That's pretty cool. I like it. As has been said though, the effect is not really new. Just a guess but it looks like a series of vignettes in bullet time. Either they are different bullet time scenes stitched together or there are some continuity problems. <shrugs>

The 21:9 is also cool. Where do we get content for it? For those creating content for 21:9 do you send the TV with it? Nice but, IMHO, it's just another format to pollute the overly littered format landscape.

How was it done? Probably the same way it was done in every movie and TV commercial it's been in--with a series of pre-postioned still cameras

If you had followed my recommendation to watch the interviews with the DP, the Director, and the VFX Supervisor, you could have gotten this information directly from the horse's mouth.

Seeing that not everybody had the energy to do this, I provided the answer directly:

Primarily mannequins and Steadicam.

The interviews were made during the shoot, so you actually see how it's done.

But don't take my word for it.

I'm probably wrong...

Either that, or the people who made it don't understand how they made it either.

Patryk: I resonate with you, except it is a commercial, so this creative expression seems entirely appropriate.

Bjorn, I listened to the commentaries as you suggested and never heard a thing about mannequins and Steadicams.

EDIT:

You must be watching a different version. I went back and watched them--no mention of the above items.

Are there interviews elsewhere on the site?

Can't see a thing on the page. Not in IE 7, Firefox 3, or Chrome 2. Not even with Flash 10.

I suspect it's something to do with Vista x64...

Do you have Javascript disabled?

I saw the exact same effect about 5-6 years ago, also done for a flash/web commercial and they had a step by step explanation of how it was done.

Don't really remember the site, nor the explanation any more.

Looks cool , but the ambilight has got to be the stupidest invention in the history of television.

You can even see the Steadicam guy walking past the camera at the end of the Director commentary.

Its use is also mentioned verbally in one of the three commentaries, I don't have time to watch it again right now.

Javascript enabled, loaded most recent Flash player, still won't play on Firefox, IE nor Opera. Running XP Pro.

Think Cox cable could be blocking it?

See this thread for some information on how they did it:
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29058

Of the BD movies I have (only buy them if they're ~the same price as the DVD, new or used), two are 1.85:1 (hellboy 1 & 2), rest are 2.35:1 (sunshine, serenity & the road warrior = 2.40). So I'm assuming this would really benefit movies in 2.35 & similar formats. IE you could watch 2001 w/o black bars for once in your life (unless you saw it in theaters).

While I'm not thrilled about a new TV aspect, it IS more preferable to me to have them wider as 16:9 just because the movies that I've seen wide (like the ones I listed) really seem to use it very well. And that seems to be what the movies I buy in HD are more likely to be. So let me trade up to a comparable HDTV size I have for free & I'll do it. :D

But besides that, it's an awesome commercial. :)

Reduser.net had the same needless speculation (apparently only one person checked out the behind-the-scenes footage), but it did have a link to the people who created it:

Swedish Director Adam Berg and DP Fredrik Bäckar, working for an agency in Amsterdam, see Stink Digital (this link also has a much lower quality version of the video that may work for TLF and Dave in FL to see what's being talked about).

Speaking of Amsterdam, it reminds me of the Rijksmuseum there. Lots of truly great oil paintings, but of course that's been done before, so why bother seeing more of it?

No matter how good an oil painting is, it will never be the same as when you saw one for the first time.

Saw a few snippets of "The Magnificent Seven" on the CW network tonight.

Shot and displayed in gorgeous 2.35:1 Cinemascope..., then as soon as the titles were over, a quick switch to 1.78:1 (16:9) pan-and-scan to make the movie full frame.

Gaaah!

History repeats itself...

Maybe there is something to this 21:9 idea after all, especially for source content that is not panned-and-scanned to 16:9 "squarescreen" (by comparison :O).

Remember 56k video? Macroblocks dancing in a keyhole?

That wasn't long ago...

With this streaming online commercial we have a prime example of something that could only have been offered overseas (because they have very wide availability of true high speed internet in both homes and offices).

The bit rate choices are 2 Mbps (for the desperately poor), 8 Mbps for those live in old buildings, and 20 Mbps for those who live in even recent apartment buildings with 40-100 Mbps internet access (for $35-$40/month).

Note that cable internet is shared, so whatever speed the cable company promises, is only until the kids come home from school. "Cable company fiber" is to the neighborhood, not to the home, so the copper is shared until it collapses.

FIOS has some hope here, with what looks like overseas speeds, and with fiber that goes all the way to your router.

According to the local, and only, phone company, expect DSL 256Kbps sometime before 2059. Expect FiOS around 2081.

No, i'm not kidding. Those are their projected dates.

Good grief, Kelly, where the heck do you live? I'm in the middle of the high desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico and I've got 20Mbps via Comcast cable.

Oh, i've got 5.5Mpbs from the cable company. It's just the phone company that is way behind the times.

The big city down the road is a burgeoning metropolis of 15,000 people. It's the largest community in a 50 mile radius. It was relatively deserted and unsettled by the Native Americans because it was too difficult to get to and didn't offer much in the way of useful land. The name, Oneonta, in the local native tongue means "place of rocks".

I live in a sleepy little hamlet of about 400 people 25 miles from there. Yeah, we're pretty desolate.

Got to see it at the StinkDigital site. Thanks! I have no idea why the other site won't work.

Fascinating clip!

Don't count on FIOS. Besides the fact pretty much everyone uses fiber these days FIOS has been advertising slower & slower speeds each couple months I see a commercial. Used to be 40 around here. Then it went to twenty a few months ago. Now they're advertising 10.

But the high speed is only usefull for streaming videos. I don't give a darn about watching videos & have great success with 3mbps. Downloads few gb's in ~30 or so minutes. Can grab DVD ISO's quick enough for me.

By "everyone uses fiber" I assume you mean the cable companies.

The problem with that is that it's not fiber to the home, but say 10 or 20 Mbps fiber to each neighborhood box serving up to 500 households.

From there it's good old copper lines shared by these up to 500 homes, each with 3 downloading teenagers.

Real fiber to the home is not shared, so you get the full bandwidth.

Odd that Verizon isn't expanding FIOS faster, perhaps it's just that they are making a ton of money on cheap-to-provide ADSL.

The cable companies are trying to institute usage fees for their internet customers, saying that the "downloaders are killing them." But in their annual reports, they tell shareholders out of the other corner of their mouths that they grew customers dramatically last year, while dropping the cost of of providing Internet service by 10%, not per subscriber, but overall.

by "everyone uses fiber" I meant all land based telecommunication companies.

Some still use copper for part, but Verizon still uses copper inside your house at least, so it's not much different then if I used copper an extra 50 feet to the poll.

But that's not the important part of what I posted: Verizon is now selling the speed as 10mbps where when they started it was 40. So they're either having the same issues as cable companies (all connections come together somewhere, whether it be @ the junction box or central hub for the area) or realized most people can't get that bandwidth.

Verizon still uses copper inside your house at least, so it's not much different then if I used copper an extra 50 feet to the pole (Ed.).

Very different.

Fiber can run at gigabit speeds, copper at megabit speeds.

The fiber that runs to your FIOS modem is yours alone. You are not sharing your bandwidth with any one else.

When your neighbor's kids come home from school, nothing happens to your own 10-40 Mbps internet access speeds.

Similarly with DSL, where the typically 768K - 8 Mbps connection you get from the phone company is also yours alone. Nobody else shares your copper pair.

With cable internet, the fiber runs to a neighborhood box. The high speed ends there, and the 10 - 40 Mbps the cable company advertises is shared between all the homes connected to that box. Up to 500 homes each.

See the difference?

40 Mbps shared with up to 499 of your neighbors, vs. 40 Mbps that is all your own.

Of course, if you can't get DSL because you live too far from the telco's CO, then this is all academic.

On top of that, the lack of broadband access in rural areas makes it difficult or impossible for many companies to set up offices there. So unemployment broadens.

I've got to agree. The content is kind of juvenile (guns, cops, clowns) and the commentary is cringe inducing. I'd hate to have to work for a couple of blow-'tards like that.

On the other hand it'd be a fun project to rig. The nice thing about working as a grip is that you don't have to see the final product.

We were just mocking the ambient light feature around our office an hour or so before I saw this.

Rob Mack