portfolio includes work on such films as The Dark Knight, Australia, A Quantum of Solace, Wanted, Prince Caspian, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Children of Men and Superman Returns.

Credits:
PRODUCTION COMPANY Warp Films
DIRECTOR Marco Puig
PRODUCER Jon Adams

VFX Framestore
TELECINE Framestore

VFX Supervisors: Paul O’Brien & Darren Agnew
VFX Artists: Paul O’Brien, Darren Agnew, Avtar Bains & George Roper
3D plane Created by: Martin Bovingdon
Grade: Simon Bourne
Executive Producer: Simon Whalley
Production Assistant: Magdalena Przezdziecka

Related Links:
www.framestore.com